Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/428

 412

��Popular Science Monthly

��Making an Amusement Park Out of a Vacant Lot

TWO boys of South Andover, Mass., with some mechanical skill, recently found that a shaded lot can be converted into an amusement park at a cost of about fifty cents, the only purchases necessary being some nails and a few packing boxes for the merry - go- round. With these and some oak saplings, which were cut down in nearby woods, they constructed a crude but highly satis- factory -car- ousel which soon covered the cost of construction and brought in clear profits for the entire sum- mer.

The oak saplings formed the arms of the supporting framework. They were eight in number and eight feet long. Eight being the magic number, accommodations were pro- vided for eight persons, regardless of weight, and eight minutes was the duration of the ride. The motive power was furnished by the promoters of the idea, who took turns pushing on a bar attached to the central support.

According to the juvenile patrons of the improvised amusement park, the only thing lacking was the music, without which a merry-go-round loses much of its thrill. When a whistling quartette and a harmonica failed to meet the demand of the patrons, the promo- tors found that their savings for this first season would have to be invested in a phonograph or hand- organ in order to double the proceeds next year.

��v.* «-—

�j ■

�nari"

�i-fi

��The proprietors of the homemade merry-go-round charged one cent a ride for children and adults and made money

��He Hitches His Fishing Line to a Five-Foot Kite

FISHING for Corbina with kites to carry the fish lines into deep water is the innovation in angling recently in- augurated by Thomas McD. Potter, of the Los Angeles motorcycle club at Seal Beach.

At Seal Beach there is a fine Cor- bina "hole" just far enough from the pier to be out of the reach of the best casters. Boats, of course, could be used, but they cost more than kites, are conducive of seasickness, and don't of- fer half the sport that kite fishing does.

Potter does his fishing as illustrated in the drawing below. Better sport cannot be imagined, while from the mechanical point of view the method is quite as satisfactory as it is original.

The kite used is about five feet high, which is big enough to have sufficient "lift" for almost any fish that chances to get on the hook. When the line is pulled in the fish

���is hoisted to the kite, where it re- mains until the kite is taken in.

��Agate

���Agate ring

��Agste ring

��When a fish gets on the hook the kite bobs up and down. A quick pull on the line raises the fish to the kite

�� �