4 THE YOUNG 
quantities without the intrusion of im- 
purities from the fuel and furnace-lining, 
or crucible, which may be of platinum. 
The results of the investigation would un- 
questionably be valuable, and we might 
possibly be able to discover compounds 
which would neutralize the secondary 
spectrum. The late Thomas Cooke has 
repeatedly stated that if, while viewing a 
difficult double star through a telescope, 
some one was to sweep away the secondary 
spectrum, he would scarcely be able to 
discover any improvement, either in light 
or definition. But I am of opinion that 
the case is different with a microscope 
object-glass, wherein, with the highest 
powers, every trifling error is so enor- 
mously magnified, and in resolving the 
most difficult tests the effects of irration- 
ality are at times very apparent. ' ' 
Transferring Prints and Leaf-Forms 
to Wood. 
TO transfer pictures to sycamore or white 
pine, you must first plane your wood 
perfectly smooth, and give a few coats of 
Prench polish ; then take your picture, and 
damp it with a sponge soaked in spirits of 
wine ; place the picture on the wood, and 
then place a piece of thickish cloth over 
the picture ; then get a warm iron and rub 
gently over the cloth, being careful not to 
shift the picture. You must keep rubbing 
the iron backwards and forwards for ten 
or fifteen minutes, then take off your cloth 
and leave it for some hours. Then you 
must get some cold water and damp your 
finger in it and rub the paper. Great care 
must be taken in this, or you will disturb 
the impression. Keep damping your fin- 
ger as you go on. When you have got it 
all off you can polish over. Any kind of 
picture will do with the exception of glazed 
ones. Ink pictures take off best. There 
is another method by which the effect of 
white leaves prettily grouped on a dark, 
softly graduated ground is produced. The 
leaf or pattern is fastened temporarily to 
the wood, which must, of course, be nice 
and smooth, fit for varnishing. Then take 
a brush of stiffish bristles filled with some 
pigment. Bend back the bristles towards 
you, and away from your pattern, then let 
SCIENTIST. 
go suddenly. Some of the pigment will 
then be precipitated on the wood where 
not covered by the pattern. You proceed 
in this way till your judgment tells you 
the pattern is well defined, taking care to 
vignette or allow the shadow thus pro- 
duced to fade away towards the edges. 
You may advantageously practice with a 
blacking brush, using blacking thinned 
down with gum water for the pigment on 
a sheet of paper, using a fern leaf or two 
for patterns. 
A Cipher. 
THE word cipher has various meanings. 
It is usually applied to the figure 0, 
which is equivalent to zero or nothing. It 
also means a combination or intertexture 
of letters, as the initials of a name, the 
several letters being intertwined so as to 
form one figure. Such figures, or mono- 
grams as they are now generally called, 
were very generally used by painters and 
MONOGKAM CONTAINING THE ENTIKE ALPHABET. 
engravers, each of whom was known by 
his cipher. 
The cipher or monogram in the accom- 
panying engraving contains all the letters 
