Rabbits and Water

Victor Gage wanted to know the experience of others who have kept rabbits. I have kept them for the last five years. I find that they will not drink water if you feed them on clover, gra.s.s, cabbage, lettuce, turnip tops, and other green plants. There is always a little dew on this food. If there is much dew, they will get enough water to last them all day, and often for three or four days. On the other hand, if you feed them on dry food, such as hay, oats, corn, stale bread, and other dry things, they will generally drink water about two or three times a week, and sometimes every day.

I keep my rabbits in a house somewhat like the one Mr. Chase ill.u.s.trated in the Round Table some weeks ago. When it rains and the rabbits are thirsty, they will lick the drops of rain as they run down the wire netting. I think that if Mr. Gage feeds his rabbits on the dry food mentioned for four or five days and then give them water, he will be convinced that rabbits do drink.

LION GARDINER.

CONCORD, N. H.

Questions and Answers.

Vincent V. M. Beede, East Orange, N. J., asks some members to describe some less common games of dominoes, and tell the origin of the game croquet. Let's have them in the form of morsels for printing. L. V.

Riddle, 13 Roanoke Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Boston, Ma.s.s., is interested in botany, and wants to hear from Albert W. At.w.a.ter and all young naturalists and botanists. Ralph Cain, 1041 Santa Fe Street, Atchison, Kan., thinks it would be a capital idea to form an electrician Chapter about the Table, and would like to have other members join him. He hopes to become an electrical engineer--an excellent direction for one's ambition just now, we think, for electricity is to be the motive power of the future far more than it is now. Knights of to-day who reach their threescore and ten in due time will see steam supplanted by it on our railways. Sir Ralph will find Callaud cells, duplicated for strength, the battery most used for sustained power. The arc light is the result of frictional not chemical electricity.

W. D. S.: What is the simplest and cheapest form of electric battery depends upon the use for which the battery is needed. Electricians use the blue-stone for telegraph or closed-circuit work; sal-ammoniac or Leclanche and other open-circuit batteries for electric bells and burglar-alarms; acid batteries, such as Grenet, Bunsen, and others, for electro-plating, and dry batteries for medical use. The cost is from $1.50 to $5 per cell. Books on electricity are divided into subjects.

For instance, Ayrton's _Practical Electricity_ is a series of lectures for students, $2.50, while Mayer's work, at $3.50, treats wholly of telegraphy. Ask J. H. Bunnell & Co., 76 Cortlandt Street, N. Y., for their catalogue, which they send free if you mention the Round Table.

Mary Newell Eaton, 197 South Lafayette Street, Grand Rapids. Mich., wants in-door games for persons of sixteen to twenty. She also wants to hear from any member who has visited or who now lives in Italy or China.

She may send us the morsel she mentions.

Joseph H. Durant hopes we will publish a story every other week that young artists may ill.u.s.trate. We could hardly find s.p.a.ce for one so often, but we intend to offer some prizes for ill.u.s.trations. Conditions will be announced soon. Sir Joseph must learn to use India ink or water-colors (black only). Pencil cannot be reproduced at all, and crayon but poorly. John H. Campbell, Jun., 413 School Lane, Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa., wants to receive sample copies of amateur papers, to join corresponding clubs, and to hear from members in Germantown with a view of forming a local Chapter.

Smith Phillips sends us some odd epitaphs from tombstones in a cemetery at Brownsville, Pa. Such oddities are in many similar yards. It is in this cemetery, by-the-way, that the parents of James G. Blaine are interred. Speaking of cemeteries, can any one tell us why we use single slabs set up at the head of the grave, while in England and France, countries from which we borrowed most of our customs, one sees quite different marks of graves? Where did we get our idea? Who can tell the Table?

Ronald Chipchase thinks we should add swimming to our list of all-around sport events when we offer another medal. Lloyd Thomas asks how to make a simple telescope for use in studying astronomy. Better not make it at all. One that is of any real use can only be made by an expert, and is expensive. G. D. Galloway, Oakwood Place, Eau Claire, Wis., publishes the _Albermarle_, and wants to send you a sample. It is a neat eight-page amateur paper. Will Fred Hawthorne tell us about the fruits of Jamaica--what ones are ripe when he writes. Compare them, date for date, with their appearance in Ma.s.sachusetts, and carefully describe those that we do not have. Sir Fred, we should explain, lives at "Mona Great House," Kingston, British West Indies.

CAMERA CLUB.

PAPERS FOR BEGINNERS, NO. 9.

TREATMENT OF UNDER-EXPOSED PLATES

By an "under-exposed plate" is meant a plate which has not been exposed long enough to the action of light for the objects to make a deep enough impression in the silver salts, or to cause the chemical change to take place which makes the perfect picture.

The normal development of an under-exposed plate results in a negative in which the high or white lights are very strong, and have a chalky appearance in the print, while the shadows have little or no detail; and where a plate has been much under-exposed, only clear gla.s.s is the result of the development. The reason why the high lights appear so harsh and strong is due to the fact that to get detail in the shadows the development is carried on till the high lights are very much over-developed and the film has become dense.

The practised amateur usually knows whether his plate has been under-exposed or not, and treats it accordingly. The beginner, not having learned how to gauge exposures correctly, must learn how to distinguish an under-exposed plate as soon as the developer begins to act on it, so that he may get a good, or fairly good, negative.

If a plate which has been under-exposed is placed in a normal developer, the high lights will be some time in coming out, and the shadows will not appear at all, or, if they do, will be very dim. If the development is continued in order to bring out detail, the plate is apt to fog, and is then spoiled entirely.

If the rest of the image does not follow the high lights in a reasonable length of time, take the plate from the developer and place it in clean water. It will do no harm if it stands in water for a few minutes, for water will bring out detail in an under-exposed plate.

Nothing has been said about the different kinds of developers, though they will be fully treated in later papers. The beginner should stick to one developer till he has learned just how to use it.

If one is using pyro, a fresh solution should be at once made up, using half the quant.i.ty of pyro given in the formula, and the full amount of the alkaline solution. The pyro is the developing agent, or that which gives the required strength or density, while the alkaline solution, containing the sulphite of soda, prevents the staining of the negative and preserves the pyro. After the development of the plate is finished turn off the solution, leave the plate in the tray, pour water over it, and allow it to stand for fifteen or twenty minutes, being careful that it is covered from the light.

If one uses hydrochinon, which is a favorite developing agent with amateurs, dilute the developer and add from three to seven drops of iodide solution. This solution is composed of 1 grain of iodine, 1 ounce of water, 1 ounce of alcohol. Mark the bottle "Accelerator." This solution hastens the development of the image and brings it up evenly, and the contrasts between the lights and shadows are made soft and delicate.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Copyright, 1895, by The Procter & Gamble Co., Cin'ti.

Plenty of fresh air, an abundance of sleep, a careful diet and the daily use of a good soap like the Ivory will purify the complexion as no cosmetic can.

EARN A TRICYCLE!

[Ill.u.s.tration]

We wish to introduce our Teas, Spices, and Baking Powder. Sell 30 lbs.

and we will give you a Fairy Tricycle; sell 25 lbs. for a solid Silver Watch and Chain; 50 lbs. for a Gold Watch and Chain; 75 lbs. for a Bicycle; 10 lbs. for a Beautiful Gold Ring. Express prepaid if cash is sent for goods. Write for catalog and order sheet.

W. G. BAKER,

SPRINGFIELD, Ma.s.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration: If afflicted with SORE EYES USE Dr. ISAAC THOMPSON'S EYE WATER]

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT of the award on

=GILLOTT'S PENS= at the Chicago Exposition.

=AWARD:= "For excellence of steel used in their manufacture, it being fine grained and elastic; superior workmanship, especially shown by the careful grinding which leaves the pens free from defects. The tempering is excellent and the action of the finished pens perfect."

(Signed) FRANZ VOGT, _Individual Judge_.