The former must always be pasted, before rolling a case, to prevent its sticking. It should, likewise, be wiped clean with a damp sponge, before being laid aside. Brass tubes keep clean a much longer time if lacquered. To lacquer them, clean them with very fine glasspaper; make them hot by the fire, till you can just bear them on the back of the hand; then, with a camel's-hair pencil, wash them over with thin lac solution. The cases may be either 14 or 11 inches long; but 11 is the best, for when the cases are too long, the fuse, as it approaches the bottom, is apt, if slow, to smoke; if fierce, to set the top of the case in a flame. If the learner decides upon II inches, the former and rammer may each be 2 or 3 inches shorter.

After the first case has been rolled up to fit the gauge, it may be unrolled, and the paper measured. Future pieces of the same quire of paper can then be cut of the right size at once, so that the case will fit the gauge without further trouble.

A large slab of slate is convenient for rolling upon; but a smoothly planed board will

answer every purpose.

When a number of cases are finished, hitch a piece of flax two or three times round each of them, and hang them up to dry, in a place free from draught, that they may not warp. Flax is sold in balls; the thick yellow, at 2d., is the best. It is named, indifferently, It is much used by shoemakers; and is sold at the grindery, or leather shops. Two or three thicknesses of this, waxed, or drawn through the hand with a little paste, is very convenient for passing round the necks of small choked cases, tying cases on wheels, &c.

flax, or hemp.

TO MAKE A ROMAN CANDLE STAR.

At a

Take the former, fig. 1, which, as said before, is 1 inch long; have a cylindrical piece of turned wood, box, beech, or mahogany, fig. 2, about 2 inches long, and of a diameter to just fit easily into fig. 1. point a, at the distance of about of an inch from the end d, with a bradawl, or very small gimlet, or nosebit, make a hole, and drive in a piece of brass wire, to project just so much as to prevent the tube slipping over it. A piece of a brass rivet, such as used by shoe

makers, is convenient for the purpose.

The

part with the head on is best; a quarter of an inch length will be sufficient, filed or cut off with the nippers. It is evident that upon inserting fig. 2 into the tube fig. 1, a vacant space of of an inch will be left at the bottom. Fig. 3 is a piece of turned wood, or, better still, of turned brass, exactly like fig. 2 without the side-pin a. Now to pump a star, insert fig. 2 in fig. 1; press the tube into damped composition, turn it round, and withdraw it. Rest the tube on a flat surface, insert fig. 3, and give it two or three taps with a small mallet, like fig. 26. A convenient size for the mallet is 1 inch square, 3 inches long, with a turned handle. mallet is best made of beech or mahogany. The slight malleting consolidates the star, and prevents it from getting broken in charging; it will compress it to about or of an inch in height. Push it out and set it by to dry.

The

Stars are best made in summer, and dried in the sunshine; when dry they should be put into clean pickle-bottles, furnished with tight-fitting bungs. A piece of wash-leather

passed over the bottom of the bung, gathered up round the sides, and tied at the top like a choke, makes a good stopper. Shot, shaken up in bottles, with water, soon cleans them.

TO DAMP STARS.

Stars containing nitrate of strontian must be damped, either with lac solution, or wax solution; anything containing water destroys the colour. Nitre stars may be damped with gum water, dextrine solution, or thin starch. Most other stars with either of the solutions. Crimsons and greens will mix with boiled. linseed oil, but they cannot then be matched, as oil renders meal-powder almost uninflammable. With all stars, not a drop more of the solution should be used than is sufficient to make the composition bind; and it is advisable not to damp more than half an ounce at a time; this is particularly the case in using the lac solution, as it dries rapidly; and if a large quantity of composition is damped, and gets dry, and has to be damped over and over again, it becomes clogged with the shellac, and the colour is deteriorated. If it should get dry, and require a second

damping, it is best to use pure spirit only, the second time.

Before mixing compositions, every article should be as fine as wheaten flour, and perfectly dry. Nitrate of strontian, if purchased in the lump, should be set over the fire, in a pipkin; it will soon begin to boil in its water of crystallization; it must be kept stirred with a piece of wood, till the water is evaporated, and a fine dry powder left. A pound of crystals will yield about II ounces of dry powder, which should be immediately bottled. Even then, if used in damp weather, it is best dried again, and mixed with the other ingredients while warm. This second drying may be in a 6-inch circular frying-pan.

Articles, separately, may be reduced to powder, with the pestle, in a mortar. See that it is wiped clean every time, as there is danger of ignition with chlorates and sulphurets. When the articles are to be mixed, they may be put into the mortar, and stirred together with a small sash-tool. A inch is a convenient size. The mixture must then be put into a sieve, and shaken in the usual way; or it may be brushed through with the