Simple Arc Light Works From Battery, Uses Pencil Leads for Electrodes

TO MAKE an arc light of the simplest type only a few scrap parts are necessary. The sparking points of the arc are made from two pencil leads, the lower one being mounted in a plaster of paris cast, while the upper one is held by an adjustable arm, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing. This arm is supported by an upright and is adjusted with the weight and stop block as shown. The upper and lower carbons of the arc are hooked to a six-volt storage battery, which can be cut out by a small knife switch inserted in the circuit.

For best lighting effects a concave metal reflector polished to focus rays should be placed behind the arc.

This looks damn fun. Also I love the fact that it uses a washing machine engine. I want a gas powered washer!

Pint-Size Tractor Has Gas Engine

Driving his own gasoline-engine tractor, three-year-old Gus Dobert of Nashville, Tenn., is the envy of youngsters of his neighborhood. Made by his father, a machinist, the small tractor has a two-cycle washing-machine engine. Power is transmitted by a V-belt and sprocket chain. The gear ratio insures lots of power but little speed. The clutch pedal tightens the belt on the pulleys.

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Build a Toy World from Spools and Scraps of Wood

WITH some pieces of soft wood like pine, a collection of spools, a few sharp tools and a little ingenuity, you can make an endless variety of toys; in fact, create a whole toy world that will provide you with considerable enjoyment. The accompanying drawings give plans which are self-explanatory, but you can go ahead on your own hook and design any number of toys of your own.

All the people of your toy world can be made from spools. A good-sized army can be built up, its strength limited only by the number of spools available. On the opposite page you will find plans for building also the main “engines of war”—a rapid fire gun, a cannon and an airplane. Should you be inclined to beat your swords into plow shares, you can build any number of farm toys, plans for which are shown. Identify the people by painting faces on the spools.

Gravity Clock Makes Unique Ornament

HERE is a combination water and weight clock that anyone reasonably adept with a soldering iron can construct. It makes a novel addition to the den and generally draws the interest of persons unfamiliar with the principle on which it operates.

The important part of the clock is a metal drum partly filled with water. It is suspended by two cords wound around a rod which passes through the drum. Gravity tends to cause the drum to revolve as the cord unwinds, but this motion is controlled by three baffle plates, each pierced by a tiny hole, which are soldered within the drum.

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Working Model Steam Engine, 1/20 h.p., Constructed Entirely of Glass

ENGINES are made in many forms, and glass has been blown in many forms, but never until quite recently has glass been blown into the form of an engine —an engine that actually runs. This remarkable feat has been accomplished by America’s oldest glass blower, A. W. Scott, of Long Beach, Cal. Seven months of painstaking labor went into the blowing of this unique engine, which is perfect in every detail of construction and operation. The 374 separate parts which make up the machine were electrically welded and function with utmost smoothness. The machine has a governor, two flywheels, double pistons and a tiny lamp which generates the steam.

If you are thinking of making this, keep in mind that 21 new elements have been discovered since it was printed. You can find out more at http://www.webelements.com/.

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Building Blocks of Science

By HOWARD W. BLAKESLEE

Science Editor, The Associated Press

THE periodic table of the elements—the 96 metals, nonmetals and gases that form everything in the material universe— is the blueprint of the atomic future.

This table states a very simple fact: Everything material is made of three kinds of particles; namely, neutrons, protons and electrons. The difference between any two elements, iron and oxygen, for example, is in the number of particles.

On a map, specific places are always at specific points. The periodic table is like that. It tells facts about the elements that never change.

Although the table does not show where to look for uranium, it indicates the likely mineral formations. It shows that the kind of chain reaction that makes uranium bombs cannot be achieved without uranium’s aid. It also gives the limits of the uranium reaction and guarantees that it will not explode the earth.

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Air-Rifle Shooting Gallery

Do you have a budding marksman in your home? You’ll rate high with him if you help him build this Lilliput shooting gallery.

By Kenneth Murray

IF YOUR invitation to the next A-bomb test hasn’t arrived yet, you can still get your bangs at the nearest shooting gallery. Or, if you feel like tinkering, you can have a shooting gallery (junior grade) for your very own. It’s fun to construct and exciting to use, so it makes a perfect dad-and-lad undertaking. It works just like the big ones at summer carnivals, but an air rifle or air pistol with BB ammunition is used. That puts the shooting expense way down. Also, there’s no danger—you can set the target up either inside the house or, when the weather permits, outdoors on the lawn. It fits comfortably on an ordinary card table. The project is simply made. It has a wooden base and a front row of moving characters, such as Bugs Rabbit, who run on an endless belt. They can be knocked over, but come to life again the next trip around the circuit. At the rear are some more targets. One revolves slowly and, theoretically, you get a prize if you put a BB slug through the right hole at the right time and ring the bell. Then there are some “clay” pipes that look like the real thing. Instead of breaking, however, they merely spin merrily each time they are hit. Lastly, for timid shooters, there’s a round target that doesn’t go anywhere but has a large hole through which it’s easy to ring the gong.

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Wishbones Made Her Dreams Come True
Scraps from a thousand Sunday dinner tables form the raw-materials for a novel and thriving industry built up by Delphine Binger of New York City. Miss Binger collects the wishbones from turkeys, chickens, and other poultry, treats them by a special electrical and chemical process, inscribes them with special greetings, dresses them up with ribbon bows and sprays of artificial flowers, and sells them as decorative good-luck novelties to accompany wedding, birthday, and graduation presents, and gifts for other special occasions. Among her specialties are wishbones bearing tiny stethoscopes for medical-school graduates.

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MONSTERS IN YOUR TOOL CHEST
By Barnett Fowler

DON’T ASK ME WHY, but I took these pictures. And now, to cap it all, I’m submitting them, in case your readers might be interested. Tools can’t talk back, and maybe it’s just as well. However, mute as they are, tools make fine animal crackers if they’re touched up with a spot of paint and posed just right. Pliers and clothesline tighteners, hinges and lawn sprinklers can become pleasant little “monsters” that will pose willingly for your camera. We even converted an old furnace damper control into a moose or a strange little creature with an upturned nose, depending upon how you look at him. Almost any tool or piece of junk can be made into an odd being of one kind or another. Best of all. it’s fun for kids as well as adults. Why not open your tool chest and try it yourself?

Rumpus-Room Clock
DESIGNED BY JUAN OLIVER
IF THE game room must have a clock—and time is all too likely to pass unnoticed there if none is provided—let it by all means be an amusing one. The smiling gentleman illustrated will tactfully remind you and your guests when it’s time to call it a day, and just as cheerfully welcome you back again for hours of fun. He can be kept on the home bar, on one of the shelves behind it, or wherever he will be in plain sight.

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“Airborne” Chickens Roost in Glider Nose
Something their designers never anticipated was that the noses of wartime gliders make excellent chicken houses. English users have found they are dry, draftproof and that the original windows provide sufficient light. Costing only a fraction as much as conventional chicken houses, they are eight by nine feet across the base and approximately seven feet high at the center.

Wow, Disney actually prepared the images for them? Nowadays if you made one of these and put it up in your lawn you’d probably have Mickey’s lawyers on your ass for misappropriating their copyrights.

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Build P.M.’s Revolving Christmas Card

Three Disney characters rotate ’round and ’round to take turns wishing all your friends and neighbors a very Merry Christmas

By HARRY WICKS Workshop Editor

Last spring the staff at PM decided that tot Christmas 1969 we wanted yet another unusual yuletide decoration that readers could build. All agreed that whatever the finished product, it had to reflect the good cheer of the season. So we commissioned designer Gary Gerber to come up with something new. He did. Then ace workshopper John Capotosto went to work and put the project into the realm of a do-it-yourselfer: He figured out how to build it. finally, to give the display the happy mood of the season, the Walt Disney Studio created three of their characters especially for PM. The handsome result of all this effort is our way of saying Merry Christmas to our readers. —The Editors

CREATING on outdoor Christmas display that is unlike any that has been done before is a tall order. But the top-talent team that accepted this challenge from PM’s editors delivered. The result is a finished product that’s sure to draw raves from all who see it, and one that just might knock off first prize for best outdoor decoration in your neighborhood.

Standing about 4 ft. high, the display is motorized and features Mickey Mouse and two “stars” in a recently released Disney movie.

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