Want Corner.
A corresponding Chapter is one whose members are widely separated and whose affairs are conducted by mail. There are several such, dear Lady Alice Cowly, but it is found very difficult in practice to maintain the interest. Keeping members together in spirit who are hundreds of miles apart in body is no easy thing to do.
Ralph Leach, Stoughton, Mass., is interested in athletic sports. He will enjoy the Table more than ever, then, for it is to have more news about sports than ever before. Anne Bliss wants to know why the Table cannot have a "Students' Corner" to help members in their school-work; "a geometrical diagram, scientific experiments, meaning of new words—anything. I am sure such a Corner would be very helpful." We heartily agree with Lady Anne. Shall we have a new corner, or will the Want one do? Let's have your questions. The Table desires to help you in all ways that it can. Consider this a Students' Corner, and use it as such. We can find somebody to answer your questions. Or perhaps you can answer each other's questions. How would that do for some questions, at least?
Here is one now. Maude Wigfield asks: "If a heavy vessel, such as the cruiser New York, were to go down in mid-ocean, could it overcome the enormous pressure of the water, and sink to the very bottom, or would it reach an equal density before it did reach the bottom. Remember that some of the compartments would still contain air." Let us have opinions. Give us the pressure per square foot at certain ocean depths, and the pressure the war vessels are built to withstand. The Elbe, which went down in the North Sea a few weeks ago—that is on the very bottom of the sea, is it not?
Herbert Benton lives at 1208 East Seventh Street, Kansas City, Mo. He asks how best to put plants into a herbarium. Will some one give us a morsel upon it? We can find the information from books, but much prefer the personal experience of some member. Tell us all about flowers and plants for herbariums. He also asks for the solution or mixture in which writing may be placed upon tissue-paper, the initial letter lighted and the writing burned out, without injury to the rest of the paper. We had the formula of the solution some time ago, but cannot now find it. Can somebody help us to it again, for Sir Herbert's benefit?
Carolyn A. Nash lives in California and asks for more time for sending puzzle solutions on account of the distance to be travelled by the mails. The present series of puzzles is exceptional, dear Lady Carolyn, and the dates of closing could not be made different, nor can they now be changed. In future contests the Pacific coast members shall be given more time. Augusta C. Grenther and Charles Stuckel are two of the more than twenty members of the Sangster Chapter who attend one school at Germania, N. J. The Chapter meetings are held at the school on Fridays. It wants correspondents, and to exchange flowers and minerals.
This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor Stamp Department.
At present all collectors appear to be hunting for varieties of the United States stamps of the 1872 issue, some of the new varieties of which were illustrated in these columns a short time ago. The fact that the Continental Bank-Note Company were the successors of the National Bank-Note Company in the printing of that issue has led to the belief that each of the stamps printed by the Continental Company from the plates made by the National Company bears some mark to distinguish the company printing the stamps. Several of the values of the 1872 issue having been found with such a mark, it would seem that all the values were treated in the same manner, the only difficulty being to discover the mark. No help can be obtained from the bank-note companies, as they preserve absolute secrecy in regard to the stamps, it thus being left to the collectors to study out the marks. While these exceedingly small varieties will greatly puzzle the collector, they lead to one great object, by showing that a close study of stamps is necessary in order to be a successful collector, and only those who are willing to study out these minute variations can get the full pleasure of the pursuit.
The auction season in stamps will close with the month of May, and the great sales held this year show that collectors are using that method for buying to a larger extent than ever.
An English paper states that the current adhesives of France have been surcharged "Poste Française," for use of French offices in Madagascar. There are nine values.