Chapter XII Some Evening Entertainments
There is a feature of home life that the heads of too many families overlook and that is getting together and having an evening of entertainment which the youngest as well as the oldest member can enjoy.
This is not at all a hard thing to do but as it takes time to get the props together to give it with—which neither your father or mother can well spare even if they had the inclination—it is up to you as the boy of the family to see that it is done.
It is a noble plan to give a divertisement, or soirée116 (pronounced swa´re) as the old time magicians used to call it, once every month and you will find after you have given the first one that all of your folks will look forward to the coming of the next one with interest and with pleasure.
Moreover, you should let them know what the next divertisement is to be a couple of weeks before it comes off and then let all hands join in and talk about it whenever the spirit moves them. Naturally since you know all about it and they don’t know anything about it, questions will be in order and you are the one who will have to answer them; and don’t try to make a secret of anything you have done or are going to do unless it is magic or some allied subject of mystery. After the divertisement is over it will furnish food for conversation for a long time to come.
Now while I have used the words entertainment and divertisement, both of which mean about the same thing and that is amusement, and while you should always strive to make your talks as light and recreational as you can you do not need to stick to frothy subjects altogether but instead you should alternate them with scientific demonstrations. In this way you will not only please and develop good fellowship in the family, but you will instruct the members of it at the same time.
Finally, don’t make your divertisements too long. Better by all means make each one only 15 or 20 minutes long and have everybody in high good humor and saying that it was all too short, than to give them an hour and have everybody gappy and bored half-to-death.
Cartoons While You Wait—This is a good feature to start off your season’s divertisements with. Make a substantial easel on which to set a large drawing board as shown in Fig. 116, or you can fasten the paper to a wall with thumb tacks if you live in a home and not in a residence.
Get a dozen sheets of good white print paper—you can buy a quire (24 sheets) 24 × 36 inches for 25 cents—and tack ¹⁄₂ a dozen sheets to your drawing board or the wall. Also buy a stick of black marking crayon,117 which is better than chalk or charcoal for it makes a heavy black line that will not smut, blur or rub off.
Drawing the Cartoons—Start in with your crayon in hand and explain that what you propose to do is to show the principles upon which free-hand drawing is based. Then make a simple line drawing of the boxer reaching for the maxillary of his invisible opponent as shown in Fig. 42, over in the chapter called Drawing Simply Explained, and then draw the horse galloping home on the three-quarter stretch.
Next draw around these simple line figures, which are really the skeletons of the man and beast, the outlines as shown in Fig. 43. If you are not expert in free hand drawing you can trace these figures on the paper in faint lines with a lead-pencil before you begin your performance, and then all you have to do is to mark over the lines with the crayon.
After you have made these drawings and explained all about them tear off the sheet and on the clean one draw the outline of a man as shown in Fig. 44 and mark on the proportions of the human body. Have your next sheet ruled off into squares with the lines 2 inches apart; draw in the face and at the same time explain that this makes it easy for any one to get the features in proportion.
Now comes the grand finale118 (pronounced fi-na´-le) and that is your cartoons.119 You should practice drawing these and also have some patter120 about each one so that when you do them for the family audience your tongue will be as clever as your fingers. You can begin by explaining how the expressions of one’s face—that is the way the features look when the mind is at rest or is excited—can all be represented by a few very simple lines.
Draw eight circles 5 or 6 inches in diameter in a double row on the paper with your marking crayon as shown at A in Fig. 117. Now you say first that sleep can be represented by four straight horizontal lines and you draw them as shown in the first circle. Next draw four vertical lines in the second circle and before you can say awake your little audience will see it and laugh its approval.
Joy is represented by four little arcs, or curved lines with the ends of each pointing up, which you draw in the third circle, while sorrow is, of course, shown by four curved lines the ends of which point down as in the fourth circle, since the emotion of sorrow is the opposite to that of joy.
Show how modesty is depicted by drawing four little angles in the fifth circle with the vertex, or point of each one at the bottom, while disdain, which is the reciprocal of modesty, can be illustrated in the sixth circle by reversing the positions of the angles and having their vertices at the top.
To portray surprise all you have to do is to draw four little circles inside the seventh large circle and you will have caught the expression. Finally in the eighth circle draw two slanting lines for the eyes, a vertical line for the nose and an angle with the ends of the lines pointed down and you will have a very good representation of anger, (or maybe it’s a Chinaman.)
| C | D |
Now without my telling you how to draw the cartoons shown at B C and D in Fig. 117, draw each one of them half a dozen times on a sheet of paper with your marking crayon and when you get before your audience you will be able to do them like a lightning crayon artist.
Thirty Minutes of Chemistry—Here are some very pretty and easily made experiments in chemistry and as you perform them you can give the explanation I have written about each one which will serve as the patter.
The Mystic Glass of Milk—The Effect.—You show a glass of perfectly clean water and blow through it with a glass tube, clay pipe or a straw when it becomes to all intents, though not to all purposes, milk of the cow variety. See Fig. 118.
The Cause—To perform this chemical trick get 50 grams of good quicklime and powder it in a pint milk bottle. Let it stand for 24 hours and shake it every once in a while. Let it stand another 24 hours and then pour off the clear solution, which is called lime water121 and this is the common name of mystic milk.
The Chemical Action—In the first place the lime in the water is calcium hydroxide and when you blow through the lime water the carbon dioxide in your breath acts on the calcium hydroxide and forms a white insoluble powder commonly known as limestone.
Since the calcium carbonate does not dissolve in the water it remains suspended in the solution and this gives it an opalescent hue that doth verily look like the lactic fluid which is white but woe unto the milkman who sells it as such.
For the Fun of the Thing—By pretending you can tell which boys and which girls are in love hand around several glasses of ordinary water and as many of clear lime water. You must see to it, of course, that those whom you want to make believe are in love are given the lime water; then have everybody blow and it is a sure sign that those who change the water into milk are in love.
The Magic Fountain
—The Effect.—You show an empty bottle, or Florence flask, and then push a cork with two holes in it into the mouth of the bottle. Next push a glass tube having a nozzle on one end through one of the holes in the cork until the nozzle nearly touches the bottom of the bottle.
Through the other hole in the cork push a medicine dropper, or fountain pen filler. The end of the long tube projects down into a bowl containing water which you have colored blue122 either with indigo or with copper sulphate or you can make a beautiful violet by dissolving in it a little potassium permanganate. The arrangement of the apparatus is shown at A in Fig. 119.
Now when you squeeze the bulb of the medicine dropper the colored water rushes up the tube and squirts out of the nozzle into a pretty fountain until the flask is nearly full.
The Cause—Instead of the bottle being empty as it looks to be, you have previously filled it with hydrogen chloride gas of which 500 volumes will dissolve in 1 volume of water.
The medicine dropper is filled with water and when you squeezed it a few drops of water is forced into the bottle and dissolves a large part of the gas that is in it. This leaves a vacuum when, of course, the atmospheric pressure on the colored water in the bowl forces it up through the nozzle to fill the vacuum.
This water dissolves the rest of the gas in the flask and more water is forced up until the bottle is nearly full of it, all of which produces a very mysterious and at the same time a mighty pretty effect.
How to Make Hydrogen Chloride Gas—To make this gas take another bottle and fit a two hole stopper into it; in one hole put a funnel and in the other an L tube as shown at B 119.
In the bottom of the bottle put ¹⁄₃ of a cup of common table salt; put a straight tube down into the Florence flask you want to fill and connect this tube and the L tube with a piece of rubber tube as is also shown at B.
The apparatus set up, pour sulphuric acid down the funnel, a very little at a time until the salt is all gone and then fit the cork with the long nozzle tube and the medicine dropper in it, into the mouth of the bottle filled with the hydrogen chloride gas.
The Vicious Soap Bubbles—The Effect.—Show a dish of soap-suds and then blow bubbles with the apparatus described below.
When the bubbles take on a size of about 3 inches in diameter shake them off and they will rise slowly and gracefully in the air. Before they get out of reach touch them with a long lighted taper and they will explode viciously with a sharp report like that made by a revolver.
The Cause—The bubbles are filled with a mixture of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas and when these two gases are simply mixed they form a very explosive compound which is called detonating gas.
When the flame is brought close enough to the bubble it fires the gases in it, and they explode and combine chemically to form water. The apparatus necessary to do this experiment with is shown in Fig. 120.
It consists of (1) a hydrogen gas generator and (2) an oxygen gas generator.
The hydrogen bottle or flask is fitted with a two hole stopper through which runs a glass funnel and an L tube just as described in the fountain experiment and shown at B in Fig. 119. Connected to the L tube is a length of rubber tubing into the other end of which another L tube is fitted.
The oxygen bottle or flask is fitted with a single hole stopper which has an L tube running through it as shown at B in Fig. 119. Connected to the L tube is fixed another length of rubber tubing and in the free end of this is fixed another and shorter L tube. Now place the two short L tubes side by side and cement them together with sealing wax. A long length of rubber tube is forced on over the ends of the double tube and, finally, a clay pipe is fitted into the free end of the rubber tube, all of which is shown in Fig. 120.
Set the bottles or flasks as far apart as possible and in the hydrogen bottle put a handful of granulated zinc. Dilute hydrochloric acid123 is poured down the funnel on the zinc when hydrogen will be set free, or generated as it is called.
Put a small handful of a mixture of 2 parts of potassium chlorate and 1 part of manganese dioxide, finely powdered, in the oxygen bottle and then set a Bunsen burner under it when it will give off oxygen. When the two gases leave the short L tubes they mix in the long rubber tube and by the time they reach the clay pipe you will have detonating gas all right.
Caution—Do not bring a flame anywhere near the apparatus and as a further precaution wrap a thick towel around the hydrogen flask.
The bubbles that are blown rise in the air because both the hydrogen and the oxygen are lighter than the air.
The Uncanny Wheel—The Effect.—A pitcher is shown full of emptiness and then a cardboard wheel, 4 inches in diameter, with buckets, or cones 1 inch high and ³⁄₄ inch across glued to the rim and which is mounted on a wire so that it can be revolved, is passed for examination.
Placing the wheel on the table you hold the empty pitcher above it and pour out nothing on it when the wheel will turn round just as though you were pouring water on it. It is indeed uncanny. The idea is shown at A in Fig. 121.
The Cause.
—But it is all canny enough when you know how it is done. While the pitcher is apparently empty you have, forsooth, previously filled it with a gas called carbon dioxide. This gas is 1¹⁄₂ times as heavy as air.
The cardboard wheel does not move in the air because the latter pushes on all parts of it equally. When, however, you pour the carbon dioxide gas on it from the pitcher, since it (the gas) is heavier than the air it fills the little buckets and makes them heavier just as surely as if you poured water on them; and hence the wheel revolves.
How to Make Carbon Dioxide Gas—Take a perfectly dry bottle or flask of the kind shown in the fountain experiment; fit it with a single hole stopper and push a glass tube through it until it nearly touches the bottom as pictured at B.
Set the bottle at a slant and put a mixture in it of equal amounts of powdered copper oxide (that is cupric oxide) and wood charcoal. Heat this mixture over a Bunsen burner until it glows and for a few minutes longer; the bottle will then be full of the carbon dioxide gas.
Pour it into a glass pitcher and put a sheet of glass over it to keep the air away from it until you are ready to perform the uncanny experiment.
Giving a Travelogue—A travelogue is simply a talk on travel, or on a country, illustrated with pictures of some kind.
To be able to give a travel talk does not mean necessarily that you must have traveled or been in the country you are going to tell about but if you have done neither, it does mean that you must read up on it.
To do this get several good books on whatever country you intend to talk on, read them carefully, and then outline a route just as though you had gone over it yourself, but this must of course conform to the pictures you can get.
Now there are four methods you can follow to show a series of pictures and you can make your choice according to the amount of money you want to invest in it.
(1) The first and least expensive way is to cut a dozen or twenty pictures out of magazines, arrange them according to your route and build up your talk around them. As you describe each place pass the pictures, which should be mounted on cardboard, in turn to each person present.
(2) A better way is to get a set of stereographs of the trip or the country you are to talk on and a stereoscope124 and pass the picture showing the view and the instrument to each person present.
Each stereograph, as the picture is called, is formed of two pictures of the same scene made from slightly different viewpoints and when the observer looks through the lenses at them they blend into one image when the scene stands out wonderfully clear and apparently in three dimensions. The only drawback of the stereoscope as an aid to a travel talk is that only one person can look at a picture at a time.
(3) A far better plan than either of the above schemes is to make a reflectoscope125 as described in the chapter called Some Kinks in Photography. You can show any kind of a picture in a reflectoscope if it is not larger than 3×5 inches but picture postcards are especially good to use for a travelogue or a talk of any kind and they show up nicely when thrown on a screen with a reflectoscope.
(4) Finally either make, or better, if you can afford it, buy, a magic lantern126 that will take the regular full size lantern slides, namely, 3¹⁄₄ × 4¹⁄₄ inches square. Sets of lantern slides127 for travelogues or talks on any subject can be rented cheaply and in these days of cheap electricity you can throw a picture on the screen so big and bright and real that your offering is bound to be a success.
An Electrical Soirée—Experiments in electricity are always interesting to all however young or old, for of all the powers that have been harnessed by man it is the least tangible and yet the effects produced by it are the most spectacular.
Now there are some very extraordinary effects that you can show with static electricity128 which do not require apparatus of any kind as you will presently see, but if you will make or buy a ¹⁄₂ inch induction coil129 you can perform a series of classic experiments that will create a profound and lasting impression on all who see them.
Demonstrating Electricity Without Apparatus—Did you ever rub a cat in a dark room in the winter and see the sparks fly? Well this is one way to make electricity without apparatus though you need a cat130 to do it with.
The Electrified Papers—But you can make a lot of electricity by simply rubbing a newspaper if you know how to rub it and it is perfectly dry.131
Tear off a strip of newspaper, lay it flat on a table and rub it with your finger nails as shown at A in Fig. 122. When you try to take the paper from the table you will find that it sticks to it quite tenaciously. This is because you have positively electrified the paper when you rubbed it and the surface of the table under it is negatively electrified by induction.132 Now since positive and negative electricity attract each other, the paper and the table are pulled together.
How to Electrify a Person133
—This is an experiment that will make your gathering giggle just as school girls giggle when they have their tintypes taken—that is without any real reason except that the idea strikes their mental funny bones.
To perform this experiment electrify a strip of newspaper as above and then hold it close to some one’s face; instantly there will be a mutual attraction between them and the paper will be drawn to and stick to his or her cheek. Put an electrified paper on the cheek of each person present as shown at B and tell them they belong to the same club. This will get a laugh but it will not lessen their interest in the experiment in the least.
How Like Repels Like—Electrify two strips of newspaper this time and hold them together by the ends. Instantly the free ends of the papers will fly apart for like signs of electricity repel each other.
That is, since both strips of paper are positively electrified and hence are of like signs, they repel each other. If they were negatively electrified they would repel each other just the same. In either case it shows that there is a force acting across the space between the two strips of paper.
Making Experiments With Apparatus—With a dry battery of two or three cells, an electric bell, a common steel magnet and an electromagnet, all of which you can easily make or buy134 for a dollar or so, you can provide entertainment enough for ¹⁄₂ an hour’s demonstration, and food for thought to last a year.
The Induction, or Spark Coil—An induction coil is an apparatus for changing a direct low pressure, but large quantity current from a battery into an alternating high pressure but small quantity current, which is called high tension, or high potential, electricity.
With an induction coil you can make any number of wonderful experiments such as miniature streaks of lightning, lighting up Geissler tubes, which produce brilliant and beautiful colors showing the electric discharge in gases, etc., etc. By fixing these tubes to a small electric motor135 so that they can be revolved while the high tension current is passing through them, the effects are further heightened.
Demonstrating Wireless Telegraphy—All you have to do to make your induction coil into a wireless transmitter, that is, the sending apparatus, is to put a couple of brass balls on the points of the spark-gap, fasten a wire to one of them and the other end to a nail in the wall near the ceiling and then connect the other one with a wire which ends in a small sheet of brass or copper that rests on the floor as shown at A in Fig. 123.
To make a receiver that will tap out the signals you send on your transmitter, you will need (a) a coherer, (b) a relay, (c) an electric bell and (d) a dry cell. You can make the coherer but the other three pieces of the apparatus you had better buy.
For the coherer cut off a piece of brass rod ¹⁄₈ inch in diameter and 1¹⁄₄ inches long, file the ends off even and slip them through the holes in the binding post. Put a pinch of nickel and silver filings into a piece of glass tubing about an inch long and push the ends of the rod into the tube with the filings between them.
Screw the rods into a couple of binding posts set 2 inches apart on a block as shown at B and your coherer is done.
Connect up the coherer, relay, tapper and dry cell on a board as shown in the wiring diagram at C; fasten a wire to one of the rods of the coherer and to a nail near the ceiling; fix a wire to the other coherer rod and to a small sheet of brass or copper which rests on the floor.
Now when you press the key or button of the sender, which is on one side of the room, the bell of the receiver, which is on the opposite side of the room, will ring out a signal. The fact that there are no wires connecting the sender with the receiver will create much wonder.
The theory of wireless telegraphy is rather deep but you will find it simply explained in my Book of Wireless published by D. Appleton and Co., New York City.
Reading Palms for Fun—Many years ago when P. T. Barnum was exhibiting a sacred white elephant, which was nothing more nor less than a small Indian elephant covered with whitewash, and the good folks were breaking their necks to pay their hard-earned coin to see it, the great showman remarked that “the American people love to be humbugged.” And they do. Now palmistry is a kind of mild humbuggery on a small scale and for an evening of fun and bunkum-squint you can’t find anything to beat it.
First of all there are three words that are constantly used in the art which you must know how to pronounce correctly or you will surely show your ignorance. The first is palm, pronounced pom; the second is palmist, pronounced pol´-mist, and the third is palmistry, which is pronounced pol´-mis-try; now be sure to say them right.
While nearly every one believes in palmistry there is nothing in it in-so-far as it is possible to read a person’s character or to divine one’s future by means of it; but there are some things you can tell from the hand you are reading and these are if its owner is or is not in good health and whether the brain that goes with it is mechanically inclined or is of an artistic temperament.
Further you can gather—not from the hand but from the face, stature, carriage, and mannerisms of the boy or girl or the man or woman whose hand you are supposed to be reading—a good deal about his or her temper and temperament and also about her or his foibles and peculiarities. In fact the palmistry of the palmists is simply a study in deduction, very much a la Sherlock Holmes, of the person as a whole, and it is by no means limited to an investigation of the hand alone.
How to Read Palms—There are two things which you should learn before you begin to read palms and these are (1) the names of the different parts of the hand, and (2) the lines and mounts of the hand.
The names given and the corresponding parts of the human hand are shown at A in Fig. 124; these are the scientific names and you will add very greatly to your stock of knowledge to get them down by heart.
The names, of the lines and the mounts of the hand are given and shown at B and these are the terms that are used by palmists. You will observe that the eminences are called mounts and these are named after the planets of the solar system, for the ancients supposed that they were inter-related. To get by as a palmist it goes without saying that you must have these all down pat.
To find out what kind of health the subject is in, grip the hypothenar eminence, which is the side of the hand opposite the pollux, or thumb, between your thumb and fingers and squeeze it a little; if it is perfectly firm and the palm has a good healthy color you are quite sure that its owner is in good health, but if the flesh is soft and is not elastic and if the palm is pale and bloodless you will be quite right in saying that the subject’s health is not good, nay worse, it is even bad, and you will not offend your subject by so saying.
The length of the life line is supposed to determine how long the subject who owns it will live but even if you find one broken off short never tell the person that he or she will live only a short time. Indeed to be a successful palmist tell every one whose hand you read that she or he will live to be anywhere from 80 to 108, and you’ll be on the safe side.
The line of the heart, according to palmistry, indicates the affections and passions of a person. Always tell a fellow that he is a great lover and that he is constant, but you can say to a girl that she is capricious, which means about the same thing as being fickle, and both the man and the maid will be highly pleased. The line of Saturn is the line of disposition and you must always make the subject just as sweet and angelic as possible unless you want her to break up the séance136 then and there and hold a wake to prove you’re right.
Apollo, as the line of fortune is called, is a good one to talk at length on; you can tell every subject that he or she has had bad luck, but that fortune will follow; that he or she will marry a pretty girl, or a handsome man as the case may be, live in New York if already living in the country and the other way about—for everybody wants to live anywhere except the place he is in—and don’t forget to say “you’ll live happily ever after.”
Since folks will foolishly believe in palmistry don’t try to convince them to the contrary, but while there is nothing in it, when you play palmist tell them only the nice, pleasant things and you will then be doing them a real service.
Just two more pointers on the ignoble art of palmistry and these are (1) read the palms of each one present right out loud before the whole gathering, and (2) be mighty careful that the single girls and married ladies do not switch rings and so lead you into the trap of thinking that the former are enjoying a state of connubial felicity (whatever state137 that may be) and that the latter are living in a territory138 of single blessedness.
A Talk on the Steam Engine—For your final evening entertainment give a thumb-nail lecture on steam and the steam-engine.
You will find every one is interested in steam because it is one of the great prime movers but there are very few people indeed who have any idea of how a steam engine works.
If you will do exactly as I tell you, you can talk on and demonstrate the principles of a steam engine so that, whatever the age of your listeners, they will know, when you are through, exactly how and why a steam engine runs and develops power.
Making the Model Engine—The engine I shall tell you how to build is not a model that runs by steam,139 but one made almost entirely of wood and the purpose of it is not actually to produce power but to show exactly how it works.
To the end that this may be done the cylinder and steam chest are split-down the middle lengthwise so that the inside of them can be clearly seen and the movements and functions of the piston and the slide valve in these parts will be clear.
Make the cylinder first and the easiest way to do it is to saw out two disks of wood for the cylinder heads of ³⁄₄ inch thick stuff, 4¹⁄₂ inches in diameter and bore a ⁹⁄₁₆ inch hole through the center of one of them for the piston to slide through, as shown at A, C and F in Fig. 125. Turn, or whittle out a piece of wood for the stuffing box,140 1 inch in diameter and ¹⁄₂ inch long, and bore a ⁹⁄₁₆ inch hole through the center of it and glue it to the center of the cylinder head so that the holes are exactly in a line as shown at A and F.
Next saw out two rings of ¹⁄₄ inch thick wood, make the outside 4¹⁄₂ inches in diameter and the inside 3 inches in diameter, see C, and glue one of the rings to each end of the cylinder heads. Now cut out of a sheet of thin cardboard, or better of tin, a piece 5³⁄₄ inches wide and 6 inches long; cut two holes ¹⁄₂ an inch in diameter and have the center of each hole ¹⁄₂ an inch from one of the long edges and ⁷⁄₈ inch from each of the short edges as shown at D.
The next thing on the list is the piston and the piston rod. For the piston, saw out a disk of wood 3 inches in diameter and bore a ¹⁄₂ inch hole through it in the center. The piston rod is simply a piece of wood ¹⁄₂ an inch in diameter and 12 inches long; cut a slot in one end ¹⁄₈ inch wide and ¹⁄₂ an inch deep and bore a ¹⁄₁₆ inch hole through it as shown at C. Put the piston inside of the cylinder, slip the piston rod through the hole in the cylinder head, smear some glue on the end of it and fit it into the hole in the piston.
The steam chest is next in order; for it use ³⁄₁₆ inch thick wood and saw out four pieces 2 inches square; two of these pieces are for the heads of the steam chest, as shown at A and B, and in the center of one of them drill a ³⁄₈ inch hole for the slide valve rod to go through. Turn, or whittle out, a piece of wood for the stuffing box ¹⁄₂ an inch in diameter and ¹⁄₂ inch long, bore a ³⁄₈ inch hole through the center of it and glue it to the center of the steam chest head that has the hole in it as shown at A, C and F.
Saw two holes 1¹⁄₂ inches square out of the other two 2 inch square blocks and glue these to the steam chest heads. Now make a trough of ¹⁄₄ inch thick wood, or of cardboard or tin, 1¹⁄₂ inches square, outside measurement, and 2³⁄₄ inches long; this is for the sides of the steam chest; as shown at A and F.
Bore a ¹⁄₂ inch hole in the center of the top of the trough; this hole is for the intake port, that is the opening through which the steam flows from the boiler into the steam chest. Bore three ¹⁄₂ inch holes in a line in the middle of the bottom of the trough as is also shown at A and F. The two holes nearest the ends are the ports to let the steam into and out of the opposite ends of the cylinder, and the central hole, or port, is the exhaust port C.
Next make the slide-valve; use ¹⁄₈ inch thick wood and make it ³⁄₄ inch high, 1 inch wide, and 1¹⁄₂ inch long on top and 2 inches long on the bottom; the bottom, as you will observe at A and E, is cut out so that it will cover one of the cylinder ports and the exhaust port at the same time and you need put only one side on it.
The slide valve rod is a piece of wood ¹⁄₄ inch in diameter and 11¹⁄₂ inches long. Whittle or plane one end flat and drill a ¹⁄₈ inch hole through it. This done, set the slide valve in the steam chest; slip the slide valve rod through the head and glue it to the slide valve.
Now make four tubes or pipes of cardboard or tin ¹⁄₂ an inch in diameter, and have two of them 1¹⁄₄ inches long and the other two 3 inches long; when you have formed all of them cut a strip ¹⁄₂ inch wide out of each one lengthwise; the purpose of which is to show that they are hollow.
When you have the tubes done glue, or otherwise fix, one of the short ones into the intake port of the steam chest and the other short one into the middle, or exhaust port in the bottom of the steam chest; then glue, or fix the two long tubes into the end holes, or ports, of the steam chest and the holes in the cylinders.
Saw out a guide block for the piston rod to slide through, 2 inches wide, 3 inches high, 3 inches long on top and 5 inches long on the bottom as shown at A and C, and bore a ³⁄₈ inch hole through the middle of the top of it lengthwise so that the center of the hole will be exactly 2¹⁄₄ inches from the base line.
Likewise saw out a guide block for the slide valve rod and make it 1 inch wide, 2 inches long and 3¹⁄₄ inches high and drill a ³⁄₈ inch hole through the middle of the top of it lengthwise so that the center of the hole will be exactly 2¹⁄₄ inches from the back board to which it is fixed.
Next cut out a rocker arm of a ¹⁄₄ inch thick piece of wood and have it ³⁄₈ inch wide at one end, ³⁄₄ inch wide at the other end and 7 inches long; drill a ¹⁄₈ inch hole in each end and a 1¹⁄₈ hole 1¹⁄₂ inches from the large end; pivot the small end to the end of the slide valve rod with a machine screw having a nut on the end of it.
Cut out an eccentric rod ¹⁄₄ inch thick, ³⁄₈ inch wide and 8¹⁄₂ inches long, and drill a ¹⁄₈ inch hole at each end so that their centers will be exactly 8 inches apart: pivot one end of this rod to the second hole in the rocker arm with a machine screw as before. Saw out a pivot block 1 inch square and drill a ¹⁄₈ inch hole through the center of it and pivot the lower end of the rocker arm to it with a screw.
Make a connecting rod, to couple the piston rod to the crankshaft with, ³⁄₈ inch thick, ¹⁄₂ an inch wide at one end, ³⁄₄ inch wide at the other end and 9 inches long; whittle or plane down the small end so that it will fit easily into the slot in the end of the piston rod and drill a ¹⁄₈ inch hole in each end so that their centers are precisely 8¹⁄₂ inches apart.
The crankshaft can be made of a piece of ¹⁄₈ inch thick wire 13 inches long which must be bent to the exact shape shown at D; before it is thus bent, however, slip the wire through the hole in the end of the eccentric rod and then bend the crank on it.
Saw out a flywheel of ¹⁄₂ inch thick wood, 8 inches in diameter, drill a ¹⁄₈ inch hole through its center and force it on over the wire forming the crankshaft; then slip the end of the connecting rod on the other end of the crankshaft wire and bend it to form a crank.
The front end of the crankshaft must be supported by a pillow block just as it is in a real engine, but the rear end is held in place by a board screwed to the back of the base. This block is ¹⁄₂ an inch thick, 1 inch wide at the top, 2 inches wide at the bottom and 3 inches high; drill a ¹⁄₈ inch hole in the top of it exactly 2¹⁄₄ inches from the base line and slip this over the end of the crankshaft next to the connecting rod.
The last thing to be done is to make a base to mount the parts of the engine on; this is a sort of a shelf and it is built up of a board ³⁄₄ inch thick, 6 inches wide and 31 inches long for the base. Saw a slot in it ³⁄₄ inch wide and 9 inches long in one corner, 2 inches from one end and ¹⁄₂ an inch from the side; this is for the fly-wheel to set in.
Screw a back to it ¹⁄₂ an inch thick, 10 inches wide and 3 inches long; this must be perfectly rigid and if necessary you can brace it with angle blocks. Finally glue four legs 1 inch square and 2¹⁄₂ inches long on the corners of the base-board.
To put the engine together, or assemble it as it is called, screw the cylinder to the base-board, then glue or screw the piston rod guide block to the base; the slide valve rod guide block to the back board, and the pivot block for the rocker arm to the base-board.
Drill a ¹⁄₈ inch hole in the back board 2¹⁄₄ inches up from the base-board exactly 16¹⁄₂ inches from the front cylinder head; put one end of the crankshaft in the hole and slip the other end of it into the pillow block; see that all is in a line and that the flywheel clears the sides of the slot in the base-board. Then it is all done and will look like F.
How the Engine Works—Now if you will turn the flywheel around with your hand, or better, belt a small electric motor to it, you will see exactly how the slide valve opens first one port in the cylinder and then the other and that when the port is open which gives a clear path for the steam to flow from the steam chest to the cylinder, the other port is connected to the exhaust pipe, when the used steam passes into the open air.
When you know all about it you are then ready to give your last evening divertisement and for the time being to say Good-by.
The End
Notes
116 This is a French word and it means an evening social gathering.
117 You can buy a marking crayon at a hardware or stationery store.
118 The last part of an exhibition and it is generally the climax of it.
119 A cartoon is usually a caricature of a person or thing done in sketchy style. The word comes from the French carton, which means pasteboard.
120 Witty or amusing talk to help along the act.
121 You can buy it in a drug store all ready to use.
122 Any kind of colored water will do for this experiment.
123 If you want to buy dilute hydrochloric acid ask for normal hydrochloric acid.
124 A stereoscope and the stereograms can be bought from Underwood and Underwood, 417 Fifth Ave., New York, or Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago, Ill.
125 You can buy one of the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company, Rochester, New York, and you can get post-card views for it of the Post-Card Store, 946 Broadway, New York.
126 For magic lanterns and slides address the Charles Beseler Co., 131 East 23rd Street, New York.
127 Sets of lantern slides can be rented of the Charles Beseler Co., 131 East 23rd Street, New York City.
128 Many experiments with static electricity will be found in The Book of Electricity by the present author and published by D. Appleton and Co.
129 Complete instructions for making an induction coil will also be found in The Book of Electricity.
130 A cat is not apparatus but only a kitten growed up.
131 Winter is the best time to do experiments in static electricity.
132 The theory of induction is simply explained in The Book of Electricity by the present author.
133 Since the paper is positively electrified the person must be negatively electrified.
134 The L. E. Knott Apparatus Co., Boston, Mass., and The Manhattan Electric Co., Park Row, New York, sell all these things.
135 A small electric motor can be bought for $1.00 of any dealer in electrical supplies or of the Manhattan Electrical Supply Co., Park Row, New York.
136 A sitting given by a medium or a palmist is called a séance (pronounced say´ance).
137 Probably Utah.
138 Most likely Arizona.
139 How to build model steam engines and all other kinds is explained in my new book Engine Building for Boys, published by Small, Maynard and Co., Boston, Mass.
140 A stuffing box on a real steam engine is to keep the steam in the cylinder and steam chest from leaking past the piston rod and the slide valve rod.