Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/733

 Popular Science Montlily

��719

��tlic Icvcr "flops" tlic deposit siraijjlil\va\' into llu- hank, a holo liukil\- lia\iiii,' been rut in the front door at a cunxenienl tile coin. No deposit slips are needed. The b;\nk will as readily accept a trouser's button or any other flat round object as it will a coin. However, the con- trivance has enough action to adequately salisf\- all demands made by a \outhful banker. The interior mechanism of the bank is much the same as that of the dog kennel.
 * )int to permit this hurried entrance of

In a third toy the loud report from a gun actu- ates the mech- anism. The ma- chinery is con- tained within a box from the side of which projects a bent piece of heavy wire serving as a perch for a small stuffed bird about the size of of the toy plays sharpshooter. By his accurate marksman- ship he causes the bird to depart this life. The weapon with which he is equipped is a deadly "pop-gun," which fires the usual cork projectile, tethered to the gun- 1 >arrel with a string. Standing otT several feet from his pre\-, the young sharp- shooter takes careful aim. Bang! Off falls the bird from his perch, theoretically shot dead. It even matters not that the cork could go no further than the yard or two of limiting string; the bird is "shot" just the same. Likewise (and whisper it!) the marksman can even point the gun at his own head instead of at the prey; yet the bird on the other
 * '. canary. The owner

���Whistle a tune into the trans- mitterandChar- lie will dance

��BATTIRT

���side of the room falls off its perch pre- cisely as before. The explanation is that the sound from the gun has affected a form of telephone transmitter as it did in the other toys. here, howexer, result- ing in a jiggling of the bird's perch, caus- ing it to lose its equilibrium and to fall off.

In the fourth contrivance a dummy figure is made to dance a jig in response to a tune whistled or sung. Details of the toy's workings are explained in the drawing. Because whist led or vocal sounds are more delicate than the noise produced by clapping hands or the shooting of a gun, it is neces- sary' in this toy to insert a relay in the telephone transmitter cir- cuit. The trans- mitter works the relay and the re- lay controls the dancing. In the other toys the transmitter is directly con- trolled. The diimm>- produces a variety of weird steps from a Charlie Chaplin shufifle to an old-fashioned Negro "hoe- down" dance.

The application of the principle is only limited by the imagination and ingenuity of the inventors and manufacturers. It will be a great relief to Santa Claus to find that he is to recei\e this kind of help in his tt)y-making; for the poor old fel- low has been sadh- pcrpkxed during re- cent years by the precocious brand of twentieth century youngsters, who are constantly demanding something differ- ent and preferably something capable of energetic and more or less spontaneous action, as in the electromagnetic toys.

��The bird never fails to fall off. It is the "bang" and not the shot that theoretically kills him. For in- stance, point the gun at yourself and he will fall off just the same

�� �