THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
87 
get rid of them. The flnishing or polishing of 
all vice-work is a matter that requires patience. 
Here, again, many methods are employed, such 
as emery sticks, emery cloth, emery paper, etc. 
The best plan I have always found, during some 
years experience, and the same I now adopt, is 
to fold round a suitable-sized file a piece of good 
emery paper. If this is nicely done, the surface 
will be as flat as that of a file, and the process 
of polishing will not round off the edges. This 
is a most important point in finishing good 
work. AVhen the polished surfaces present a 
rounded appearance, it creates a great impres- 
sion that it is either of inferior quality, or else 
some second-hand work that has been got up 
several times. The finish of good work goes a 
long way to establish its superiority. Another 
point must be well looked to, and that is, be 
particular not to have a high polish and deep 
scratches. In some cases the glare produced by 
high polish becomes to the uninitiated para- 
mount to a finish, but the enlightened and edu- 
cated mechanic w^ill view this with disdain simi- 
lar to that shown by a West End jeweller on 
examining articles composed of Abyssinian 
gold. 
In these few remarks enough has been said 
respecting the method of holding, filing, and the 
getting up of a flat surface, so far as they refer 
to that alone. I allude principally to work that 
requires such high finish as described. For or- 
dinary work, draw-filing, when well done, is gen- 
erally considered sufficient, and I must say I 
duly appreciate such when it is perfect. Hav- 
ing gone so far, before proceeding to describe 
the manner in which other branches of this in- 
teresting work are executed— such as curved 
lines, square and mortice holes, etc.— I think a 
Mnt as to cleaning the files will be deemed 
necessary. A very general practice is to use 
what is called a file-card. This is similar to a 
scratch-brush, and is composed of a piece of flat 
'carding nailed to a block of wood, and when 
used, should be in a transverse direction across 
the file. But beyond the ordinary metal that 
will accumulate in the file, thereby clogging, 
sometimes, or rather very often, it will become 
full of what are termed "pins;" that is, small 
pieces will firmly wedge themselves into the 
'teeth, and do much damage to the work, in as 
much as they cut out deep lines, which will take 
a deal of time to eradicate. This often occurs 
Irom working the file quite dry, especially a 
smooth one, and it may be avoided by using a 
little oil or chalk. Either of these additions will 
make it cut several degrees smoother. However, 
we will assume that the file has become filled 
"with these so-called " pins," and all the persua- 
sion possible will not induce the card to remove 
them. The best plan I have always found is to 
have at hand a small piece of sheet brass or tin, 
beaten out at one end, and with this they may 
be easily disposed of, by manipulating it in the 
same transverse direction as the file card, ex- 
cept that instead of brushing, as it were, you 
simply push out the pins, without doing any 
damage to the file. We now come to a different 
description of work to be executed with the file, 
and I do not think we can do better than take 
for our example curved lines, although many 
such are now done in shaping-machines, which 
useful articles, by the way, have reduced the 
maximum of skilled vice-men ; at the same time, 
an efficient workman must be capable of execut- 
ing any shape that may be required. In the 
production of the various mouldings, etc., that 
are likely to be required, a number of dif- 
erent files will be requisite, such as crossing, 
rat-tail, half-round, pillar, warding, and many 
others too numerous to be detailed. The great 
thing to practice is the movement of the wrist ; 
nothing but experience will enable a vice-man 
to show perfect work of this description. When 
making a shape, say an ogee-moulding tool, 
which tool may be required to produce a quan- 
tity of work from it all exactly alike, the hollow 
part must be taken out with a half-round or a 
crossing file, which will depend upon the curve 
and the opposite curve with a narrow pillar file. 
Possibly to a person that has had some experi- 
ence — and it is scarcely what a novice would un- 
dertake—this would not be found a very difflcult 
task ; but having make the one to his satisfac- 
tion, let him now make the reverse tool to fit it 
exactly, without showing light through it when 
held to the daylight. When this can be done, 
the person who succeeds in so doing will not 
require any more of my limited brains to tell 
him how to proceed with a course of instruc- 
tion in which he must be well versed. As to the 
various shapes to be produced, I will not at- 
tempt to enumerate them, suffice to say that I 
have made myself, in tools of this kind, some six 
or seven dozens of different shapes.— i^orgre and 
Lathe. 
. ♦ . 
One Cause of Bath-ing* Accidents. 
The London Lancet gives the following very 
excellent caution to bathers : "It is very gener- 
ally believed that the proper way to bathe is to 
take a header into the sea, or, at least, to im- 
merse the whole body immediately. Theoreti- 
cally this may be done, so far as the most 
vigorous organisms are concerned, but it must 
not be forgotten that a man may be perfectly 
healthy, and yet not endowed with sufficient 
latent energy to recover quickly from the 
' shock ' which must in all cases be inflicted on 
