Four Novel Toys You Can Make With Rubber Balloons

These drawings show the construction of four novel toys made from circus balloons that will prove highly fascinating. Fill the balloon with hydrogen and attach to it a postcard bearing your name, and a request to return it from whatever point it falls to earth. Thus you can learn in what direction and how far it travels. Another balloon, equipped with a gondola will float in the air like a wartime captive dirigible. The aerial torpedo which zips up through the air is made by affixing fins to an air-filled balloon. The unique air boat cuts through the water under power of air exhaust from blown up balloon.

buckboard’n buggy

IT’S EASY TO BUILD IT YOURSELF for your son’s Christmas

Our detailed plans make it easy to assemble in a few hours. Drives like a real car. Push it … or add power (your old lawn mower motor or any gasoline motor up to 2-1/2 hp.) Strong wood chassis, steel undercarriage, 10″ rubber wheels. Full 66″ long, 17″ wide, enameled orange and black. Holds up to 175 lb. driver.

DO-IT-YOURSELF KIT …………………………..$64.50
Includes everything, painted, drilled, ready to assemble. Drive wheel, clutch, steering wheel, etc.
Complete, assembled ready to run
(no motor)…………………………………….$74.50
Complete with 2 hp Clinton motor ……….$129.50
MAYO BROS.

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You Can Learn Glass Blowing

THE reason that amateur glass blowing is such an interesting hobby is that the work acts as a stimulant to your creative ability. With very simple and inexpensive tools, in a corner of a room or in the attic or basement, you can quickly learn to make dozens of useful and ornamental pieces such as vases, small glasses of different shapes, beverage sippers and other articles of that nature. With further practice and experience you will not find it difficult to make the tiny animal, bird and flower novelties or “whatnots,” which are so popular in the home, and know that the design is original and that a similar article cannot be purchased in the stores.
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ZINC

From brazen helmet and warrior’s shield of the ancient world to the modern flashlight cell and galvan-ized steel plate, zinc has worked in the service of man.

By KENNETH M. SWEZEY

THOUGH it seldom makes headlines, humble zinc ranks with iron, copper, and lead as one of the most widely used metals in the world. Hundreds of thousands of tons of zinc are used annually as a molten dip to coat iron and steel pipes, tanks, and roofing for protection against corrosion. The process is known as galvanizing.

Brass is made of about 30 percent zinc and 70 percent copper. Granular zinc and zinc dust are used in the laboratory to release hydrogen from acids, to recover gold and silver from solutions, and in organic synthesis. More than 500,000,000 zinc cases for use in electrical dry cells are manufactured every year.
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Model-Airplane Motor Drives Scooter
Up to 230 miles on a gallon of gasoline is the economical fuel-consumption rate of a curious motorized scooter constructed by E. Roberts, of Philadelphia, Pa. Converted from a toy motor cycle, the midget vehicle is driven by a one-fifth-horsepower model-airplane engine, acting on the front rubber-tired wheel through a spring-supported friction roller. Fifteen miles an hour is top speed on level ground.

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FIZZ-WHIZZ…A Midget Steam Car

By ROY L CLOUGH, Jr.

MEASURING but 5″ in length, this tiny steam car chuffs along rapidly on any smooth surface. Doughnut-style model airplane tires give it a good grip on the “road”—whether concrete driveway, tennis court, or polished floor. Power is supplied by a 3/8″ by 5/8″ double-acting oscillating engine, while the crankshaft doubles as the rear axle. No flywheel is used, the car itself having sufficient momentum. An “ink-pad” burner fires the boiler and, unless oversup-plied with alcohol, will not constitute a fire hazard. Caution: Don’t operate Fizz-Whizz where it may run under furniture or into inflammable material.
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Old Records Make Flower Bowls

VERY artistic and serviceable fruit bowls, flower jars, and sewing baskets can be made from those old worn out phonograph records you have on hand. The first step is to dip the record in boiling hot water to soften the rubber composition. In this plastic state they can be bent to any shape you may desire, one of which is shown in the accompanying photo. When the bending operations are completed the records may be decorated with some ornamental design.

Miniature Motor Made of Paper Clips

In a few minutes’ time, from several paper clips and some fine insulated wire, you can make a little electric motor that will illustrate the principle of the big fellows. The outer field magnets are wound with about twelve feet of wire, and the same length is used to wind the two legs of the armature or rotor, as shown in the photos and diagram below. Sealing wax holds the two ends of the rotor winding to the shaft, forming a commutator. One or two dry cells will supply sufficient current to run the miniature motor, which spins merrily as long as power is supplied to it.

Bazooka Turns Pitcher

Using the tube of a bazooka he carried during the war, Pete Wald, a New York optometrist, devised. the mechanical baseball pitcher shown below. The tube carries the balls to a motor-driven throwing arm.

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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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Boys Build Oil Barrel Locomotive

A HOME-MADE locomotive, built by two 14-year-old boys from an old oil barrel, parts of a coaster wagon, bicycle sprocket and washing machine gear, startled residents as it whistled and chugged its way through the streets of Minneapolis.

The builders of the one-half horsepower steam engine are Marlon Nelson and Robert Wass. In the oil barrel they installed a small boiler coil and cut a door for a fire box. An old coal hod and a piece of stove pipe finished the boiler. The frame was made from an old iron bed.

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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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