turns around a pivot, and the tension of the spring keeps the machine in its place.

The swimming-fish (fig.

895) is moved by an indiarubber spring, much as the drawing-room kite is elevated in the air. The spring of indiarubber is twisted to make the fish swim, and the caoutchouc is adapted to a toothed wheel which has a clock-work motion that gives the tail a motion sideways and round, acting like a propeller, and thus the fish swims.

It is perhaps as well to say how these fish are managed, because then children will not break them, when they have been purchased, to see what is

inside. Very young students are very fond of analyses of

Fig. 894.-The bicycle toy.

this nature, but synthesis, or putting together, is a far superior occupation

in these circumstances to analysis, and to put together more lawful than to pull asunder.

TREE-FELLING BY STEAM.

The machine constructed a few years ago by Messrs. Ransome, and which was tried at Roupell Park, near London, seems to combine all the desiderata in the matter of mechanical tree-felling. Many experiments have

been previously made by people to cut down trees by means of steam machinery, but none of them included all the conditions necessary for success. The Ransome Machine cut down four large trees in forty minutes.

The apparatus, as shown in the illustration, is not unlike, in appearance, the perforating machines employed in boring rocks, in which the drill is

Fig. 896.-Ransome's tree-felling machine.

replaced by a saw. The cylinder is small, and works at high pressure; a piston moves the saw in a guide-frame. The machine is firmly fixed against the tree, and the support is fastened by a chain.

A rack arrangement provides for the turning of the machine as the saw continues to cut its way through the trunk of the tree.

The weight is not excessive, and the necessary steam is supplied by a portable furnace and boiler, which communicates with the saw-motion by a flexible tube. The saw can cut through a horizontal as well as through a perpendicular trunk-thus timber can be rapidly cut up.

Another ingenious sawing machine is that invented by Mr. W. W. Giles,

of Chicago, United States, America. This apparatus is about eight feet long, and one extremity is fixed to the trunk of the tree to be operated on.

The operator sits upon a ledge or saddle at the opposite end, and putting his feet upon the treadles, pushes them and the saw forward; this movement is assisted by the weight of the hands on the lever. The saw, under these circumstances, cuts into the wood with great force, and when the operator pushes the lever forward he brings the force of his legs to bear at the same time, and carries the saw back again. So feet, hands, dead weight with the saw itself, combine at once upon the tree, and the

blade quickly does its work. manipulated.

The saw is three feet long and is very easily

A WAY OF PRESERVING GRAPES.

Remarkable progress has been made of late years in the conservation of various articles of food, and we may here speak of the preservation of the grape.

We will first mention M. R. Charmoux's method, which is called the "Fresh Grape" system. The portion of the building used for the business is on the first floor, as nearly as possible in the centre of the building, so as to be guarded from damp. Two windows are sufficient for all purposes, one to the north, and one to the south. They may be merely kept shut on ordinary occasions, but when frost comes they must be draped and

"packed" with nets filled with moss or dried seaweed. The principal one of the windows is to admit of the cleansing of the room and for the admission. of air in the summer time, when there are not many grapes left.

In winter the apartment may be warmed by hot air, and if this cannot. be managed the ordinary means must be resorted to to keep up the temperature. The upper clusters of grapes should first be picked, for shade conduces to longevity of the fruit, and the 20th October is about the time to commence. A fine day should be chosen; a cloudy day will suit provided there is no dew or dampess in the air.

The finest bunches are cut first, and care must be taken to separate them at the end of the stalk, having three "eyes" under the grape and two above it. The leaves should be at once cut off, and the grapes put with

great caution into boxes or baskets to be taken to the preserving house, where each stalk is plunged into a phial holding about 125 grammes of water, into which, two or three days previously, a teaspoonful of wood charcoal has been put.

о

The phials are suspended as shown in the accompanying illustration (fig. 898), and then certain precautions must be observed: they must not be disturbed, nor must any draught be admitted, as the temperature must not descend below 1° to 2° cent. There is no necessity to change the water in the bottles; very little will evaporate between November and May, when the process ought to be finished, but the phials must neither be corked nor concealed.

In the dry process the same house can be used, and stagings are employed. These frames are furnished with grooved boxes inclined towards each other, and lined with very dry fern-leaves or straw (fig. 900). Some

days after the phials have been filled cut the grapes successively at the first

Fig. 900.--Drying process.

time, which generally begins about the 6th to the 12th of November. The grapes are then put in baskets and carefully carried to the preserving room, where they are ranged in the boxes so as not to touch. Each box contains about six kilogrammes of grapes.

All the time of the conservation process care must be taken to eradicate all grapes all grapes which change colour or alter in any way. If dampness be feared have a lighted stove in the room for a time. Grapes are also preserved en espalier, but not so well. Sometimes a mouldy smell will be perceived in the room; to prevent

this ventilators should be placed in the ceiling, which must, however, never be opened until the mouldy smell renders such a proceeding absolutely

necessary.