rust in moisture. A
strong alkali will destroy it, but no alkali in common use in the
kitchen is strong enough to do more harm than to change the color, and
a weak acid will restore that. Enameled ware, especially if it is
white, looks dainty and attractive; but the enamel is likely to chip
off, and, too, if the dish "boils dry," the food in it and the dish
itself are spoiled. Aluminum never chips, and it holds the heat in
such a manner as to make all parts of the dish equally hot. Food,
then, is not so likely to "burn down," but if it does, only the part
that sticks will taste scorched; and no matter how many times a dish
"boils dry," it will never break. If you make a dent in it, you can
easily pound it back into shape again. It is said that an aluminum
teakettle one sixteenth of an inch in diameter can be bent almost
double before it will break.

Aluminum dishes are made in two ways. Sometimes they are cast, and
sometimes they are drawn on a machine. If one is to be smaller at the
top, as in the case of a coffeepot, it is drawn out into a cylinder,
then put on a revolving spindle. As it whirls around, a tool is held
against it wherever it is to be made smaller, and very soon the
coffeepot is in shape. The spout is soldered on, but even the solder
is made chiefly of aluminum.

Aluminum dishes may become battered and bruised, but they need never
be thrown away. There is an old story of some enchanted slippers which
brought misfortune to whoever owned them. The man who possessed them
tried his best to get rid of the troublesome articles, but they always
returned. So it is with an aluminum dish. Bend it, burn it, put acid
into it, do what you will to get rid of it, but like the slippers it
remains with you. Unlike them, however, it brings good fortune,
because it saves time and trouble and patience and money.

A few years ago the motive power for most manufactures was steam.
Electricity is rapidly taking its place; and if aluminum was good for
nothing else save to act as a conductor of electricity in its various
applications, there would even then be a great future before it.

X

THE OIL IN OUR LAMPS

Probably the first man who went to a spring for a drink and found oil
floating on the water was decidedly annoyed. He did not care in the
least where the oil came from or what it was good for; he was thirsty,
and it had spoiled his drink, and that was enough for him. We know now
that oil comes chiefly from