y on her
passage from Liverpool to New York; her bunkers will hold nearly 4,000
tons. The Stirling Castle last year brought home in one cargo 2,200
tons of tea, and consumed 2,800 tons of coal in doing so. Immense
stocks of coal are kept at various coaling stations. St. Vincent,
Madeira, Port Said, Singapore and others; the reserve at the latter
place is about 20,000 tons. It is remarkable with what rapidity these
steamers are coaled; for instance, the Orient steamship last year took
in over 1,100 tons at Port Said in five hours."

What a Man Eats.--A French statistician has just ascertained that a
human being of either sex who is a moderate eater and who lives to be
70 years old consumes during his life a quantity of food which would
fill twenty ordinary railway baggage cars. A "good eater," however,
may require as many as thirty.

An Australian Railway Viaduct.--The Werribee Viaduct, in the colony of
Victoria, is the longest work of the kind in Australia. The structure
consists of lattice-girder work. It is 1,290 feet in length, and runs
to a height of 125 feet above the level of the Werribee river. The
viaduct has fifteen spans each of 60 feet, and thirteen spans of 30
feet. The total cost of the bridge was L600,000.

The Sharpening of
Tools.--Instead of oil, which thickens and smears the stone, a
mixture of glycerine and spirit is recommended. The proportions of the
composition vary according to the class of tool to be sharpened. One
with a relatively large surface is best sharpened with a clear fluid,
three parts of glycerine being mixed with one part of spirit. A graver
having a small cutting surface only requires a small pressure on the
stone, and in such cases the glycerine should be mixed with only two
or three drops of spirit.

Recipes for Plumbers.--Chloride of zinc, so much used in soldering iron,
has, besides its corrosive qualities, the drawback of being unwholesome
when used for soldering the iron tins employed to can fruit, vegetables
and other foods. A soldering mixture has been found which is free from
these defects. It is made by mixing one pound of lactic acid with one
pound of glycerine and eight pounds of water. A wooden tank may be
rendered capable of withstanding the effects of nitric or sulphuric
acids by the following methods:--Cover the inside with paraffin; go over
the inside with a sadiron heated to the temperature used in ironing
clothes. Melt the paraffin under the iron so as to drive