Simple Electric Eye Rings Fire Bell, Open Garage Door
ANYONE interested in experimental electricity can gain a great deal of knowledge and pleasure from the construction of this light-sensitive selenium cell, and have also a handy electric eye that will actuate through a relay any bell, motor or magnet circuit in the bargain.
First, in making the cell, notch the long edges of a piece of mica with about twenty teeth, and drill small holes in the corners, as illustrated in Fig. 3. Next tie the end of a length of No. 18 wire to one pair of holes in the mica and wind on approximately 10 turns, using every other notch along both top and bottom edges. Pull tight and tie the opposite end of the wire in the holes at the opposite end from where it was first tied. Do the same with the second piece of wire, tying the ends in the opposite corners. Fig. 3 will show this plainly. Then test out each winding as illustrated in Fig. 4. If the two windings touch at any point the lamp will light.
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Selsyn-Powered Intercom
Spells Out Messages
SOME of those mysterious little gadgets that made certain war equipment seem almost like magic are finding their way to the sales counters as surplus goods. One of them is the selsyn, that onetime highly secret device used in antiaircraft weapons, bomb sights, and radar. Selsyns in small sizes can be picked up in dozens of stores now for between $3 and $5, and many of them will operate on ordinary 115-volt A.C.
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Give Santa a Hand
Route those toy orders to Santa through your workshop. Here are 10 wooden ones to bring shrieks of delight from your youngsters on Christmas morn
By Marvin Hartley
SANTA’S job will be easier when you turn toymaker and lend a helping hand to relieve the burden on his North Pole workshop. Among this group of 10 exciting toys, there’s at least one that will surely make Christmas extra merry for some youngster. Except for the lighthouse stool, bucking bronco and the burp gun, which require some sheet metal, all of the toys are made mostly of wood.
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Pirate’s Peg Leg Holds Cribbage Cards
FIFTEEN men on the dead mans chest,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Pirates! That’s exactly what the above chanty spells. This cribbage set is directly connected with a famous old pirate, the one that every one has heard about—Captain John Silver. What was the most conspicuous thing about old John Silver? You’ve guessed it! His peg leg! You just can’t picture John Silver without a peg leg. This cribbage set utilizes that famous peg leg, or rather a miniature of it. The crotch of the leg holds the cards and the hollowed out peg holds the four cribbage pegs.
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Rubber Bands Run This Flivver
by DICK COLE
Using strips cut from old inner tubes as motive power, the Flivver-car described in this article by Mr. Cole can easily be built by any boy and will be an endless source of fun.
HERE is something which will gladden the heart of any boy—a car which goes by itself. The motive power is a rubber band motor. Just as twisted strands of rubber are used to whirl the propeller of a model aeroplane, so heavier strands can be used in a similar, manner to provide mechanical locomotion.
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Halloween Habiliments
COSTUME SUGGESTIONS BY HI SIBLEY
UNIQUE Hallowe’en costumes of the type illustrated can be made at small outlay for material. The three-legged twins, for instance, require a special coat and shoes, but old pajamas will provide the trouser legs. The perambulating dog house is constructed from a large cardboard carton and painted green with a red roof. Brown “coveralls” and a dog mask should be worn by the person inside.
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This stuff looks like it was a hell of a lot harder before iMovie.
Action Titles Pep Up Your Movies
By JOHN H. WOOD
TITLES containing or implying action do much to improve home movies, and making them can be just as much fun as shooting regular scenes. You can easily devise many ingenious titles your audience will be certain to appreciate.
Taking a picture of a title upside down, then turning the piece of film around and splicing it so the action is reversed is an old trick, but one for which new variations are constantly being contrived by 16-mm. movie makers. Charles H. Taylor, of Chicago, suggests two such variations.
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Make blog had a post with a pair of stilts that look exactly like these yesterday. They also have instructions on how to build them so you can save your self a quarter.
SKI-HI STILTS FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES
Two lengths of Reynolds Do-It-Yourself Aluminum tubing and one piece of bar stock are the necessary materials. You can turn it out in very little time by following simplified directions outlined in Easi-Bild Pattern No. 552.- 25c with coupon
Compressed Air Fire Engine Shoots Real Stream of Water
WITH a set of coaster wagon wheels and axles, an old auto gas tank and steering wheel, two tire pumps and odds and ends of lumber, you can build this novel little fire engine which will squirt a stream of water to a considerable height. It is equipped with a powerful brake and a siren, and is propelled by two members of the crew on the push-bar behind. Painted a bright red with bronze trimming it certainly looks like business and furnishes no end of fun making runs to imaginary fires.
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Outboard Motor Car Does 40 Miles an Hour
by DICK COLE
A junked outboard motor makes an excellent power plant for a cycle car when converted as described here by Mr. Cole. The little car will develop speeds up to 40 miles an hour, and has power to burn.
TO BE the possessor of a self-propelled vehicle is the ambition of every normal boy. Every father has heard the plea of his son when out in the country in the family car: “Gee, Dad! Lem’me drive, will you? Please! I know how! Honest I do! Lem’me show you. Please, Dad, come on!”
My boy had just reached that stage— only more so. He begged me to build him some kind of vehicle that would “run by itself.” Since I like to putter around and make things—particularly something different from the other fellow—I gave ear to his pleadings, and began to think the matter over.
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Comical Mouse Circus Brings in a Steady Income
Troupe of little mice cavorting about in this freak circus displayed in merchant’s windows will attract huge crowds of passers-by—and net one a neat profit.
HERE is a money-making idea that is worth at least five hundred dollars of any man’s money. It is a veritable gold mine for any man who has even the tiniest spark of mechanical ingenuity—and it has been thoroughly tested and proven as a cash-getter.
It’s a mouse circus, using trained mice which aren’t trained!
Its usefulness is in creating a window attraction for stores in all lines of business. Two days’ trial on merit will convince any of ‘em.
Its cost is slightly over two dollars per circus, and each circus rents for a minimum of three dollars per week to merchants. Upkeep is practically nil.
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