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Expectation of Life, Etc

fied brick. The same composition is formed upon sticks for cutting stones, shells, etc., by the hand. To make Wax Candles.

Castor Oil as a Dressing for Leather.

Castor oil, besides being an excellent dressing for leather, renders it vermin-proof; it should be mixed, say half and half, with tallow or other Substitute for a Corkscrew.

Place a dozen wicks on an iron circle, at equal oil. Neither rats, roaches, nor other vermin will distances, over a large copper vessel tinned and full of melted wax; pour a ladlefull of the wax on the tops of the wicks, one after another; what the wick does not take will drop into the vessel, which must be kept warm by a pan of coals; continue this process till the candles are as large as required. If they are wanted of a pyramidal form, let the first three ladlesful be poured on at the top of the wick, the fourth at the height of three-quarters, the fifth at half, and the sixth at a quarter; then take them down hot, and lay them beside each other in a feather-bed folded in two to preserve their warmth and keep the wax soft; then take them down and roll them one by one on a smooth table, and cut off the thick end as required.

To make Kitchen Vegetables Tender.

When peas, French beans, etc., do not boil easily, it has usually been imputed to the coolness of the season, or to the rains. This popular notion is erroneous. The difficulty of boiling them soft arises from an excess of gypsum imbibed during their growth. To correct this, throw a small quantity of carbonate of soda into the pot alone with the vegetables.

To Prevent Haystacks from Taking Fire.

When there is any reason to fear that the hay which is intended to be housed or stacked is not sufficiently dry, let a few handfuls of common salt be scattered between each layer. This, by absorbing the humidity of the hay, not only prevents the fermentation, and consequent inflammation of it, but adds a taste to it, which stimulates the appetites of cattle and preserves them from many diseases.

To Frame a Polygraph, or Instrument for Writing Two Letters at Once.

In this instrument, two pens, and even three, if necessary, are joined to each other by slips of wood acting upon the pivot; one of these pens cannot move without drawing the other to follow all its movements; the rules are inflexible, and they preserve in all their positions the parallelism which is given by uniting them. The movements of one of these pens are identically the same as those of the other; the characters traced by the first are the exact counterpart of those which the second has formed; if the one rise above the paper and cease to write, or rather, if it make a scratch, or advance towards the ink-bottle, the other, faithful to the movements which are transmitted to it by the species of light wood which directs it, either rises or scratches or draws ink, and that without having occasion to give any particular attention to it. The copy is made of itself, and without ever thinking of it.

The polygraph is not expensive; it is used without difficulty, and almost with the same facility as in ordinary writing. The construction is as simple as it is convenient; all the parts are collected so as to be taken to pieces, and put up again very easily. Its size admits of its taking every desirable position, horizontal, perpendicular, or oblique, according to the application which is made of it, and the piece of furniture to which it is to be adapted; for it may be fixed to a drawer, a desk, an inkstand, an easel, or simply laid upon the table; it is generally accompanied by a drawer, and a case of the form and bulk of an ordinary desk. attack leather so prepared.

A convenient substitute for a corkscrew, when the latter is not at hand, may be found in the use of a common screw, with an attached string to pull the cork.

Another. Stick two forks vertically into the cork on opposite sides, not too near the edge.

Run the blade of a knife through the two, and give a twist.

Another. Fill the hollow at the bottom of the bottle with a handkerchief or towel; grasp the neck with one hand, and strike firmly and steadily with the other upon the handkerchief.

To send Messages in Cypher.

Any document written in cypher, by which signs are substituted for letters, or even for words, is liable to be decyphered. The following plans are free from such objection: The correspondents select two copies of the same edition of a book, the word to be used is designated by figures referring to the page, line, and number of the word in the line; or the message may be written on a slip of paper wound spirally around a rod of wood; these can only be decyphered by bringing them into second rod of the same size. [For SYMPATHETIC their original position, by wrapping around a INKS, see INKS.] Expectation of Life at any Age from Five to Sixty Yeurs. life. What is the value of this property? Mr.

Every man, woman, and child has a property in Charles M. Willich has establshed an extremely easy rule for expressing this value-this "Expectation of Life" at any age from 5 to 60. His formula stand thus: e=(80-a); or, in plain words, the expectation of life is equal to two-thirds of the difference between the age of the party and 80.

Thus, say a man is now 20 years old, between that age and 80 there are 60 years; two-thirds of 60 are 40; and this is the sum of his expectation of life. If a man be now 60 years, he will have an expectation of life nearly 14 years more. By the same rule, a child of 5 has a lien of life for 50 years. Every one can apply the rule to his own age.

Mr. Willich's hypothesis may be as easily remembered as that by De Moivre in the last century, which has now become obsolete, from the greater accuracy of the mortality tables. The results obtained by the new law correspond very closely with those from Dr. Farr's English Life- Table, constructed with great care from an immense mass of returns. Grafting Wax.

Five parts of rosin, 1 part of beeswax, 1 part of tallow. Melt these in a skillet, tin cup, or any metal vessel; the skillet being preferable, as it can be handled better, and the wax keeps warm longer in it. Mix these over the fire, and mix together well. When the scions are set - say as many as 20 or 30, or as few as wished-have the mixture ready and apply it warm with a small wooden paddle. See that every part is covered, and the air completely excluded. It requires no bandage.

We have made the wax in different proportions to the above, but we find these to be best adapted to the purpose. The object to be attained is to have the wax of such consistency that it will not crack in the cold winds of March and April, nor run in the hot suns of summer.