26 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
-others, repairing or making very many impor- 
tant fixtures about the house. We know boy 
mechanics who have furnished their homes 
with brackets, flower-stands, step-ladders, and 
a hundred and one other things convenient 
and valuable. — Exchange. 
Cheap Stage Forceps. 
The stage lorceps is one of the oldest acces- 
isories of the microscope, and unless we are 
provided with other and better appliances, it is 
one of the most valuable. In examining small 
opaque unmounted objects, such as leaves, 
insects, minerals, shells, etc., it is often impos- 
sible to get along without it. 
A few days ago a young friend, who had de- 
rived great pleasure from a five dollar micro- 
scope, felt the want of a stage forceps, and set 
not project beyond the wood. This screw fas- 
tened the cork, C, so that it might turn 
steadily, like a post, and yet have no shake. 
Through the cork we passed a darning needle, 
on the end of which was stuck a small cork, 
The cork was prevented from either turning 
round or coming off by means of a common 
pin thrust through it, and through the eye of 
the darning needle. The whole thing can be 
made by any boy or girl. 
To use it we dipped the point of the darning 
needle in Canada balsam or mucilage, and 
touched it to the article to be examined. The 
small objects usually examined are held quite 
firmly by this simple contrivance, and may be 
exposed to the light in any direction by turning 
the needle round by means of the cork handle. 
The cork handle itself is of great use in the 
Fig. 1. 
i 
N 
W////////////////J ^\.,^\ 
Fig. 2. 
out to buy one. 
price than $2.25 
He found none for a less 
and the most of them he 
could not use at all with his instrument with- 
out having it specially fitted. To pay $2,25 
for an accessory for a $5.00 microscope seemed 
rather disproportionate. In this dilemma we 
set to work to make a substitute, and succeeded 
so well that our ten-cent stage forceps proved 
quite as efficient, and a great deal more con- 
Tenient than those usually sold in the shops. 
The engraving, of which Fig. 1 is a perspec- 
tive view, and Fig. 2 a section, explains its con- 
struction. We took a wooden slide, and through 
the centre we bored a hole three-quarters of an 
inch in diameter. At one end we bored an- 
other hole to allow a small screw to pass 
through easily, and countersunk the lower side 
of the hole so that the head of the screw might 
examination of cabinet specimens of insects. 
They may be taken out of their cabinets, and 
the pins by which they are held may be stuck 
in the cork, after which they may be turned 
round in any way and examined. To remove 
them from their own pins spoils them, and if 
the pins are simply stuck in a wooden slide, 
the insects cannot be examined on all sides. 
The screw, S, being fitted loosely to the 
slide, and firmly to the cork, C, the latter can 
turn freely, as on a pivot. If the screw should 
get loose in the cork, it may be heated and 
cemented in firmly with a little sealing-wax. 
The wooden slide is placed under the clips of 
the stage, and moves about like a common 
glass slide. This is on the plai( of the forceps- 
carrier, described at page 94 of Practical Hints 
on the Selection and Use of the Microscope. " 
