.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.
DIY
.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.
.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.
.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.
UPDATE: Somone on digg pointed out that if you look closely at the picture of the father and son filling a model Zeppelin on page two you can see that it says “Hindenburg” on the side.
.HOME EXPERIMENTS WITH HYDROGEN
by VERNON TRACEY
HYDROGEN, the lightest of chemical elements forms a very interesting field of experiment for the home chemist. It can be produced easily in several ways for experimental purposes; one of the most common of which consists of the action of sulphuric acid on zinc.
A flask into which is dropped a few grams of zinc scraps is fitted with a rubber stopper, thistle-tube and delivery-tube as shown in the photo. The thistle-tube is fitted into the stopper so the end will be about 1/8″ from the bottom of the flask. The end of the delivery-tube is near the top of the flask. Dilute sulphuric acid is poured down the thistle-funnel and hydrogen is produced when it comes in contact with the zinc. The top of the thistle-funnel is covered with a piece of glass to prevent the hydrogen from escaping. The hydrogen flows out through the delivery-tube and is collected in a bottle over the pneumatic trough.
.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.
.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.
.Orange-Crate Scooter Has Ball-Bearing Wheels
OLD ball bearings from the rear axle of an automobile serve as the wheels of this speedy scooter. It is made from an orange crate and a piece of board 4″ by 24″. A slot is sawed in one end of the orange crate and another near the end of the board to receive the ball-bearing wheels. The axles are cut from hardwood and forced into the inner ball race; and one side is flattened to fit against the boards, to which they are fastened with 1/4″ bolts. The board should be pivoted to the orange crate with a 3/8″ bolt. The wood is faced at this point with two pieces of sheet iron to form a bearing.
.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.
.Whizzing on Fizz
Douglas Aircraft engineers enliven noon hour by racing tiny cars jet-driven by CO2
