Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/343

 Popular Science Monthly

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��How to Make a Snow-plow to Clean the Sidewalk

THE plow is built on a lawn mower. the blades of which have been re- moved. In the drawing the plow is made from a shovel. One of the halves is put on each side and brought to a point in front. The frame is made of one board about V X 12" or two boards 1" x 6".

���This snow-plow is made from a lawn mower from which the blades have been removed

As the sizes of lawn mowers vary, so will the plow have to vary to fit. The cross-bar is the width and thickness of iho. handle of the mower, and can be ad- justed. It keeps the nose of the plow on the ground.

A Clock Light for Dark Mornings

A BOY of fourteen, who has had no instruction in electricity, and whose home in a little Iowa town has no electric service, invented the device illustrated. In this home, early rising- is the rule, partly from necessity and partly from choice. In the winter time, when the days are short, he must rise before there is much daylight. This arrangement enables his father or

���mother to illuminate the dial of a clock and to see what time it is without get- ting up.

As the diagram shows, tw^o dry bat- teries are connected in series and put into a little wooden box, on top of which the clock rests. To the back of the box is fastened a light bracket made of strips of soft wood. This bracket overhangs the clock, and to its underside is fastened a three-volt searchlight bulb in a minature base. From one pole of the battery a wire is run down behind the dresser, under the carpet to the bed, up one of the bedposts, to a height about a foot above the mattress. Here a push-button is attached. The return wire goes back over the same route, up behind the dress- er to the lamp, and from the lamp to the other pole of the battery. Hanging in front of the lamp is a little piece of tin bent so as to make a crude reflector, r.t

���When the lid is lowered the switch automatic- ally closes the circuit and lights the desk lamp

��A push button beside the bed allows the boy to see what time it is without getting up

the same time that it serves to keep the light of the lamp out of the observers' eyes. By pushing the button the dial is illuminated, and the occupant of the bed can read the time without rising.

An Automatic Desk Lamp

A CONVENIENT automatic desk light may be easily constructed from two pieces of thin brass, a small light bulb with socket, and a dry battery. A piece of brass is screwed to the desk lid, as shown, and the other piece is fast- ened underneath it, so that when the lid is lowered the two pieces close the cir- cuit to light the lamp. A switch may be placed in circuit so that the lid may be lowered without lighting the lamp. The wires are placed as illustrated.

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