To Take Rust Out Of Steel

Cover the steel with sweet oil, well rubbed on it, and in forty-eight hours use unslaked lime finely powdered, to rub until all the rust disappears.

Low Mantel-Pieces

Low mantel-pieces are much less wholesome than high ones, because the under line of the worst air in the room is on a level with the fire-place; the lower, therefore, this top is placed in a room, the deeper the upper portion of the body is immersed in the inferior air. In rooms not well ventilated, the heads of the occupiers are in the worst and the warmest air, their feet are placed in the best and coldest. A thermometer placed at different elevations in a warm room will confirm these truths.

Leaf Impressions

To take perfect impressions of the leaves of plants, the following process should be adopted: Hold oiled paper in the smoke of a lamp, or of pitch, until it becomes coated with the smoke: to this paper apply the leaf of which you wish the impression taken, having previously warmed it between your hands, to render it pliable. Place the lower surface of the leaf upon the blackened surface of the oiled paper, in order that the numerous veins which are so prominent on this side may receive from the paper a portion of the smoke. Lay a paper over the leaf, and then press it gently upon the smoked paper, either with the fingers or, better still, with a small roller, covered with woollen cloth, or some soft material, so that every part of the leaf may come in contact with the soap on the oiled paper: a coating of smoke will thus adhere to the leaf. Then remove the leaf carefully, and place the blackened surface on a sheet of clean white paper, covering the leaf with a clean slip of paper, and pressing upon it with the fingers on the roller as before. Thus may be obtained the impression of a leaf, showing its perfect outlines and veins, more accurately than in the most careful drawing;