AMERICAN AGrRIC TJLTURISI 
[February 
70 
7 III 
A HAPPY AFTERNOON IN THE BIG ROOM UNDER 
THE ROOF. 
solid foot of east-iron weighs Git x 7.207. or450 lbs. ] 
7 ounces .—Example D: Wood is lighter than wa¬ 
ter. The specific gravity of dry Hard Maple is say 
<>.64f. Multiply 621 lbs. by 0.644, gives 404 lbs. as 
the weight of a solid foot of the maple wood. Each 
foot of such wood would carry 221 lbs. more with¬ 
out sinking in water.—Dry shell-bark Hickory is 
.-just the weight of water.—Common Air, at 60°, is 
816 times lighter than water. About 13.solid feet 
of air, or 3 barrelfuls, weigh 1 pound. 
SlieciSc Gravity of some Common Things. 
Average. 
Alum.1.724 
Beeswax.0.960 
Brandy. 0.837 
Brick.1.930 
Butter.0.942 
Chalk.2.784 
Coal (Anthr.). 1.600 
Copper (Coin).S.915 
Diamond.3.535 
Glass igreen)..2.642 
Glass (plate) .3.760 
Gold (Coin). 17.647 
Granite (Quin)3.652 
Honey.1.456 
Ice .0.930 
Iron (bar).7.731 
Iron (cast)_7.207 
Average. 
Ivory.1.865 
Lard. 0.947 
Lead (cast). .11.400 
Marble. 2.740 
Mercury.14.000 
Milk..... 1.032 
Oil (Castor).. 0.970 
Oil (Linseed) 0.940 
Oil (Whale).. 0.923 
Platinum_20.000 
Rosin. 1.100 
Salt (Com.).. 2.130 
Silver (Coin) 10.534 
Suarar. 1.600 
Tallow. 0.941 
Tin (hard’d). 7.300 
Zinc (cast)... 7.190 
WOOD (DRV). 
Average. 
Hickory (best) 1.000 
White Oak_0.855 
White Ash_0.772 
Red Oak.0.728 
White Beech. .0.724 
Apple Tree... .0.697 
Black Birch...0.697 
Black Walnut.0.681 
Hard Maple. ..0.641 
Soft Maple....0.597 
White Elm....0.580 
Red Cedar_0.565 
Yellow Poplar 0.5P3 
White Birch.. .0-530 
Chestnut (A.).0.522 
White Pine_0.418 
Rule: Get the solid contents of any substance in inch- j 
es, by multiplying together its length, breadth, and | 
thickness. Add three cyphers to the right (.000) and di¬ 
vide by 27.048, which will give the number of pounds the 
same bulk of water would weigh. Then multiply this 
by the specific gravity, cutting off the three right-hand 
figures for decimals. 
Example E: A bar of iron 120 inches long. 3 inches 
wide, and J inch thick (120X3XJ) contains 180 solid 
inches. Add .000, and dividing by 27.048, gives 6.51, or 
about 64 lbs. as the weight of an equal bulk of water. 
Multiplying this by the specific gravity of bar iron 
(7.731) gives 50'/3 lbs. as the weight of the iron bar. 
'I'lie CliilAircu in the (jiiirret. 
Look in your Dictionary, and see if the origin of 
the word garret is clear to you. What relation 
does the early meaning of the word, as used by the 
French and others, have to that which is now con¬ 
veyed by the same word ? Whatever may have been ! 
the old garret of other countries, many a boy and j 
girl knows what an “ old garret ” is at the present ! 
day in our own broad land. It may not be a place ! 
of safety or a room for a guard to be posted to j 
overlook the town—an upper room in a tower from I 
which all invaders could be seen—it may not be j 
any of these, and yet. I dare say that children have \ 
sometimes climbed the garret stairs to gain a better 
view of many things. For what does a child go to j 
the garret ? That is a difficult question to answer— 
almost as hard as to tell yvnat he can find in the \ 
well stored upper room, often unfinished, and in | 
some parts so low that even a seven-year old boy j 
may bump his head against the rough rafters, j 
It was my good fortune to pass my childhood on I 
a farm, and live in one of those large, old-fashioned , 
houses, better known for the largeness of the great I 
pillars to the piazza or “ stoop,” and the smallness | 
of the window panes, than the beauty of its arclii- j 
tecture or the whiteness of its once painted sur¬ 
face. It was a large house and had been in the 
family for many years—or I should have said the 
same family had been in it for a long time. As a 
result of this there had been a large accumulation 
of those old machines that in former years were 
used in the making of the wool into clothing, and 
the fibers of the flax plant into various sorts of 
cloth. There were hatchels and reels, spinning 
wheels and shuttles, and last but not least the 
large loom upon which the carpets and cloths were 
made. What fun it used to be to get out some of 
these old dust-covered machines and set them to 
running! Boys like wheels because they suggest 
something that will go, and if I am not mistaken 
there were not as many good wheels in that old 
garret when I reached my teens as when the neigh¬ 
borhood heard one morning that there was a little 
boy on the hill. Aside from the machines there 
were old boxes, churns—and a churn is a machine, 
I suppose, and many other things that had served 
out their term of usefulness, and were sent to the 
garret to he out of the way. Any place that is used 
as a store-room of old things is sure in the long 
run to be stocked, and if it were not for the chil¬ 
dren there would be no place for other worn out 
things. Some of the smaller things were put into 
the old chests and trunks, and it was my delight to 
drag out from them the candle sticks, that once 
held the “ lights of other days,” and the molds in 
which those lights were run, served many a good 
turn in my boyish sports. It may be said with 
confidence that the garret has been one of the best 
rooms in the house to many a child ; a room the 
dark-winding stairway up to which was early 
learned. The artist has given his view of an after¬ 
noon in the garret. In the midst of all the old 
accumulations of the family, the two children have 
found a box for a seat and an old book from a pile 
of dusty ones, that makes them forgetful of the 
passing hours, and it may be they will either have 
to be called by a voice from below stairs, or the 
deepening twilight will at last remind them that 
the day—and a happy one, is done. Uncle Hal. 
