THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
157 
filled with words of encouragement and 
good wishes for our future success. We 
are thankful for these evidences of good- 
will, and shall, in the days to come, en- 
deavor not only to retain the good opinion 
of our readers, but to increase its intens- 
ity and enlarge its area. 
One of the greatest indications of the 
development of American mechanical 
genius rests on the fact that since the in- 
troduction of foot-power scroll-saws in 
1874, no fewer than 250,000 of these 
machines have been made and sold, of 
various grades and prices, ranging from 
$2 for the wooden-frame saw, to $30, and 
even $40, for the more complete and per- 
fect saw, with light iron frame and steel 
works. To supply these saws with blades 
would require something like 250,000,000, 
figures that seem enormous at first siglit, 
but when we consider that each saw 
frame in use for a few years will use up 
several gross, owing to their liability to 
break, or become dull and worthless with 
little use, the number manufactured is 
simply amazing. A reporter who visited 
a dealer in saws, blades, designs, and 
fancy woods recently, was told that " there 
is an increasing interest in scroll-saw 
work, and judging from appearances 
and demand, there is no sign of the busi- 
ness slacking up." When asked if it was 
not possible that designs for sawing 
might be exhausted or become too intri- 
cate, he was told "that intricacy of de- 
sign is no obstacle, but rather in favor of 
the business, as sawyers are becoming 
so expert that what a few years ago 
seemed impractical designs, from their 
intricacy, are now very ordinary affairs, 
and are cut almost daily by novices in the 
art. There are at least a dozen different 
designs for almost every subject you can 
think of — bird-cages, music-rack's, writ- 
ing-desks, picture-frames, work-boxes, 
shrines, cloak-cases, flower-pots, brack- 
ets and match-safes. These are not a 
tenth of the subjects. We sell, I should 
say, over 500 patterns a year, besides a 
mimber of scroll-sawyers' manuals." 
*' Who does all this scroll-sawing ?" asked 
the reporter. " Principally boys, although 
there are a great many business men who 
engage in it as a pastime. One of my cus- 
tomers is a married man, whose wife pre- 
pares his work for him during the day. 
Another was a high-school boy, whose 
sister did everything except to saw out 
the design. Then, again, ladies have 
been so infatuated with the work that 
they have done a great deal of it, espe- 
cially the inlaying, which requires con- 
siderable skill." Many of the saws now 
in the market are models of constructive 
genius, being built so as to produce the 
best results with a minimum of materials, 
labor and expense. The more expensive 
saws have various attachments, such as 
circular saws, turning lathes, rotary 
moulders, boring machines, and inlaying 
appliances, all of which tend to give the 
machine more range and to enhance its 
value. 
Astronomy for Amateurs.— May. 
BY BEKLIN H. WEIGHT. 
TOTAL. ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, MAY 6. 
The Sim will be totally eclipsed on the 6th of 
May. The width of the path of totality of this 
eclipse will be unusually great, and the partial 
phase will be ^'isible over a very great area ; 
still, very few civilized people will behold it, as 
the favored region is in the Southern Pacific 
ocean. The savages will beat their tomtoms, 
and resort to their customary practices to pro- 
pitiate their angered god, that he may cause 
Eig. 1.— TOTAL. SOLAK ECLIPSE. 
the light of day to again appear. The path of 
totality extends from a point in the Pacific 
ocean off the west coast of South America, in 
lat. 12° south ; long. 87° west of Greenwich, 
through the Marquesas Islands ; thence through 
the Friendly Islands, passing north of the Pau- 
motu, Society and Hervey Islands, and south of 
the Fiji and Loyalty Islands and New Cale- 
donia, terminating upon the west in lat. 35° 
south ; long. 157° east of Greenwich. 
The northern line of limitation passes from 
near New Ireland, northeast of New Guinea, 
through the southern portion of the Marshall 
Group and the Sandwich Islands, touching the 
southern extremity of the peninsula of Cali- 
fornia, crossing Southf^rn Mexico and Yucatan. 
A very small partial eclipse will be visible along 
