The Boy's Own Book of Indoor Games and Recreations / A Popular Encyclopædia for Boys

Now with respect to making a hammock, the first thing necessary is a piece of strong canvas, about 5 ft 8 in. in length and 3 ft. wide. In the Navy hammocks are made in two pieces (Fig. 1), which are stitched together down the centre (B). The sides and ends must be hemmed, and then the eyelet-holes for the clews to be fastened to must be made (A A). The eyelet-holes are twenty-four in number, at equal distances along the edge, at each end of the hammock. They are usually made in the following manner, although it is not absolutely necessary to be so particular.

A number of small rings made of white line (a kind of whipcord) are prepared, which are called grummets. These are placed in the eyelet-holes, and then sewn over all the way round with thin twine.

The next thing to make is a pair of clews. These are composed of what are termed at sea knittles, which are two or three yarns laid up together, by a jack or by hand, against the twist of the yarn. But good cod-line or anything else sufficiently stout, will answer the purpose equally well. The following is the proper way to make clews, although it is now sometimes dispensed with:—

Take twelve knittles about 5 ft. in length and double them. Then form an eye in the middle, which must be served with fine twine. This is done by winding the twine round and round as tightly as possible for a sufficient distance to form the eye; then seize or bind the knittles together for about an inch below the eye, as in Fig. 2.

Now take a piece of twine, about half the size of the knittles, and place it between the knittles, so that twelve come up and twelve go down (Fig. 3); next bring both ends of the small twine, which is called filling, back again between the knittles, only altering them, making the upper ones point down and the lower ones point up; then leave out the two outside knittles and continue the circuit, leaving two knittles out each time until you come down to the last two, when knot the filling together and cut off the ends (Fig. 4). The ends of the knittles are then passed through the eyelet-holes in the canvas and fastened with two half-hitches. For the Navy now a great many clews are made without the platting arrangement we have described, and are left quite plain from the seizing below the eye down to the eyelet-hole. But the description we have given is of the old-fashioned style, and to our mind it looks much neater and more ornamental.

A piece of rope, called a lanyard, must now be spliced with an eye-splice into the eye of the clew that is to form the foot clew, and the hammock is completed.

In order to sling this it will be necessary to purchase a couple of stout hooks which will screw into the woodwork. These are easily obtained at any ironmonger’s, and may be fastened at the two opposite corners of a room, or in two trees in the garden at a convenient distance apart.

Then hook the head clew on, and pass the lanyard over the other hook, get the hammock level, and fasten it with a clove-hitch or two half-hitches.

And now one word of caution with regard to getting into a hammock. Be very careful the first time or two, and take notice how the hammock recedes, and then swings towards you. If you jump into it in the same manner as you would into a bed, the chances are that you will go right over it, and land on the ground the other side; but with a little care the proper method does not take long to learn.

II.—NETTING, AND HOW TO NET.

To the reader who is desirous of learning the art of netting, we must give the same advice that the famous Mrs. Glasse did with reference to cooking a hare, viz.: ‘First obtain your hare.’ That is to say, the first thing is to obtain the netting instruments and materials.

The instruments consist of a needle and a mesh (see Fig. 1). From eight to ten inches is a good length for the needle, while the mesh stick must vary according to the size of the net you are about to make. A mesh stick will make a mesh twice its own size. Thus a stick half an inch square will make a one-inch mesh.

Any youth at all handy with a knife can manufacture these articles for himself, and there only remains to obtain the material. This must depend upon what is going to be made, for once the stitch is learned there is no more difficulty in making a large seine than in making an onion net or a network hammock.

The better plan is to go to the nearest string shop, and pick out what is suitable in size and strength as well as in price. When the material is purchased—white line, seine twine, or common twine, whatever it may be—if it is not already in a ball, wind it into one. Then find a hook, or place one just a convenient distance above you as you sit, to which to fasten the end of the twine. Now fill your needle, pass the twine round the tine, or inside point, round the heel of the needle, then up round the tine again, until the needle is full. Now fasten the end of the twine to the hook—a nail, if it be firm, will answer the same purpose—and tie a loop in it (Fig. 2). Then lay the mesh stick underneath the twine, and pass the needle up through the loop (Fig. 3). Then pull it tight, so that the end of the loop rests against the mesh stick (Fig. 4).

Now comes the important part, the formation of the knot. Hold the mesh stick in your left hand, with the thumb on the twine, and with the needle in the right hand. Now with a quick jerk throw the bight or loop of the twine over the stick and left wrist, as shown in Fig. 5.

Then push the point of the needle up between the first loop made, and the twine to the left of it, pull the needle through, and bring the knot into shape (Fig. 6), then tighten by pulling the needle in the direction of the dotted lines, and the knot is tied.

This simple knot is the foundation of all net-making, and once the reader succeeds in making that, he will very quickly be able to manufacture anything he may require in that branch of work.

Now slip out the mesh stick and take the same stitch through the loop you have just made, and so continue on, passing the needle every time through the last loop made until you have made enough. You can generally guess the number of meshes you will require by the size of the mesh stick. By the time you have made as many as you think will be requisite, your work ought to look something like Fig. 7.

Next unfasten the end from the hook or nail, and untie the first loop made, because it is not the same size as the subsequent ones. Now pass a piece of cord through the upper row of meshes, tie the ends of the cord together, and hang it again over the hook.

Next go on with the work as before, only do not slip the loop off the stick as at first. Knot through E, Fig. 8, then through D, then C, and so on, until you have travelled along the whole width.

Then turn the work over and travel back again in the same manner. It is better to make ten or a dozen meshes before slipping the stick out.

Presuming that the twine breaks, or you wish to join another ball, the way to do it is with a ‘becket-hitch,’ commonly called a ‘weaver’s knot.’ Form a bight with one part, pass the other part up through the loop, then over, under and back through its own loop (Fig. 9).

With regard to making a network hammock, proceed as we have described, and to make a full-sized hammock you would require between fifty and sixty two-inch meshes each way.

Then make the clews, as described in the article on canvas hammocks, and fasten them in the usual manner to each end of the hammock, tying the ends as regularly as you can.

Netting is a very pleasant as well as useful occupation, and is more suitable for boys than girls, owing to the strain of pulling the knots tight. The pleasure of being able to make nets for fishing, nets for the garden, to keep the birds off the trees, nets to hang vegetables or fruit in, and lastly, but not least, a net hammock, ought to amply repay any trouble or inconvenience caused by learning.

CHAPTER XXXIV.—A PERPETUAL CALENDAR.
By Herr H. F. L. Meyer.

EXPLANATIONS.

Various perpetual calendars have been published, but some of them are very elaborate, and others incorrect; therefore, by the editor’s invitation, I now present one in a most handy form. Table 1 shows the centuries, with the key numbers; Table 2, the last two figures of the year, and the seven key numbers below; Table 3, the months; and Table 4, the days. The key numbers are printed thick, the leap years in italics. January and February have two keys each, 3 and 6 for common years, 2 and 5 for leap years. The eleven days from September 3rd to 13th, 1752, were omitted. Every year which divides by 4 without a remainder is a leap year, except the centenaries, which are printed upright.

EXAMPLES.

Example No. 1.—What day of the week was the 21st of June, 1581?

This 4 is the key for Table 4, where, on the right-hand side of this key, under the 21 st day, we find Wednesday.

If the three keys together make more than 6, seven is subtracted; and if more than 13, fourteen is deducted, and the remainder is the key to Table 4.

Thus we find June 6th, 1839, through 0 + 6 + 0 = 6, = Thursday.

August 9th, 1732, through 6 + 5 + 5 = 16, - 14 = 2 = Wednesday.

Columbus sailed from Palos on Friday, August 3rd, 1492, and discovered America on the 12th of October, 1492, which was also a Friday.

Example No. 2.—In what years will Christmas Day fall on a Sunday? Table 4 shows, below the 25th, the Sunday on the side of key 4; subtract the key of December, which is 1, there remains, for the present century, the key 3 of Table 2, showing the years 1887, 1892, 1898 and as this 4 for the next century will come from 5 + x + 1 minus 7, it follows that x means the key 5 in Table 2, which contains the years 1904, 1910, 1921, and the other years in that column.

We found the 6th of June, 1839, to be a Thursday, and see from the last column of Table 2 that it was again on a Thursday in 1844, 1850, 1861, etc.

Any one born on the 29th February, 1864, will have his birthday again on the same day of the week, a Monday, in 1892, that is, after an interval of 28 years, as is seen in the middle column of Table 2; and after that he will have it again on a Monday in 1904, 1932, etc.

HISTORICAL NOTES.

Romulus, the founder of Rome, established a year consisting of ten months, named Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December; but in the succeeding reign, that of Numa, two months were added, called Januarius and Februarius.

Julius Cæsar, aided by Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, instituted the Julian Calendar, which has come down to our own epoch. It was then decided to give an additional day to every fourth year. The date of the reform was 45 B.C., which was the Roman year 708, dating from the foundation of Rome. The Julian year began on the 1st of January, 708 A.U.C., and ended on the 31st of December, 709 A.U.C. In the first 48 years of the reform there prevailed some confusion about the bissextile or leap years, because during the first 36 years every third year was reckoned a leap year (12 intercalations had taken place instead of 9); but, in order to rectify the error, the next 12 years (i.e. 9 B.C. to 3 A.D. inclusive), elapsed without an intercalary day, by decree of Cæsar Augustus, who also changed the names of Quintilis and Sextilis into Julius and Augustus, in honour of his uncle and himself. Thus the Roman years, 757, 761, 765, 769, etc., which were the years A.D. 4, 8, 12, 16, etc., were counted as leap years, and about all succeeding dates there is no doubt.

‘It was probably,’ writes Mr. Bond, of the Record Office, in his valuable work, ‘the original intention of Cæsar to commence the new year with the shortest day, the winter solstice at Rome, in the year 46 B.C. (common era), occurring on the 24th December of the Julian calendar. His motive for delaying the commencement for seven days longer, instead of taking the following day, was no doubt the desire to gratify the superstition of the Romans, by causing the commencement of the first year of the reformed calendar to fall on the day of the new moon, for it is found that the mean new moon occurred at Rome on the 1st of January, 45 B.C. (common era), at 6 h. 16 m. p.m.’

The Christian era was introduced in Italy, in the 6th century, by Dionysius the Little, a Roman abbot, and began to be used in Gaul in the 8th, though it was not generally followed in that country till a century later. From extant charters it is known to have been in use in England before the close of the 8th century. ‘At first, in A.D. 533,’ says Mr. Bond, ‘the era began with the 25th of March, but was subsequently reckoned from Christmas Day, the 25th of December, and in the 13th century, in some countries, was reckoned from the 1st of January according to the Julian era.’

The exact length of the mean solar or civil year is

365 d. 5 h. 48 m. 46 s.,

therefore the Julian year, being 365 days and 6 hours, departs from the course of the seasons at the rate of 11 m. 14 s., and consequently Aloysius Lilius, from Calabria, a physician and mathematician of Verona, projected a plan for amending the calendar, which induced Pope Gregory XIII. to introduce the plan on the 5th October, 1582, according to the former style, which day was decreed to be called the 15th October. These 10 days rectified the error of the past, in accordance with the day of the equinox, the 21st March. The error of the future, which was that an additional day every fourth year was too much, but that 129 years must elapse before the redundance would cause the equinox to be one day behind its time, was rectified thus: Adding 129 years to the year 1582 there results the year 1711, and it was decreed that the year 1700, which would, by the Julian Calendar, be a leap year, should be a common year, but, as stated below, it was still kept as a leap year in England, and appears as such in Table 1. In like manner 1800 was made a common year, and as in 1969 the 21st March would be a day behind the vernal equinox, it will be set right by making 1900 a common year. Another period of 129 years would extend to 2098, which will be remedied by making 2100 a common instead of a leap year.

Thus the equinox will be kept right by making three successive secular years common years; and the secular leap years will be those of which the first two figures are divisible by 4 without a remainder, as 2000, 2400, 2800, etc.

The keys or index figures in accordance with the Gregorian reform are these:—

The Papal decree of October, 1582, was adopted in France in December, 1582, in Poland in 1586, in the Catholic States of Germany in 1583, in the Protestant German States, through Weigel’s Calendar, in 1700, in Denmark and Switzerland soon after the adoption in Germany, in England in September, 1752, whereas Russia still adheres to the Julian Calendar. Thus the Russian legal equinoxes are now twelve days in advance of the real equinoxes.

In England the years used to begin upon the 25th March, but it was declared that 1752 should end on the 31st December, and 1753 begin on the day formerly called the 1st January, 1752. At that time the people in England used to write the new style under the old, thus:—

30th June, 11th July, 1753.

25th February, 1753. 8th March, 1754.

The death of Charles I. took place on Tuesday, January 30, 1648, as written at that time, but it is now written January 30, 1649, and often expressed by historians thus:—January 30, 1648-9.

In Scotland, the day after 31st December, 1599, was called 1st January, 1600.

The 4th August, 1581, was a Friday in all parts of Europe, but from 1582 to 1752 there was a variance in various parts, as there still is at present, between the east and the west of Europe. The variance was in the days of the month; the days of the week never changed. The 2nd September, 1752, was a Wednesday in England and in Russia, but a Saturday in the other States of Europe. Thus we find the 20th December, 1647, for England and Russia, through 0 + 2 + 1 = 3 = Monday, but for Italy, France, Spain, etc., through 4 + 2 + 1 = 7 - 7 = 0 = Friday. The 14th September, 1752, was a Monday in Russia, but a Thursday in England and the other European States. The 21st June, 1887, was a Tuesday in England, but in Russia it was twelve days later, that is, a Sunday, namely, the Sunday on which we had the 3rd of July. The Russians had the 9th June, 1887, on a Tuesday, that is the day on which we had the 21st June; and in writing to us they express that day thus:—June 9 21, 1887. They have the key 6 for 1700, and 5 for 1800.

The Turks use the Mohammedan Calendar, from the Hegira, July 16, A.D. 622, and it is lunar like the Jewish.

The following historical dates agree with our calendar:—

The battle of Hastings was fought on Saturday, Oct. 14th, 1066.

The Magna Charta was signed on Sunday, May 24, 1215.

Edward II. was crowned on Sunday, 25th February, 1308 (1307 in the old style).

The battle of Crecy took place on Saturday, August 26th, 1346.

The battle of Towton, Yorkshire, occurred on Palm Sunday, March 29, 1461.

THE KEY NUMBERS.

The keys for the centuries and months can be arranged at pleasure, therefore the key 0 is chosen for the present century to calculate readily the dates of our time. To make the reckoning easy in the next century it will be well to have the key 0 for 1900, then the keys for the months must all be reduced by 2, and the tables will be:—

CHAPTER XXXV.—HOW TO MAKE A SUNDIAL.
By F. Chasemore.

I.—THE HORIZONTAL DIAL.

A very useful and instructive pastime for boys will be found in the construction of a sundial, full directions for making which I give in this chapter.

Fig. 1 enlarged (112 kB)

The first thing to be done is to make what is called the dialing scale (Fig. 1). It is constructed as follows: With a pair of compasses describe the circle A B C D with any radius, say four inches. Draw the two diameters A C and B D, cutting each other at right angles in the point 0. Join D C for the scale of chords and B C for the scale of latitudes. Through the point B draw the straight line 12—6 parallel and equal to the line A C, and let the point B bisect it. Join the points 0—12 and 0—6, cutting the circle in the points E and F. Now divide the arcs E B and B F each into three equal parts, and from the point 0 draw straight lines through these points of division to the line 12—6, marking the points of intersection 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. This line is called the line of hours.

To make the scale of chords, divide the arc D C into nine equal parts, and then with the compasses, with one leg placed on the point C, protract each division on the line C D. Mark the points on this line from C 10, 20, 30, etc.; the point D will mark 90 degrees.

To make the scale of latitudes, draw lines from the points of division in the arc D C parallel to the line D 0, and cutting the line 0 C in points, counting from 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, etc. Now draw straight lines from D through these points, cutting the arc B C in the points 10, 20, 30, etc., and with your compasses, with one leg on B, protract these distances on to the line B C, which will be the scale of latitudes. Now our dialing scale is finished.

To make the dial, which will be a horizontal one, you must get a piece of zinc plate about one foot square. On this mark all round it, and one inch from the edges, lines making a smaller square of ten inches a side. Plate ¹⁄₈ inch thick.

Bisect one line of this square, and draw a line from this point to a point bisecting the opposite side. Now draw two other lines, one on each side of, and one-sixteenth of an inch from, this line, and parallel to it. These lines will then be one-eighth of an inch apart. They are made this distance apart as the style, or gnomon, will be that thickness, and has to stand between them. Now divide the other sides into five equal parts, and join the two second points of division, counting from the bottom. This line, which is called the six-o’clock line, will cut the two parallel lines in the points A C (Fig. 2). Mark the other or top ends of these lines B and D.

Now with your compasses take from the scale of latitudes the latitude of the place where you wish to erect your dial. Suppose you are in London, put one leg of the compasses on the point B, and the other leg on the point in the scale of latitudes marking 51¹⁄₂ degrees, which is the latitude of London. Now mark this distance off on the six-o’clock line from C to E and from A to F (Fig. 2). Now take the length of the line of hours from 12—6 in the compasses, and, putting one leg on the point E, intersect the line C D in the point G. Do the same on the other side, putting one leg on point F, and intersecting the line A B in the point H. Draw the lines G E and H E (Fig. 2).

These lines are the same length as in the line of hours; mark them as that line is marked, using your compasses to get the distances, marking the line from G to E and from H to E; now from the point C draw lines through the divisions on G E to the lines of the inner square; do the same from point A through the line H F. The fourth and fifth lines on the right side must be continued back through the point C to opposite side of square, and the seventh and eighth on the left be continued back through A to right side. Now mark the hours. The double line is the twelve-o’clock line, and must be marked twelve. The line to the right is the one-o’clock line, the next two, and so on to eight on the right side. On the left the line next the twelve-o’clock line is eleven, the next ten, and so on back to four. All the lines can be marked on the zinc with a pointed bradawl.

The dial plate is now finished.