Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/625

 For Practical Workers

���A Useful Gage for Motorists

AVERY simple but useful attach- ment for the automobiHst's key- ring is shown in the accompanying illus- tration. It can be made of spring steel

���■^047 THICK ^010 THICK

��The little piece of steel illustrated can be used in the ways shown and in many others

or hard brass, steel being preferred, how- ever, since it can be hardened and tempered. It is made from a piece of stock about .050-in. thick, i3^-ins. long and ^-in. wide. Before hardening, a iVinch hole is drilled in the end and the corners rounded off to make it easily in- serted on a key-ring. The piece is then ground down to about .046 in. to .047-in. thick for about half its length, and to about .oio-in. thick for the remainder.

The thick end will be found valuable for setting the gap between the elec- trodes of the ignition spark-plug; the thin end will be useful when adjusting the clearance between the valve stems and adjusting nuts on valve-lift plungers. The gage can be easily made and will be found very useful whenever such a tool is needed. — Victor Page.

��How Betsy Ross Made a Five-pointed Star with One Cut

WHEN George Washington and two other Revolutionary leaders called on Betsy Ross to bestow upon her the honor of making the first flag, they expressed a desire to use a star of five points. She immediately folded up a bit of paper and, with one cut, formed a perfect five-pointed star. This is the way to do it :

Fold a perfect paper square diagonally, as in Fig. i. Then make another fold, as in Fig. 2, X being the middle of the line T U. The fold must give an angle R, Fig. 3, of about 36 deg. This is approximately half the angle S. A little practice will enable anyone to make this fold.

The point D of Fig. 3 is folded over as in Fig. 4, angles E and F being equal. The two points A and B, which are together, are then folded over, as in Fig. 5. If the edges are all together, a diagonal cut, shown in Fig. 5, will make ajperfect star, having five points.

���Making a Five-pointed Star with One Cut

Fii;. I. Fold in square of paper. Fir. 2. X. middle of

TU. Fig. 3. Angle /I is half angle S. Fig. 4. Angle

£ is equal to angle F. Fig. 5. Ready to cut. Fig. 6.

Completed star

��597

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