114 THE YOUNG 
and wanted to know what he thought 
of it. The friend thought it beautiful, 
and praised the skill of the workman. 
After some further chatting, it was 
agreed between the friends that the man 
that turned that vase must not only be a 
good turner, but he must have a good 
lathe. When it leaked out that the vase 
had been turned in the cheap and " worth- 
less " lathe, the reply was : "Well, he may 
have turned that thing in it; anybody 
could do that, but he cannot turn any- 
thing that is really worth turning!" The 
owner of the lathe had nothing to say to 
this. If it would turn such simple things 
as vases, handles, brass knobs, and 
screws, and the thousand and one little 
odds and ends, which every amateur me- 
chanic needs, it would serve his turn very 
well until he could get a better. 
We relate this anecdote, which is true 
in every particular, for the purpose of 
teaching our young readers that these 
cheap lathes are good and useful tools, 
and that they may be used to very good 
advantage for many kinds of work. It is 
true that there are many things which are 
beyond their reach, but chis is also true, 
to a certain extent, of far better and more 
expensive lathes. 
It is not very difficult to learn to use 
these simple lathes. Turning is an art 
not so easily learned as fret sawing, plan- 
ing and many other departments of ama- 
teur handicraft. But it is easier to learn 
to use the lathe than to learn to use the 
file, or the art of the cabinet maker ; and 
small work does not require any greater 
exertion of strength than is needed for 
operating the sewing machine. Hence, 
turning is an art which is well adai:»ted to 
the use of girls as well as boys, and which 
Is often quite as useful to them as we shall 
show hereafter. 
During the past ten years, cheap lathes 
have become quite common, but, unfor- 
tunately, while we have simple books on 
amateur scroll and fret sawing, on en- 
graving, and other arts, the only books 
on turning that we knoAV of, are beyond 
the reach of boys and girls, from the 
simple reason that the lathes described 
are too expensive, and the work is of a 
higher grade than most amateurs have 
SCIENTIST. 
the skill to turn out. We propose, there- ; 
fore, in our next twelve issues, to give a [ 
series of articles which we hope will en- j- 
able our readers to acquire a respectable ! 
degree of skill in this delightful ^irt. i 
We shall not enter into the intricacies ' 
of oval and eccentric chucks, but we can ' 
easily teach them how to use the common 
tools, and to turn up such pieces of brass, 
iron, wood, bone, ivory, etc., as are used ii 
in the making of ordinary apparatus and 
the performance of common experiments. 
Three Amateur Workers— and What 
They Did-II. 
BY FEED. T. HODGSON. 
TT took Mr. Carpenter some time to de- 
cide whether he would buy good tools, \ 
and pay a fair price for them, or buy 
cheai^er ones ; being a sensible man, how- ! 
ever, he avoided the mistake of buying \ 
poor tools because they are cheap. He | 
purchased good tools, not fancy or flashy ! 
ones, but such as could be depended upon 
to do good work with, when properly 
handled ; and here let me say to parents 
and others who buy tools for young folks, 
that it is very unwise to purchase inferior 
tools, for the trained and skilled artisan 
finds it almost impossible to make a good 
job with them, and how much more diffi- 
cult it must be for a young amateur to 
make respectable work with such inferior 
appliances. 
A sufficient number of tools for present 
purposes was bought, and ten dollars 
were expended for a load of dry lumber, 
of such dimensions and quality as .he 
thought would be most useful. 
A space in the stable, that had been 
used for storing away a lot of useless 
furniture, stoves, pipes, and other things, 
was cleaned out, and a very respectable 
workshop, about twelve by sixteen feet, 
was marked off, and given over for the 
boy's use. This, of course, made a much 
larger workshop than was necessary, but 
Mr. Carpenter thought, as he had the 
room to spare, that it would be as well to 
make it large. 
The boys had evidently hurried home 
from school, for they arrived earlier than 
