aiARcu 13, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE - 



213 



and transmitted in various directions, as whcu a child 

 laughs, stamps, shouts, and claps its hands wiih J03', or 

 ■where it is quite inhibited, as when a person or anima! is 

 pafalt/sed by fear or nstoni^hment. 



THE WORKSHOP AT HOME. 



By a Working Man. 



THERE is a very effective way of constructing library 

 furniture, which I will describe and illustrate today, 

 by showing how to make a writiug-table. The amateur 

 who thoroughly masters my instructions will have no diffi- 

 culty in applying them to the construction of chairs to 

 match the table. The peculiarity of this style of table is 

 that its legs are crossed, or X shaped. We may use cither 

 "red (really yellow) deal " or pitch jjine for this, and for' 

 good solid work it should be 1,',-in. stuff. Fig. 40 shows an 

 end view of the table. L L are the legs, which may be 

 sawn with the bow-saw out of l.Vin. board, G in. wide 

 when planed up. They are "halved" into each other (see 

 p. 403 of the last Volume) at M. In the middle of the part 

 where they cross, a vertical mortice will have to he after- 

 wards cut to receive the end of the bottom cross-bar, of 

 which we are presently to speak. The 1> ilger, F F, cut out 

 of J-in. wood, which is to carry the top of the table, is screwed 

 on to the upper ends of the legs. Quite obviously, the legs 

 and ledger for the other end of the table are precise facsimiles 

 of those we have just made. The screws, which are to 



D r 



^ ^,% r-Q- F ;-■/ TJ 



Fig. 40. 



Fig. 41. 



show, I may mention here, should be black, with hemi- 

 spherical or rounded heads. You can buy them at the 

 ironmongers Through the ledgers at T are cut mortices 

 for the euda of a top cross bar. This, with the bottom one, 

 makes the frame extremely rigid. lu the tenons them- 

 selves, projecting frnm the ends of these crossbars through 

 the junction of the legs, are mortices cut, and into these are 

 driven wooden w-edges, as shown, which hold everything 

 tight and, as I have just said, rigid. Fig. 41 gives us a 

 front view of the table, and further helps to explain how it 

 is put together. Here T is the top cross- bar and C the 

 bottom one. As we will make our table 3 ft. G in. long by 

 2 ft 3 in. wide (a convenient size for a writing table), the 

 length of these cross-bars may be 3 ft. or thereabouts 

 inside, that is from one shoulder abutting against the in- 

 side the legs to the other. The projecting tenons 

 may be 3 in. long. It only remains to make the top 

 of our table. This, as I have said, must be made 

 of f-in. " red " deal, and must be 3 ft. G in. long by 

 2 ft. 3 in. wide. The boards, carefully shot true at their 

 edges, must be glued and cramped lirmly up, and cioss 

 pieces Ecrewed to them (with common screws, not long 

 enough to pass through the table as well as the cross-piece). 

 The two outside cross pieces should abut against the inside 

 of the legs when the table top is finnlly screwed down on 

 to its supporting frame. In the middle of the bottom 

 cross-bar C will be noticed a kind of trefoil "Gothic" 



ornament. This is mailo with a largo 



■''~/^\~^\ centre bit, the point of the bit being suc- 



f ^-f^-^B I cf'ssively inserted at A, B, and C in Fig. 42. 



\ / V /\ J The wood may be either cut clcau out (it 



VJ-^ 



(in 



Fig. 42 



which caso tlio crossbar C must bo laid 

 upon a waste j)icce of wood into which the 

 bit may enter, so as to cut without leaving ;■, 

 nigged outside edge) or merely countersunk, 

 whichever the maker likes" best. A quatrefoil or cinque- 

 foil may be made with a centre-bit just as easily as a tro- 

 fod, ina way which niuit be quite obvious. Our table 

 finished may (if it be made of red deal or pitch pine) be 

 varnished without being stained at all, but it must, of 

 course, be first sized (Vol. VI., p. 480). Compleltd thus 

 it forms really a handsome piece of furniture. 



RAMBLES WITH A HAMMER. 



By W. Jeuome Haurisox, F.G.S. 



IN .SOUTU LEICESTER.SniRE. 

 {Coiitintied from p. 173.) 



ri^lHE lower lias beds are finely expose d in the numerous 

 X quarries eight miles north of Leicester, lying along- 

 side the Midland line, between Sileby imd Barrowoii- 

 Soar. Here fossil saurians and fishes are of common oc- 

 currence, with myriads of bivalve shells and ammonites. 

 Similar beds occur at Kilby Bridge, five miles south-east of 

 Leicester. These limestones owe their specitl value to 

 their power tf " sctlii.g " hard under water, so that they 

 are in great request for harbour- works, tunnels, &c. The 

 strata of the Middle and Upper Lia?, which form East 

 LeicfStershire, do not come within the scope of this article. 

 Above both Trias and Lias, resting indiscriminately on 

 either or both, we have that bugbear of some geologists 

 (but the delight of others), the Drift — a stony clay of very 

 variable thickness, which is the moraine left by an old 

 wlacierthatformerlyextccded from theLiiicolnshire Wolds to 

 the northern brow of the Thames Valley. From the frequent 

 occurrence in this particular moraineot lumpsof chalk of all 

 gizes — derived, doubtless, from the chalk hills of Lincoln- 

 shire and Yorksliire — it Iws received the name of the 

 " Great Chalky Boulder Clay." A magnificent section of 

 this boulder clay was exposed in 1875, when the Midland 

 railway between Leicester and Wigston was widened. The 

 st my clay was exposed for more than a mile in length in a 

 clear, vertical section, of ten to thirty feet in height. It 

 was a compact, slaty-blue clay, stuffed full of angular 

 blocks of rock, in which black lumps of coal stood out in 

 striking comparison with white mass.-'s of chalk and friable 

 sandstone. Beneath the clay, and exposed to a depth of 

 three or four feet only, were the Liassic rimestones and 

 shales. These had been planed down to a uniform level 

 for a distance of a quarter of a mile, and oblong blocks 

 of each limestone-band could be seen at the base of the 

 boulder-clay, lying close to, and just south of, the bands of 

 rock from which they were derived, telling clearly — by 

 their polishing and striations — of the passage of ice over 

 the surface from north to .south. 



All the rocks we have now described — the Trias, the 

 Lias, and the Drift — form a tolerably level country, inter- 

 sected by the Soar Valley, and averaging from 200 ft. 

 to 400 f'. above the level of the sea. But a few miles 

 south-we.st of Leicester certain rocks of much greater 

 ar/e appear in isolated masses of small extent, forming 

 bosses in the Triassic plain, as they once formed islands 

 in the Triassic sea. (See Map, Knowledge, Vol. VI., 

 p. 517.) Getting out at Narborough Station (on the 



