Aluminum has been gladly employed by the manufacturers of all sorts of articles, but nowhere has its welcome been more cordial than in the kitchen. Any one who has ever lifted the heavy iron kettles which were in use not so very many years ago will realize what an improvement it is to have kettles made of aluminum. But aluminum has other advantages besides its lightness. If any food containing a weak acid, like vinegar and water, is put into a copper kettle, some of the copper dissolves and goes into the food; acid does not affect aluminum except to brighten it if it has been discolored by an alkali like soda. "Tin" dishes, so called, are only iron with a coating of tin. The tin soon wears off, and the iron rusts; aluminum does not 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