GENERAL HINTS

Evening Star, Issue 22444, 15 September 1936, Page 2

GENERAL HINTS

The following hints for home and workshop have been contributed to the Melbourne ‘ Argus ’:— CRACKS IN WALLS. To mend a crack in a plastered wall, wet some cheap calico, wring it out dry, gum it on one side, and put it over the crack, gummed side to the wall, smoothing out all wrinkles. When it is quite dry, give it a coat or calcomine the same colour as the room. AIRTIGHT CORKS. To make corks airtight for bottles, boil the corks. While hot they can be pressed into the bottles, and when cold will have sealed themselves tightly. TO SHARPEN CARPENTER’S PENCIL. After cutting away the necessary wood, rub the lead along a flat file two or three times as if you were sharpening a chisel on an oilstone, then reverse pencil and rub the other side. The result will be a fine straight edge to the pencil. SOAP FOR AXES. In chopping tough blocks of wood the axe often gets tightly wedged in the wood. A good way of preventing this is to soap the axe head well before using it. “ FOG LIGHT.” Motorists will find the_ following hint of great value when driving in a fog:— Take a piece of bright yellow Japanese silk and cut into two circles, each about 18in in diameter. Draw these tightly over the headlights of the car and keep them in position with elastic bands. This will give a very searching light, even in the densest fogs. Keep in tho pocket of the car in. case of emergency. MARKING SHRUBS AND PLANTS. For marking shrubs and plants tags can be made from stiff cardboard about 4in long and lin wide, with holes punched near the end. Write the name on in ink, and dip the tag in melted paraffin. This coating is transparent and protective. The name can be read easily, and will not wash off or blur with tho rain. TO MEND CHINA. To mend china, use wood ashes, sifted finely, and mixed with the sediment from a used paint tin. Mix these to a putty, plug the hole with it, and work well into all the cracks. Let it dry for about a week, and later paint over the hole to tone with the decorations. Wood ash mixed with artists! flake white paint makes a very strong cement. Another good method is fc) •melt a lump of alum in an old tin. While this is boiling, rub on the edges of the break, or in the crack, or paint the boiling mixture on with a brush. Work quickly, and set the article away to dry. FOUNDATIONS SET IN NOVEL WAY Portion of the foundations of a new sixteen-story building being erected in a busy thoroughfare of Sydney straddle an underground channel. The setting or laying of these furnished an interesting solution of a complicated engineering problem. The structure was planned for the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation for a site on a tongue of land between Pitt and Hamilton streets. Before the area could be developed, the City Council straightened out a street and sold a strip of land to the corporation. In working on the drawings it was found that special provision would bo necessary to secure foundations for the elevation to Hamilton street, under which boundary the old Tank Stream runs on a diagonal course. To overcome the difficulties presented by a physical feature of this description, steel columns were pul down on both sides of the sewef and these were bridged with straight steel girders. Consequently, this side of the building will be superimposed on the cross beams, along which the thrust of the overload will bo carried to and down the columns to the foundations, half of which are almost in the middle of Hamilton street. Glass bricks are being used in tho front of the first and second floors of the building, which will be of steel framework and reinforced concrete, their introduction being designed to eliminate street noises to the minimum. The structural faces of the building at floor levels will be completed in vitreous marble, the colours selected being ivory, with green borderings. The board rooms and offices of the corporation will be located on the upper floors, an arrangement also made to avoid the distraction of street noises.