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Of late we have been almost too scientific we are afraid, and so to redeem our character with our juvenile friends, we will tell them how to make some very pretty ornaments, and which involve a little science too There is, as everybody knows, a substance called alum which is beautifully crystalline, and always is seen shaped like double pyramids This is a compound of an earth, alumina, and an acid, sulphuric ; it is, in fact, the sulphate of alumina, and is put to many useful purposes This substance is soluble in hot water, and in cooling, it crystallizes out on to anything that may be in the liquid, and the crystals will take any color, thus indigo will color them blu, cochineal reel, and so on Now, bearing these facts in mind, take a quantity, say a pound of alum, and dissolve it in as little hot water as possible Then having made a basket of wire, like Fig 1, immerse it in the hot solution, and put it quietly away to cool Next morning you can take the basket out, and it looks like Fig 2, all the wires being covered with beautiful crystals Should your first basket havs given yon some pleasure, here are directions to out a nice one out of cardboard, one like that shown in the engraving, Fig 2 Take your cardboard and draw one circle in the center, and then a larger, just the distance apart you want the sides to be high Then on these circles construct the hexagons that form the base and rim of your basket Place the point of the compasses in A, and afterwards in B, and draw with the pencil point two arcs which intersect each other at C ; this done place the compass point at C, then describe the arc, A, B, which will give the necessary curve to the side and then from the points, D E, draw arcs intersecting at F From this point you obtain the side, D E, then from the points, B E, describe the arcs, B H, and E H, and from H you get the curve, G, for the top ; having done this with each side, on folding them up, they will form a very pretty basket, and any devices that suit the maker's fancy may be drawn or painted on the sidas
