112 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
shown at Fig. 49, leaving exactly eleven 
inches space between the underside of 
the top shelf and the top-side of the bot- 
tom one. The shape of the bottom end of 
the sides is shown at o. When Mr. Car- 
penter had marked off the shape to suit 
him, the marked piece was handed over 
Fig. 49. 
to EUwood to cut out with the scroll saw, 
with a caution to cut close to the lines 
and not to feed his saw too fast. This 
caution was quite necessary, as young or 
inexperienced people apt to " crowd " a 
saw when they have thick stuff to cut. 
Ellwood, however, made a good job of the 
sawing and his father was quite pleased 
with it. 
One of the sides being made to the right 
shape, and marked over for the bottom 
shelf, as shown at p, it was laid on the 
other sides, one by one, and a lead pencil 
run round the curve and mouldings, which 
left a line on the uncut pieces, as a guide 
for the sawyer to make them all alike in 
shape. The work of sawing the other 
three sides fell to the lot of Ellwood, who, 
by the by, had got to be quite an expert 
<- 20 'l^t- ^ 
Fig. 50. 
in the use of the scroll saw. The next 
thing Mr. Carpenter did was to mark out 
one of the bracing pieces to shape, as 
shown at Fig. 50. When finished, it was 
handed over to Ellwood to saw, after 
which operation it was used to mark the 
other pieces, which were afterwards sawed 
to shape. 
All the stuff was now finished and ready 
to be put together, so the first thing done 
was to glue the bracing pieces on to the 
shelves. On the bottom shelves, they 
were glued just one inch from the front 
edge, and being exactly the same length, 
there was no trouble adjusting the ends. 
On the upper shelf this matter was a 
little more difficult to deal with as the 
shelf was longer and wider than the bot- 
tom one, so it was found necessary to 
keep the bracing piece two inches from 
the face or front edge, and the ends 
of it were kept equi-distant from the ends 
of tne shelf. Mr. Carpenter, after gluing 
the pieces in place, took a fine brad-awl 
and made a few holes in the pieces on 
their under sides, and drove brads in 
them, taking care that the brads were 
not too long, as it would have spoiled the 
work if the points of the nails showed 
through on the top of the shelves. 
The other work was then put together, 
care being taken that the bottom shelves 
were glued and bradded on the lines, as 
shown at p, Fig. 49. A few fine screws 
were used to fasten the top shelves, but 
brads only were used in fastening the 
sides to the lower shelves and to the brac- 
ing pieces. 
Mr. Carpenter did not put any backs to 
these brackets because he thought the 
walls against which they were hung 
would form all the -back required. If the 
inside back edges had been rabated out 
about half an inch, and the bottom 
shelves left half an inch narrower, a 
back one-half inch thick could have 
been bradded in the rabats and to the 
shelves, then the brackets would have 
been as strong as they were neat and 
useful. 
The work was now, in a measure, com- 
pleted, with the exception of smoothing 
and oiling; this part of the work was 
given over to Ellwood, who sand-papered 
both brackets with very fine sand-paper, 
taking care all the time that he never 
rubbed the paper across the grain, as he 
was aware that by so doing he would 
leave scratches and marks that would 
