292 
to use it for the spool rack, so about a third of the distance 
is correct. ‘Ihis piece is first covered with the cretonne 
and then a row of nails is driven in to serve as spool hold- 
ers. If thin wire nails with small heads are used you will 
not need to file them off, but paint or gild them, to pre- 
vent rust. 
An excess of straight lines is wearisome, so if you can 
it will be restful to have some of the corners rounded off, 
and some of the edges sawed into curving lines. ‘The illus- 
tration of a sewing table illustrates the beauty of the curv- 
A sewing table and a chest of drawers 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
A sewing screen with adjustable shelf and 
August, I911 
A simple frame for it will be made of two-inch square 
lumber, cut into lengths for the legs, with a brace of the 
same material six inches above the floor connecting the two 
pair of legs, and a cross-piece to connect them. For light 
work such a frame will last a lifetime and not jiggle. 
The top board must come over the edges of the box 
about two and a-half inches so as to give the whole a grace- 
ful appearance. 
The sliding drawer underneath will have to be made to 
fit the frame. The piece of lumber which edges the top 
A chest of drawers and hat box 
pockets 
ing line. The general idea is a box on legs to make it hand- 
ier to reach into, with a board top and a sliding sort of bin 
underneath which will pull out and in without disturbing the 
top of the table. 
The making of such a piece of furniture is a perfectly 
simple process. Its beauty will depend somewhat upon the 
size and shape of the box. If you wish to make it of a pack- 
ing box carefully select one at the grocery. After that it 
may be covered with cretonne, then lined and fastened to 
the frame. 
of this bin is two and a half inches wide and a half-inch 
thick. Small cleats of half an inch square are nailed to 
the sides for grooves for the bin to slide on. The bottom 
should be about half the size of the top and the sides must 
be sawed out to fit. The seams should be glued as well as 
nailed. Then the cretonne can be put on, and the inside 
finished with either white enamel paint or lining cambric. A 
knob to draw it out completes the article. 
The top and frame will look nicer if they are painted 
white and finished with enamel paint. 
Cutting Wood With Paper 
TALLOW candle bullet can be fired through 
a board. A straw driven by a cyclone will 
penetrate a tree. A stream of water un- 
der high pressure will tear the skin off a 
man’s hand. A copper disk, rotating 
slowly, can be cut by a steel cutting tool, 
but, if rotating at high speed, it will turn 
about and cut the steel. These facts suggested the following 
experiment on the cutting properties of paper. Everyone 
knows that the hand can be cut badly with paper, but the 
experiment was undertaken to discover whether hard sub- 
stances, such as wood, could be thus cut. 
A sheet of two-ply bristol board was trimmed to the 
form of a disk, ten inches in diameter, and a wooden spool 
was glued to the paper at its center. An electric fan was 
dismantled of its fan and guard, and the spool was bored 
out to fit snugly on the armature shaft. A wood screw, 
with its point blunted, was threaded transversely through 
the spool, and against the shaft, to fix the paper disk 
securely thereon. ‘The current was then turned on, and a 
pencil was held lightly against the edge of the spinning 
paper. Immediately the paper bit into the wood, and cut 
very quickly, with an exceedingly fine and clean kerf. When 
the lead of the pencil was reached the progress of the 
cutter was much slower because the graphite acted as a 
lubricant. 
However, before long the pencil was cut in two and the 
bristol board showed no material wear. 
