How to Make a Cabinet
It is a common mistake, both with old and young, to imagine that a handsome cabinet is, in the first instance, a necessity; but no greater blunder can be made: the cabinet should be considered merely an accessory, the collection itself being just as valuable, and generally more useful, when kept in a series of plain wooden or cardboard boxes. We intend, therefore, to describe the simplest possible means of keeping a collection of shells, leaving elaborate and costly methods to those who value the case more than its contents.
The first thing required is some method of keeping the different species of shells apart, so that they may not get mixed, or be difficult to find when wanted. The simplest plan of doing this is to collect all the empty chip match-boxes you can find, throw away the cases in which they slide, and keep the trays, trying to get as many of a size as possible. (The ordinary Bryant & May’s, or Bell & Black’s, are the most useful, and with them the trays of the small Swedish match-boxes, two of which, placed side by side, occupy nearly exactly the same space as one and a half of the larger size, and so fit in with them nicely.) In these trays your shells should be placed, one kind in each tray; but although very convenient for most specimens, they will of course be too small for very many, and so the larger trays must be made. This may easily be done as follows: cut a rectangular piece of cardboard two inches longer one way than the length of the match-tray, and two inches more the other way than twice the width of the match-tray; then with a pencil rule lines one inch from the edges and parallel with them (Fig. 1); next cut out the little squares (a a, a a) these lines form in the corners of the piece of cardboard, and then with a penknife cut half through the card, exactly on the remaining pencil-lines, and bend up the pieces, which will then form sides for your tray; and by binding it round with a piece of blue paper, you will have one that will look neat, uniform with the others, and yet be just twice their size. If required, you can make in the same way any size, only take care that they are all multiples of one standard size, as loss of space will thereby be avoided when you come to the next process in your cabinet. This is, to get a large box or tray in which to hold your smaller ones.
The simplest plan is to get some half-dozen cardboard boxes (such as may be obtained for the asking or for a very trifling cost at any draper’s), having a depth of from one to two inches (according to the size of your shells); in these your trays may be arranged in columns, and the boxes can be kept one above the other in a cupboard or in a larger box. More boxes and trays can, from time to time, be added as occasion requires, and thus the whole collection may be kept in good working order at a trifling cost. A more durable form of cheap cabinet may be made by collecting the wooden boxes so common in grocers’ shops, cleaning them with sand-paper, staining and varnishing them outside, and lining them inside with paper; or, if handy at carpentering, you may make all your boxes, or even a real cabinet, for yourself.