4 THE YOUNG 
THE 
YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 
Tebms — Fifty Cents per year. 4®° Postage to Sub- 
scribers in New York City, 12 cents; to other parts of 
the Union and Canada, free. 
Advebtisements— 30 cents per line. 
All Communications should be addressed to 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST, 
P. O. Box 4875. 176 Broadway, New York. 
J8®" For Club Rates, etc., see Pbospectus. 
Our Aims. 
OCIENOE in its various applications is 
^ daily becoming more and more an 
element, not only of the education of our 
people, but of their everyday thought. But 
while it forms the most important element 
of the education of our modern schools, 
there are many persons outside of these 
institutions who have a taste for scientific 
culture, but who have neither the time nor 
the training required to enable them to 
attack ponderous text-books without a 
teacher, and yet who would like to acquaint 
themselves with the new developments of 
science, as well as with the new applications 
of old principles, provided these were pre- 
sented in simple and concise form. Such 
persons have no time to study the larger 
periodicals, and from want of previous cul- 
ture they often fail to understand them. 
As for the "Science Columns" of our po- 
litical, literary and religious journals, the 
information they contain is too fragmentary 
to fill the requirements we have indicated. 
In intimate connection with this well- 
recognized want, there is another, the sup- 
ply of which we propose to make a prom- 
inent feature of our journal. It is charac- 
teristic of young Americans that they want 
to be DOING something. They are not con- 
tent with merely knowing how things are 
done, or even with seeing them done; they 
want to do them themselves. In other 
words, they want to experiment. Hence 
the wonderful demand that has sprung 
up for small tool chests, turning lathes, 
scroll saws, wood carving tools, telegraphs, 
model steam engines, microscopes and all 
SCIENTIST. 
kinds of apparatus. In nine cases out of 
ten, however, the young workman finds 
it difficult to learn how to use his tools 
or apparatus after he has got them. It 
is true that we have a large number of 
very excellent text- books, but these are not 
just the thing. What is wanted is a living 
teacher. Where a living teacher cannot be 
found, the next best thing is a live journal,, 
and this we propose to furnish. And in 
attempting this it is not our intention to 
confine ourselves to mere practical direc- 
tions. In these days of knowledge and 
scientific culture, the "Why" becomes as 
necessary as the "How." We therefore 
propose to give clear and simple explana- 
tions of the principles involved in the vari- 
ous mechanical and chemical processes 
which we shall undertake to describe. 
We have commenced this journal on a 
small scale for very obvious reasons. A 
journal of this kind is a novelty, and we do 
not wish any one to give up any of their 
present sources of reading for the sake of 
adopting this one. The low price of the 
Young Scientist, and the slight demand 
which it makes upon the leisure of its 
readers avoids this difliculty. 
So much for the general character of the 
objects which we have in view. Our plans^ 
in detail, will be found in our prospectus. 
Aiding the Swindlers. 
WHEN a swindling concern can get. 
their wares puffed into notice by 
articles in the " Scientific " columns of our 
popular papers, they are almost certain to- 
attain the end at which they aim. The fol- 
lowing humbug has been exposed over and 
over again, but it is caught up every now 
and then by some of the hack writers of 
"Science Columns," and a new lease of life 
given to it. We clip from a recent issue of 
a popular monthly journal: 
" Quite a notable industry is now carried 
on in Paris, namely, the manufacture of 
what are termed veneered diamonds, the 
method of production being briefly, accord- 
ing to the following fashion: The body of 
the 'gem' is of quartz, or crystal, this 
being considered the hardest and best 
