THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
289 
gate adds to the delusiou. The entire thing is 
about five and a half feet tall. A tfipod from 
which to suspend a basket of flowers, is made 
from a hoe, rake and flail- crossing each other 
near the top and having a sickle carelessly at- 
tached at this crossing point. Others are made 
of oars, sculls and boat-hooks. 
— A Paris correspondent writes that crocodile- 
skins are now combined artistically with plush 
for photograph frames. A broadish flat frame 
with beveled edges is decorated with either gilt 
tooling as used in bookbinding, with colored 
leather mosaic, or with a metallic application in 
high or low relief, whether a design or a garland 
of flowers. The application does not surround 
the frame ; it occupies one corner only, and runs 
half way up and along tw^o sides of the frame. 
Plush, with the grain of Morocco or Kussia 
leather, is employed very effectively in these 
frames. Again, you may have an entirely metal 
frame reproducing the grain of the plush or of 
the leather with the application of flowers. The 
progress of galvansplashe and the employment 
of metalized plants as natural models enables 
articles of this composition to be produced very 
<3heaply. ^ 
In continuing this department, which has been found of 
so much vaUie, we would remind our readers who wish for 
information on any of the arts atid sciences, that they are 
cordially invited to make their wants known through this 
column, and those of them who can furnish accurate 
answers to questions asked are requested to send in replies. 
Doubtless many of our subscribers may know of methods, 
processes, or devices that may be better or more suitable for 
the particular c?se in question than anything generally 
known, and it is this reason that induces us to keep this de- 
partment open for a medium, where an interchange of ideas 
and practices may be made to the advantage ot all our 
readers. Correspondents will please send their full address 
when forwarding their communications — either questions or 
answers — not for publication, unless expressly so stated, but 
so that we may know where to find the wiiter if desirable. 
Comm unications should be sent in on or before the first of 
■each month previous to publication, to insure insertion in 
next issue. 
Answers. 
104.— Buy your tools of a good maker. Avoid 
<jheap article —esp(3eially edge tools. If you pur- 
chase of any good maker or dealer, several of 
which advertise with us, and a fault is afterwards 
found, the tools will be exchanged. In fitting up 
a workshop, purchase your implements as you 
require them ; by doing so you avoid unnecessary 
expense. If you are only a beginner, do not at- 
tempt to grind your tools ; have them ground at 
some tool shop, the cost for each is only a trifle ; 
if you think you can grind them yourself, buy a 
good stone at once, and always grind with the 
«tone running towards you, otherwise you will 
have a wire edge. Do not sharpen your gouges 
on an oil stone, or you will not be able to sharpen 
your chisels properly; use a slip for the gouges, 
a flat stone for the chisels and plane-irons, a 
small slip for inside tools. If a new gouge slip 
be purchased, a good plan is to make a wide 
groove with an old file in the place you wish to 
sharpen your gouge: by doing so you obtain a 
^straight groove, and possibly prevent cutting the 
fingers. la sharpening the tool do not hold it 
above the place where the gouge passes back- 
wards and forwards, or a slip may occur and a 
nasty cut be the result. The best stones for 
turners and carvers are Turkey, Arkansas, and 
Washita stones. We do not think anything is 
better than a good piece of Turkey, but opinions 
differ, and some prefer Washita. Both are good 
for fine work. For coarse work, the Arkansas 
stone will be found very useful.— Ed. 
105. — A writer in Knoioledge describes a method 
of taking the impression of leaves and flowers as 
follows:— Procure a small bottle of oil (I always 
use olive), a camol's-hair brush or a piece of rag, 
h:ilf a dozen sheets of white unruled copying 
paper, a few sheets of white note paper, and a 
good old-fashioned tallow candle with a large 
wick. Take the leaves you wish to perform upon 
and put them under a press or in a large book, so 
as to get them with a fairly even surface. Then 
take a large sheet of copying paper and oil it 
completely by rubbing it with your rag, taking 
care not to put on more oil than is necessary. 
When this oiled paper is fairly dry hold it over 
the candle so that the flame just touches it, mov- 
ing it about to prevent scorching. Do this until 
a fine layer of carbon, equally black everywhere, 
is deposited. When the light of the candle can 
just be seen through the carbon lay the paper on 
a table with the black side uppermost. Then 
place the leaf between a piece of the black paper 
cut to the proper size and another sheet of paper. 
After rubbing the upper sheet carefully, place the 
leaf between two clean sheets of paper. By again 
rubbing the upper sheet a complete impression 
of the leaf, with even the most minute veins 
marked in black, will be produced upon the sheet 
of paper. If this is allowed to dry it will not 
smear, and will always retain its freshness. 
Care should be taken not to allow the leaf to be 
chipped while on any of the sheets of paper.— X. 
106. — There is a way of squaring numbers by 
complement and supplement, if that is what you 
mean by the American system. We first met with 
it in a little work called "Lightning Arithmetic," 
published in San Francisco by G. Frusher How- 
ard. You take the ten next before the number, 
add to the number to be squared the difference 
between it and the ten, multiply that by the 
ten, and then square the difference you got at 
first and add it to the result. Thus to square 
13 you take the nearest ten behind it, which 
happens here to be 10, subtract it from 13. and 
get 3; then you add 3 to 13, and multiply by 
10— in other words, 13-1-3X10=160; and then 
you add the square of three, namely, 9, so that 
the full calculation runs (13 -I- 3 X 10) -f 9= 169. 
In large numbers the gain is great, thus— 1007 
square'j = (1007 -|- 7 X 1000) + 49, or 1,014 049. This 
is called squaring by supplement: squaring by 
complement is taking the ten next in front of the 
number, and subtracting instead of adding. Thus 
993 squared would be (993 — 7 X 1000 + 49 =986,049.— 
California. 
107. — The following hints regarding pigeons 
may be of service to "Subscriber," though, as a 
rule, pigeons will thrive and multiply under any 
reasonable conditions: The loft should at this 
time of the year be kept as tidy and clean as pos- 
sible, and care should be taken that the fountains 
and food utensils are clean as well. Nothing is 
so likely to breed disease as polluted water. 
Fresh rain-water is better for the birds than hard 
or river-water, but let them have it in abundance. 
Continue summer feeding, and do not forget the 
salt-cat or salt earth so necessary for the health 
of the birds. This is best placed in a small box 
kept for that purpose, and constantly replenished 
when empty It may be composed of three parts 
of old lime rubbish— which can generally be 
easily enough procured from any place where 
building is going on— and one part of coarse salt, 
with a little dry clayey earth. See that your 
pigeon loft lias plenty of fresh air; if it has not, 
some plan of ventilating should be adopted forth- 
with. A good layer of »awdu»t with which a little 
