Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/300

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��Popular Science Monthly

��A Screen Cover for an Ordinary Flower Holder

PLACING flowers in the ordinary vase bunches them so that they do not fall gracefully. A few flowers may be prettily displayed and made to look

���Any jar or bowl may be covered with this screen made of rings soldered together

like a large bunch if each stem is placed in one of the openings in this screen-like covering for a bowl or similar container. Screens for this purpose may be pur- chased, but they are very easily made at home. I made the one illustrated from small brass rings which cost me only twenty cents. The manner of construction is as follows:

Select from the pantry, a small pot cover that has seen considerable service and that has no tin left on it. It should have enough curve to give it the desired shape. Turn the concave side of the cover up, and place one ring in the center, over the spot where the knob is riveted. Such a cover must have a metal knob as it will be subjected to heat. Around the center ring lay the other rings until the size desired for your screen is reached. Then solder the rings together.

Procure some wire solder and acid; place a small bit of solder on the rings where they touch one another and put on a bit of the acid. When all joints have been gone over, take up the cover with a pair of pliers and hold it over a small flame so that it will be heated evenly and just enough to run the solder. Then take it where it will quickly cool. After cooling, it is ready for use. If it is desired to have a fancy screen, the cover can be plated in nickel, in copper, natural or oxidized, or in the more precious metals. If gold or silver is used, the home-made screen will be as expensive as a purchased one. — J. E. Pbttibone.

��Removing the Stains of Silver Nitrate From Cloth

WHEN using silver nitrate bath solu- tions in photography, the operator frequently stains his hands and clothing with the nitrate. It is not very generally known that certain chemicals will remove the stains, or will render them invisible. The following is appli- cable to clothing: Dissolve in water to a moderate concentration, bichromate of mercury, obtainable at drug stores, and moisten the spot with it until the stain becomes invisible. Or dip the fabric into a copper chloride solution until the stain has disappeared, and then wash it with a fairly concentrated solution of hyposul- phite of soda, followed by a thorough rinsing in water. Or dissolve one part of mercuric chloride, and one part of ammonium chloride in eight parts of water and dip the fabric in the solution. To remove the stains from the hands, a cloth immersed in one of the above mixtures and rubbed on the stained portion of the hand, will usually serve. Some people use potassium cyanide, but the poisonous property of the cyanide makes its use dangerous.

Soldering a Crack in an Old-Style Copper Bathtub

SOMETIMES a heavy coating of solder is run over a crack in an old-fashioned cop- per bathtub, or other tank, sheatn- ed in wood. Event- ually the edges of a portion of the metal become cor- roded and through expansion and con- traction of the metal, the crack extends up into the solder. To repair this properly, clean the metal thoroughly, then take a piece of clean tin or copper, wider and longer than the crack, and insert it in the opening as shown. Then work it around until it is in the position of the dotted lines. Fasten it with brass tacks or bright nails. Apply the soldering flux and run the solder, making it heaviest over the crack and the nails. — James M. Kane.

���Placing metal strip back of break

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