Home-made Toys for Girls and Boys Part 10

=The Chauffeur= should now be made. Cut his head and body the shape and size of Fig. 169, drawing the face upon each side with goggles over the eyes. Cut the arms in two pieces the shape of _P_ and _Q_ (Fig. 170), and then pivot _P_ to _Q_ at _R_ and the end of _Q_ to the shoulder of the body at _S_, using thread for fastening the pieces together. Paint the hat, coat, sleeves, and gloves a leather color, and the face flesh color. The body should then be fastened to the hammer of the clockworks with sealing-wax, as shown in Fig. 171, while the left hand should be glued to the edge of the steering-wheel and the right to the end of the brake (see Fig. 160). By thus attaching the body to the end of the hammer, and winding up the small spring, the chauffeur will shake violently when the auto runs across the floor, showing the vibrations of the machine in a greatly exaggerated and amusing manner.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 174.--The Steering-wheel.]

It is now only necessary to

=Paint the Machine= to complete it. The photograph (Fig. 160) shows where different colors are needed. The lamps, top, ends, and sides of the front portion of the car should be painted the color of bra.s.s, and the rest of the sides, with the exception of a strip along the bottom and the edge of the arms, should be painted vermilion. Paint the inside of the car and the edges of the seat-arms tan color, to represent leather upholstering. With black paint, or ink, stripe off the door and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs upon the sides and top of the machine, as shown in Figs. 160, 172, and 173. Blacken the brake and steering-wheel and the spokes and rims of the wheels. Along the bottom of each side glue a strip of cardboard for the running-boards.

When you have tired of your touring-car, you can easily convert it into

=An Automobile Delivery Wagon=, such as ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 175. To make this you will require the same frame as that used for the touring-car, with the clockworks and belt-wheels attached in the same manner. If you have made the touring-car, remove the cardboard sides from its wooden frame, separating the cardboard from the wood carefully so you can put the machine together again when you wish. If you haven't made this automobile, you will find the details for the construction of the frame in Figs. 161 and 162, and the manner of performing the work described on pages 104 to 107.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 175.--An Automobile Delivery Wagon.]

=The Cardboard Sides= are much easier to prepare than those for the touring-car, as they are straight and require but little cutting. The outline for these is shown in Fig. 175, surrounding the drawing of the completed wagon. Lay out one side upon a piece of cardboard, using the dimensions given upon the drawing, and then place it upon a board and cut it out with your knife. Using this as a pattern, place it upon another piece of cardboard and run a pencil around its edges, thus marking out the second side. In cutting out the latter piece, run your knife a little inside of the line in order to allow for the increase in size caused by marking it out with the first cardboard side. Having prepared the two sides, draw panels upon them in some such form as shown in the ill.u.s.tration, separating them with three lines. Draw a small window, with its top slightly arched, near the front edge of each side, and cut an opening for it (see ill.u.s.tration).

Glue the sides to the edges of the truck in the same manner as those of the touring-car were done, piercing holes for the posts of the clockwork to fit in, and openings for the belt-wheels to project through, in the left side. Cut a piece of cardboard for the back of the wagon, fit it between the sides, and fasten it in place by gluing a number of linen strips to it and the sides upon the inner or unexposed surfaces. Then cut a piece of cardboard for the roof, making it about two inches longer than the sides, to give it the proper projection over the front of the wagon. Fasten this piece in position in the same manner as you fastened the back of the wagon.

Make the floor and footboard for the wagon out of a piece of cardboard bent as shown in Fig. 175, and fasten it across the top edges of the projecting portions of the sides with linen strips. Cut a strip for a seat, and fit it between the sides an inch and one-half above the floor.

=The Wheels= of an automobile wagon contain fourteen spokes, but as you have the pattern for the touring-car wheels of twelve spokes, you can just as well use it in making the wagon wheels. They should be mounted upon the sides of the wagon, a trifle above the bottoms of the spool wheels, as shown in the ill.u.s.tration, so they will not touch the carpet when the machine is operated.

=All Other Portions= of the wagon should be made of the same patterns given for the touring-car, viz. the chauffeur (Figs. 169 and 170), the steering-wheel (Figs. 167 and 174), the brake (Fig. 160), and the lamps (Fig. 166). As the legs of the chauffeur will show, it will be necessary to cut a pair out of cardboard (the drawing shows the shape clearly enough to work by) and fasten them to his body. Fasten the chauffeur upon the seat and glue his left hand to the steering-wheel, placing the latter in front of him, as shown in the drawing. Stick the lower end of the cardboard upright of the steering-wheel upon a pin run through the wagon floor from the under side. Glue the upper end of the brake to the chauffeur's hand and the lower end to the side of the wagon.

=Paint the Wagon= with water colors, making the sides, end, and roof olive green, the steering-wheel, brake, and spokes of wheels black, and the lamps yellow or the color of bra.s.s. In painting the sides show the battery compartments upon them below what would properly be the bottom of the wagon (see ill.u.s.tration). Leave the cardboard white below this box, as it represents no portion of the machine, but is necessarily brought down so far to conceal the wooden frame. It will give the machine a more finished appearance if, after painting, you go over it with black paint and a fine brush and stripe the panels upon the sides, following the lines which you drew upon them with a pencil. Letter the word "Delivery" upon the center panel of each side, and the firm name in the small panel between the lamp and window.

By attaching a set of clockworks in the same manner as described for the automobiles, you can make

=A Clockwork Railway=, constructing the cars similar to the street car shown in Fig. 84, Chapter VI, and using the schemes in the same chapter for the tracks and depots.

Each car should be provided with a clockwork motor, because a single clockwork is not strong enough to pull more than one car. Let me know how you succeed in building a clockwork railway.

CHAPTER XI

HOME-MADE ELECTRICAL TOYS

An entire volume might be filled with plans for electrical toys and yet not exhaust the innumerable forms that are within the ability of a boy to construct. There is room in this chapter for only a few, and I have selected simple ideas, those that can be carried out by a boy having no knowledge of working with electricity, with materials that can be obtained at an expenditure of little or nothing. Thus every boy will be able to make these electrical toys.

=The Electro-Magnet Derrick= shown in Fig. 176 will hoist nails and other small pieces of hardware from the floor to a table top, and as the _boom_, or arm, can be swung from side to side, and raised and lowered, loads can be moved from place to place in the same way as with large derricks. The toy derrick may be used for loading and unloading toy wagons, carts, and trains of cars, provided, of course, you use iron or steel of some sort for your loads. It is easy enough to get nails, brads, tacks, and odd pieces of hardware for the purpose. The model from which Fig. 176 was made has lifted a bunch of two hundred and eighty-four brads 3/8 inch long. By using smaller brads, or tacks, a much larger number could be lifted.

The first part of the toy to construct is

=The Electro-Magnet.= The difference between an electro-magnet and the toy variety of horse-shoe magnet with which every boy is familiar, is that the electro-magnet retains its magnetism only so long as an electric current is pa.s.sing around it, while the steel magnet retains its influence permanently, after being magnetized, unless it happens to be demagnetized by subjection to heat, or in some other way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 176.--An Electro-Magnet Derrick.]

Figures 177 to 179 show the details for making a simple home-made electro-magnet.

An electro-magnet consists of a center _core_ of soft iron, wrapped with a coil of insulated wire. When an electric current pa.s.ses over a wire, a _magnetic field_ is formed around the wire; and when several turns of insulated wire are wrapped about a soft iron core, the magnetic fields of all the turns of the coil, or _helix_, combine, forming a very strong magnetic field which strongly magnetizes the iron core. As I have said before, this magnet loses its magnetic influence the instant the current ceases to pa.s.s through the surrounding coil of wire.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 177-179.--The Electro-Magnet.]

You will need a machine-bolt or carriage-bolt 2-1/2 or 3 inches long, and 1/4 inch in diameter, for the core of the magnet, some insulated electric-bell wire for the coil, and a piece of heavy cardboard. Cut three washers of a trifle larger diameter than the bolt-head, out of the piece of cardboard (Fig. 178), and slip these over the bolt as shown in Fig. 179--one at the bolt-head end, the other two at the nut end; then screw the nut on to the end of the bolt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 180.--How the Electro-Magnet is Connected up.]

Before starting to wind the insulated wire upon the bolt, pierce two holes through the inner cardboard washer of the two at the nut end. Then stick the end of the wire through one of these holes, and pull a length of 4 or 5 inches of the wire out between the two washers. Starting at this end of the bolt, then, wind the wire around the bolt, keeping the turns even and each turn pressed close against the preceding turn. When the washer at the head end of the bolt has been reached, wind back to the starting point; then wind back to the washer at the head a second time, and again back to the starting point; and so on until six or eight layers of wire have been wound in place. An even number of layers will bring the free end of the wire back to the double-washer end. Slip this end through the second hole in the inner washer, and bring it out between the two washers, as you did the first end. Then screw the bolt-nut tight against the washers, to hold the wire ends in place (Fig.

177). The outer cardboard washer will prevent the nut from chafing the insulation on the wire ends.

Now connect the ends of the coil to the binding-posts of a battery cell, and you will be surprised to find what a strong magnet the head of the bolt core has become.

One end of the magnet coil should be connected to a dry-cell, and the other to a switch; and another wire should connect the switch with the dry-cell (Fig. 180).

=A Home-made Switch= that is easily made is shown in Fig. 181. Cut strips _A_, _B_, and _C_ (Fig. 182) from a tomato can. Tack the turned up ends of _A_ to a wooden k.n.o.b (_D_). This forms the switch lever.

Strips _B_ and _C_, folded in half, and punched near the ends, form the binding-post plates.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 181.--A Home-made Switch.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 182.--Details of Switch.]

Figures 181 and 182 show how to mount the lever and binding-post plates upon the switch base. Pivot lever _A_ with a small screw pa.s.sed through a hole punched near its end, and through the hole near the folded end of plate _C_. Fasten plate _B_ with a rug-tack (_F_) so the lever will come in contact with it. Screw-eyes _E_ form the binding-posts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 183.--Detail of Mast.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 184.--Detail of Pulley.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 185.--Detail of Boom.]

Instead of using a separate base, the switch can be mounted as shown in Fig. 176, upon the base of

=The Derrick=. Cut the base about 8 inches wide and 10 inches long (_A_, Fig. 176). The _mast_ (_B_) is a piece of broom-handle or curtain-pole 16 inches long, and fits loosely in a hole bored in the base. Figure 183 shows a detail of the mast. The _pulley_ upon its upper end (_C_) is made of two spool-ends nailed together (Fig. 184), and it turns upon the axle _D_, which slips through holes in the _plates E_ nailed to the end of the mast. The _lever F_ sticks in a hole in the mast, close to the platform. This is used to swing the _boom_ from side to side. Screw-eye _G_ is placed several inches above _F_ to serve the purpose of a pulley to guide the hoisting cables.

Figure 185 shows a detail of the _boom_. Cut the side sticks _H_ 18 inches long, and fasten between them the _separators I_, which should be just long enough to allow clearance for the _spool pulley J_. The pulley is mounted on the axle _K_. Screw the lower ends of the boom to the mast, at a point 2-1/2 inches above the base.

=The Windla.s.s= for raising the derrick boom, and for hoisting the loads, is shown in detail in Fig. 186. Bore a hole through upright _L_ for the axle _M_ to stick through, and cut axle _M_ enough smaller than the spool drums _N_ so they will turn easily. Fasten a crank and handle to one end of each spool, and drive a brad through each end of the axle to prevent the drums from sliding off. Cut four notches in the inner f.l.a.n.g.e of each spool, as shown, and pivot the catches _O_ to the post _L_, in the positions indicated, so they may be thrown into the notches to lock the windla.s.s (Fig. 176).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 186.--Detail of Derrick Windla.s.s.]

=The Hoisting Cables= should be made of strong cord. Fasten one end of the cable for raising the boom to a nail (P, Fig. 176), and run this cord up and over the mast pulley, then down through screw-eye _G_ and over to one drum; tie it securely to the drum so it will not slip around. The other cable should be fastened between the nut and washer of the magnet, as shown in Fig. 180, run up and over the boom pulley _J_, then through screw-eye _G_, and tied to the second drum.

Figure 176 shows how the dry-cell may be strapped to the base board in front of the mast, and how the wires that connect the electro-magnet, switch, and cell should be twisted around the hoisting cable, part way, and the remainder of their length allowed to hang. Be sure to cut the wires long enough to reach from a table-top down to the floor. Use flexible wire if you can get it.

By mounting the base upon spool wheels, your derrick can be moved along a table-top. Spool-ends may be used for the wheels, and can either be screwed to the edge of the base, or be fastened upon axles as the wheels of the _Electric Motor Truck_ are fastened (Figs. 203 and 208).

=How the Derrick Works.= It is probably unnecessary to explain that a load is picked up by throwing over the switch lever to the contact point and closing the circuit, and that it is dropped by throwing off the switch lever and opening the circuit--which causes the electro-magnet to lose its magnetism.