The window openings may be cut in each end, but it will make a stronger car if they are simply drawn upon it. Cut four cardboard steps similar to Fig. 93 and tack them to the sides of the front and rear platforms. When the car has been put together, replace the wire in the tops of uprights I and J (Fig. 81), running the ends through the roof (see Fig. 84). Paint the sides and ends of the car yellow with brown trimmings, and paint the roof a light gray. Water colors can be used for the purpose. Letter the name of your car-line upon the sides and the number of the car upon each end and side. The route should be lettered upon strips of cardboard with pins run through them as shown in Fig. 94, these strips to stick in the roof of the car (see Figs. 84 and 85).
Having seen how the car is made, you will find it a simple matter to make designs for
Other Cars, using the same scheme for the trucks, and altering the patterns for the sides, ends, and roof, to suit the design.
Nothing has, as yet, been said about the
Operation of the Railway, and though Fig. 76 probably shows sufficiently clear how it is run, a few words may be helpful. The car or cars are placed between the wooden tracks, and the trolley (or cord attached to the ring on top of the car) is tied to the trolley-line as in the illustration. Upon starting your engine, water-motor, or whatever motive-power you have, the car will run from one end of the track to the other. When it has reached the support of the trolley-line, it will stop long enough for the cord trolley to pass around the wooden wheel, and then run in the opposite direction until the other support is reached. It will thus be seen that the trolley hangs to the upper part of the cable, or trolley-line, in running one way, and to the lower part on the return run. In changing the direction of the run, the ring to which the trolley is attached slides to the other end of the car.
A Station such as is illustrated in Fig. 95 is made out of cardboard and mounted upon a seven-eighths-inch board large enough to form a railway platform. After cutting out the side and end pieces, with door and window openings placed as shown in the illustration, fasten them together with strips of linen glued in the corners. Make the roof low and extend it over the platform upon each side and over the gable-ends, as shown in the illustration. Paint the sides of the depot the regulation depot red, and the roof a shingle or slate color. Paint the door and window-sash black, letter the name of the station upon the gable-ends, and with a ruler and lead-pencil rule off the boards upon the sides, and the slate or shingles upon the roof. As this is a typical railway station, two may be made of the same pattern, one for either end of your car line.
The elevator shown in Fig. 96 is a unique mechanical toy well worth one's making. Release the little car at the top floor, and it will descend to the ground floor, and then return to the starting point, without you having to touch it a second time. A magical elevator? Perhaps so. A little mechanical device performs the trick.
The same plan may be followed for installing the doll-house elevator in Chapter XIII, but the more stories there are the more fun there is in operating the elevator. This is why I have adapted the scheme to
A Toy Office Building. Six stories are shown in Fig. 96, but you can make a modern sky-scraper with as many stories as you like. A packing-case 3 feet 6 inches long, stood on end, was used for the model. Another box or two can be added to the top for additional stories. Besides the box, or boxes, get enough box boards for floors and partitions.
Make the Floors in two pieces (A and B, Fig. 98), so the opening for the elevator shaft can be cut out of the end of one piece in the manner shown. This opening should be about 5 inches square. Mark out and cut the boards for all of the floors at one time, and be careful to get the shaft opening the same in each floor. Cut the notch C in board A about 1 inch square.
Fasten the floor boards in place with nails driven through the sides of the box.
The Partitions, a pattern for which is shown in Fig. 99, can be made quicker by omitting the doorway, but this is easy to cut by sawing along the sides and then splitting out the piece between the saw cuts.
The Elevator Car should be built up of cigar-box wood, as shown in Figs. 101 and 102. The front portion (D) should be about 3 inches wide, 2½ inches deep, and 4 inches high, and the rear portion (E) should be of the same width, 2 inches deep, and 2½ inches high. Fasten these upon the base piece F as shown.
The Elevator Guides. Bore the holes G through the top and bottom of the car, close to the sides, for guide wires H to run through (Figs. 101 and 102). These holes may be bored with a screw-eye if you haven't a gimlet or drill. Bell-wire, or almost any wire that you have on hand, will do for the guides. Fasten two screw-eyes into the under side of the top of the shaft, the same distance apart as holes G, and in the proper position so they will come exactly over them (I, Fig. 100). Use the car for determining these measurements. Then bore two holes through the bottom of the shaft directly below the screw-eyes (J, Fig. 100). Attach the wire to one screw-eye, run it down through holes G in the car, through one of the holes J, then across to and up through the other hole J, up through the other set of holes G in the car, and attach to the second screw-eye I.
The Cables. The elevator is lifted by means of cord L (Figs. 97 and 101). Fasten this cord to a tack driven into the top of the car, then run it up and over spool M (Figs. 97 and 101), over spool N (Fig. 97), and tie to weight K.
The Counter-balance. A bottle, filled with sand to make it weigh more than twice as much as the car, should be used for this. Screw a small screw-eye into the cork to tie the cord to.
The counter-balance runs up and down in
The Smoke-stack, which is fastened to the back of the building (Fig. 97). Make the stack of cardboard mailing-tubes, joining them end to end with bands of paper pasted around them. Fasten the stack to the back of the building with wire straps, and brace the top as shown in Fig. 96, but leave it unattached until you have adjusted
The Overhead Pulleys, or sheaves. These are spools. You will see by looking at Fig. 100 that spool M turns on the axle O, and the ends of this axle are cut to fit snugly in screw-eyes I.
Fasten pulley spool N in the smoke-stack by means of a wooden axle pushed through holes pierced in the side of the stack, as is shown in the small drawing above, Fig. 97. Bore a hole through the back of the building for the cable cord L to run through (P, Figs. 97 and 100), and cut another through the smoke-stack.
How the Car Operates. When the weight and cord have been adjusted and the smoke-stack erected, the elevator will run from the ground floor up to the roof of its own accord, because the counter-balance is much heavier than the car. To make it descend it is necessary to add weight to the car, to make it enough heavier than the counter-balance so it will drop of its own accord. This is done with
Ballast consisting of a bottle of sand or salt of twice the combined weight of counter-balance K and the car. After filling the bottle, cork it up, and screw a screw-eye into the cork. Then screw the eye of a 2-inch hook-and-eye into the roof of the building, directly over the center of box E of the elevator (R, Figs. 97 and 101), and attach one end of a rubber-band to the hook and tack the other end to the top of the elevator-shaft (Fig. 101).
With the hook and rubber-band properly adjusted, this is what happens when the car ascends to the top of the shaft. The bottom of the rear portion of the car strikes bottle Q, lifts it enough to release the end of the hook (R), and the rubber-band springs the hook out of the way (Fig. 97). The bottle remains upon the rear portion of the car, and its weight carries the car to the bottom of the shaft.
Fig. 100.—Front View of Elevator Shaft.
Figs. 101 and 102.—Elevator Car Details.
To Make the Car Rise to the top of the shaft again, remove bottle Q. Replace the bottle upon the end of hook R, and it will be in position for the next trip downwards.
Cut the holes Y and Z (Fig. 100) through the outside wall of the shaft for hand holes through which to reach bottle Q and hook R.
Figures 97, 100, and 103 show
A Simple Control for stopping the car at the different floor levels. Stick S may be a piece of broom-handle, curtain-pole, or flagstaff. Bore a hole through the bottom of the shaft, directly below holes C in the floors (T, Fig. 100), and slip the stick through hole T and into slots C. Then locate on one side of stick S points just below the under face of each floor, and upon the opposite side locate points just above where the back edge of the elevator will come when the car is raised to each floor level (Fig. 97). Remove the stick, and drill or bore a small hole at each point marked; then replace it, nail a small block (U, Fig. 100) across the top end to hold it in place, and drive a nail, with its head filed off, into each of the holes.
When stick S is turned to the position shown in Fig. 97, while the car is going down, the first nail below the car will project beneath it and bring it to a stop; and if the stick is turned in the opposite direction while the elevator is going up, the first nail above the car will project over the back edge of portion E and bring the car to a stop.
Two Levers operate the brakes (W, Figs. 97 and 100). Cut these of the shape shown in Fig. 103, and screw one to each side wall. Then tack a piece of cord to stick S, wrap the ends of the cord once around, slip them through screw-eyes V screwed into the side walls, and tie to tacks driven into levers W.
One series of brakes can now be set by pulling forward one lever, and the other series by pulling forward the other lever. By driving a nail into stick S at X (Fig. 100), and a nail into the bottom of the shaft, each side of stick S, the levers will turn the stick just far enough in either direction to bring the brakes into operation.
If there is a kitchen porch to your house, construct
The Outdoor Elevator shown in Fig. 104 to run from the ground up to that porch. If you live in an upper story of an apartment building, your elevator can be made to run to a greater height, which, of course, will make more fun.
It will save considerable work to use the porch, because for one thing you will not have to build an upper platform to stand upon to reach the elevator car when it runs to the top, and for another thing the supports for the guides and cable can be fastened directly to one of the porch posts.
Figure 105 shows a large detail of
The Guide Supports. Cross strips A, B, and C should be 18 or 20 inches long, about 2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. At a distance of about 1 inch from one end of strips A and B screw a screw-eye into one edge, and 8 inches from those eyes screw a second screw-eye (D, Fig. 105). Screw-eyes with ½ inch eyes are large enough. A dozen will cost about 5 cents at the hardward store. The elevator guides are fastened to these.
Besides the screw-eyes there must be two clothes-line pulleys for the cable to run over. These cost 5 cents apiece. Screw one pulley into the edge of strip B, halfway between the two screw-eyes D (E, Fig. 105), the other into an edge of strip C at the same distance from the end that you have placed the pulley in strip B (F, Fig. 105).
Nail strip A to the porch post as close to the ground as you can get it, strip B to the same face of the same post, about 18 inches above the porch railing, and strip C to the opposite face of the post at the same height as strip B. Nail these strips securely in place.
If you cannot find a starch-box or other small box out of which to make
The Car, go to a grocery store. You will be sure to find just what you want there. It is not likely that the grocer will charge you anything for a small box like this. If you have placed screw-eyes D 8 inches apart, as directed, the width of the box should be a trifle less than this measurement, but if the box you pick up is wider the screw-eyes can be spaced as much farther apart as is necessary to accommodate it.
Figure 106 shows how the box is converted into the car. Screw two screw-eyes into each side of the box, one above the other, as shown at G, for the elevator guides to run through, screw another into the exact center of the top (H) to tie the hoisting cable to, and screw another into the exact center of the bottom to tie the lowering cable to. Nail a narrow strip across the open front of the car, at the bottom, to keep things from falling out.
Get heavy wrapping-twine or stovepipe wire for
The Guides. Attach these guides to screw-eyes D in strip B, first, drop them through screw-eyes G in the sides of the car, and then fasten to screw-eyes D in strip A.
The Counter-balance is a large can filled with earth, sand, or small stones. Its weight must be equal to about three times that of the empty car. Fasten the lifting cable through holes punched in opposite sides of the can (Fig. 107).
Use a strong wrapping-twine for
The Lifting Cable. After tying this to the counter-balance, run it over pulley F, then over pulley E, and tie to screw-eye H in the top of the car. The cable must be of the right length so when the counter-balance has dropped to the ground the car will come just above the porch railing, as shown in Fig. 104. Tie
The Lowering Cable to the screw-eye screwed into the under side of the car.
As long as the weight of the car and its load remains less than half of that of the counter-balance, the counter-balance will drop and by so doing lift the car. The cable attached to the bottom must be pulled to lower the car.
Those of you boys who own a tree-hut, or intend to build one,[1] should erect an elevator similar to the one just described, for hoisting supplies to the hut.
FOOTNOTE
[1] Plans for building Tree-huts, and a Dumb-waiter for supplies, are given in Chapter XXV of "The Handy Boy."
Those of you boys who have examined the little mechanical toys sold upon the street corners just before Christmas probably have been surprised to find how simply they are made, and perhaps it has never occurred to you that you might make toys equally as good for presents for your younger brothers, sisters, or cousins. Most of the smaller mechanical toys are not only easy to make, but they require materials which cost little and can usually be picked up at home. Sometimes it takes considerable thinking and planning to discover just the things which can be adapted to the various parts of toys; but that is where part of the fun of toy making comes in.
A Buzz-saw Whirligig is an interesting toy (Fig. 108). Lay out a disk about 5 inches in diameter upon a piece of cardboard, locate the position for the spool-end on the center of each face, and make four rings outside of this. Divide the circumference of the disk into sixteen equal parts, and lay off the teeth as shown. (Fig. 111.) The spool-ends used for centers should have two holes drilled through them for the twisting cord to slip through, and should be fastened to the disk with glue or brads.
A cotton string is best for
Fig. 111.—Detail of Buzz-saw Whirligig shown in Fig. 108.
Operating the Whirligig. After slipping it through the holes in the spool-ends, tie the ends together. To work the toy, slip the first finger of each hand through the loop of each end, and whirl the disk in one direction until the string is twisted from both ends as far as the center. Then pull firmly on the ends of the string, and the disk will whirl in the opposite direction until the string is untwisted and twisted up again in the opposite direction. As the strings twist, slacken your hold upon the ends, and when it has wound up tight pull again to make it whirl in the opposite direction. The disk should whirl very steadily when working right, and the knack of making the string twist so the disk will do so is attained with a little practice.
The Clog-dancer (Fig. 109) is an easily made loose-jointed doll. His dancing-stage is a shingle or piece of stiff cardboard held on the edge of a chair beneath your knee. He is held by means of the string attached to his head, so that his feet rest lightly upon the stage, and he is made to jig by tapping the outer end of the stage with the free hand.
Fig. 108.—The Buzz-saw whizzes when you twist the Cord.
Fig. 109.—The Eccentric Clog-dancer is a Circus in himself.
With a little practice the figure can be made to go through the steps of the most eccentric clog-dancer.
Fig. 112.—Details of Body of the Clog-dancer shown in Fig. 109.
The more grotesque the dancer's appearance is, the more amusing his dancing will be, so the cruder you make him the better. Figure 112 shows the working details for his construction. The center part of a thread-spool forms the head, and a spool-end and the rounded end of a broom-handle form the hat. These three pieces are nailed together. The body is a piece of a broom-handle, and a spool-end nailed to it forms the shoulders. Drive a nail into the end of the body, tie a string to this, and run the string up through the hole in the head, and out through a hole in the hat; tie the string to a fancy-work ring.
Fig. 113.—Details of Body of the Jumping-Jack shown in Fig. 110.
The arms and legs are made of sticks whittled to the lengths marked in Fig. 112, and about ¼ inch in diameter, and are jointed by driving tacks into their ends and connecting these with heavy linen thread. Figure 112 shows how the feet and hands are cut, and how tacks are driven into them for the thread connections. Paint the clog-dancer's body, arms, and legs white, his head, hands, and feet black, and mark his eyes, nose, and mouth upon his face in white.
A Toy Jumping-Jack is always amusing, and Fig. 110 shows a simply constructed home-made model. You will see by Fig. 113 how the figure is made. The peaked _hat_ is half a spool tapered down from the end to the center; and the head is the center from a darning-cotton spool, shaped down at one end for a neck, and with eyes, nose, and mouth cut in on one side. Figure 113 shows the diagrams for the front and back of the body, the arms, and the legs. These are cut out of cigar-box wood. Cut the neck stick A long enough to run through the head and hat, with a square block on the end to fit between the body pieces. The blocks B should be of the same thickness as block A. Bore the pivotal holes through the arms and legs in the positions shown, using a small gimlet or red-hot nail with which to do the boring, and tie a piece of heavy linen thread through each as shown. The arms and legs are pivoted on brads driven through the front of the body into the back.
When the body has been fastened together, bring the ends of the threads together, and tie to a small ring; also knot the threads close to the body to keep them together. In painting Jack, you might provide him with a red coat, blue trousers and a blue hat, white stockings, and black shoes.
A Cricket-rattle is about the liveliest form of rattle ever devised (Fig. 114). After constructing one for your sister or brother, you probably will decide to make one for yourself. For this rattle, first prepare a notched spool (A, Fig. 116). The notches in this need not be cut as perfectly as shown, but the notches in one end of the spool must be exactly opposite those in the other end. Whittle the handle B to the shape and size shown, cut the strips C out of cigar box wood, and prepare the block D as shown. The groove in the edge of D is cut of just the right width to receive the end of the wooden strip E. The length of E is best determined after nailing the ends of strips C to D, and slipping the handle through the holes in strips C and spool A. It should extend from the groove in D into the notches in A. Make it as wide as the spool is high. Paint the rattle red or blue.
Fig. 116.—Details of the Noisy Cricket-rattle shown in Fig. 114.
The Turtle Toy which crawls along the floor when you alternately pull and slacken a thread that runs through its shell, has always been one of the most popular of mechanical toys, and you will be surprised to find how easily our home-made model shown in Fig. 115 is put together. The shell is a small tin mold such as is used for molding jellies. One about 4 inches long costs 10 cents. A mold having the form of a bunch of grapes is a pretty good form for the turtle shell, as you will see by the illustrations.
Fig. 115. —The Crawling Turtle's shell Is a Jelly Mould.
Fig. 117.—How Head, Feet, and Tail are Attached to a Jelly Mould to Make
the Turtle shown in Fig. 115.
Fig. 118.—The Spool Wheels and the Rubber-bands which Propel them
The head, the tail, and the four feet are cut out of tin from a can, and bent into the forms shown in Fig. 117. Then slits are cut through the narrow rim of the mold by piercing the tin with the point of a nail at the proper places for attaching them, as shown in the small detail drawing, and the tab ends are pushed through the slits, bent over, and clinched with a pair of pincers.
A thread spool 1¼ inches long forms the wheels on which the turtle runs, and two rubber-bands 1½ inches long propel it. Cut a piece of a lead pencil a trifle longer then the spool, split it into halves, remove the lead, and insert the rubber bands in the groove; then slip the piece of pencil into the hole in the spool (Fig. 118). The rubber-band ends must project an equal distance beyond the spool-ends. Before fastening the spool to the tin mold shell, tie the end of a piece of heavy linen thread to its center, and then wind about twenty turns about it. Pierce a hole through each side of the mold a trifle in front of the center, and after slipping pieces of string through the ends of the rubber-bands (Fig. 118), tie them through the holes pierced through the sides of the mold. Pierce a hole through the shell, directly over the center of the spool, slip the free end of the thread wound on the spool through this hole, and tie it to a fancy-work ring (Fig. 117).
To Make the Turtle Crawl, place it upon the floor, pull on the ring, and as the thread unwinds from the spool the rubber-bands will twist; then slacken the thread, and the turtle will crawl along the floor. As the rubber-bands untwist, the thread will wind up on the spool again. Continue pulling and slackening the thread alternately, and the turtle will continue to crawl.
There are many styles of tops, probably more than you ever dreamed of, and it will surprise you to hear that the owners of some of the most curious forms are bearded men who take as much delight as any girl or boy in spinning them. A few years ago on Murray Island, which is way down among the South Sea Islands, top spinning took such a strong hold upon the attention of the natives that they neglected their work, and families often were without food, boys and girls having to go to school hungry. Matters became so serious, in fact, as a result of this fad for top spinning, that, finally, the head chieftain was compelled to restrict it to certain days. There are many experts among these South Sea Islanders. The men sing songs while their tops spin, cheer them on, and take the greatest precautions to shelter them from wind. An eye witness of a contest reported that the winning top spun 27 minutes, which you must admit is a pretty long time.
Whip-tops and peg-tops of several varieties can be purchased at the corner candy store, but the kinds I am going to show you how to make cannot be bought anywhere.
Figs. 119 and 120.—Clock Wheel Tops.
Fig. 121.—Upholstering Tack Top.
Fig. 122.—How to Hold Upholstering Tack for Spinning.
Figs. 123 and 124.—Details of Spool Top.
Clock Wheel Tops. A splendid spinner can be made of the little balance-wheel of a broken clock (Fig. 119). This little wheel is so accurately made that it will spin very steadily from a minute and one-half to two minutes. As the ends of this wheel's axle are pointed, the top will stand in one spot as long as it spins.
The toothed wheel shown in Fig. 120, or any of the other forms of wheels from a clockwork will make good spinners, yet, unless you file their pivot ends to points, they will not spin in one spot but will glide and hop over the table in spirals. The friction thus produced decreases the length of time that they will spin, but makes them none the less interesting as tops. Great fun may be had spinning these wheel tops around the balance-wheel top, while the latter is spinning. Figure 129 shows how to hold a clock wheel between the thumb and first finger, for spinning. Start it with a snapping movement of the fingers.
A Rug-Tack Top. A rug tack or large upholstering tack is another good spinner. While the clockwork wheels are spun by twirling them by means of the upper end of the pivots, the tack top is spun by holding the spinning point between the thumb and first finger, as shown in Fig. 122, then giving it a quick twirl and dropping it upon a table. The tack top is an eccentric spinner. First it hops about in a very lively fashion; then, when you think it is about ready to topple over, it regains its balance and for some seconds spins quite as steadily as the clockwork balance-wheel top. The tack top can be spun upon its head as well as upon its point.
A Spool Top. The top in Fig. 123 is made from a half of a spool and a short piece of lead-pencil. Saw a spool into halves, and then taper one half from its beveled end to the center. Sharpen the piece of pencil to a point, and push it through the spool until its point projects just a trifle. Spin the spool top in the same way as the clock wheel tops.
A Spinning Top Race-track. By drawing a track upon a piece of cardboard, as shown in Fig. 129, with an opening on the inside, great fun may be had by starting any one of the small tops just described, with the exception of the balance-wheel top, in the center of the space inside of the track, and tilting the cardboard so as to cause the top to spin through the opening on to the track, and around the track. There is a trick in keeping the top from running off the track that can be acquired only with practice.
A Shoe-polish Can Top (Fig. 125). This is a sure-enough good looking top, and it spins as well as it looks. It is made of a pencil, a cone-shaped piece cut from a spool, similar to the top shown in Fig. 123, and an empty shoe-polish can.