progress which this paper records, it may nevertheless be thought well
that there should have been brought before the section, in however
cursory a manner, some notice of mechanical development during the
past fifty years.

* * * * *

[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 311, page 4954.]




AMATEUR MECHANICS.

METAL TURNING.


In selecting a lathe an amateur may exercise more or less taste, and
he may be governed somewhat by the length of his purse; the same is
true in the matter of chucks; but when he comes to the selection or
making of turning tools he must conform to fundamental principles; he
must profit as far as possible by the experience of others, and will,
after all, find enough to be learned by practice.

Tools of almost every description may be purchased at reasonable
prices, but the practice of making one's own tools cannot be too
strongly recommended. It affords a way out of many an emergency, and
where time is not too valuable, a saving will be realized. A few bars
of fine tool steel, a hammer, and a small anvil, are all that are
required, aside from fire and water. The steel should be heated to a