Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/944

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��Popular Science Monthly

��A Door Catch Made from a Spring Shoe Tree

��WITH this simple homemade catch you can push the door as wide open as you like and it will remain so. There are no levers to push down. It is self-contained and very cheap.

First secure a pair of "shoe trees." Take one portion, as shown in the illus- tration, and fasten the metal end on your door about 6 in. from the floor. Fasten it with nails, screweyes or any- thing that will hold. It is advisable to hold the metal end over the gas range for a few moments to take out the tern-

���Manner of fastening the spring shoe tree to door for a stop

��per; then a nail driven through it will not split the metal. The tension of the metal after it is fastened on will push the wooden knob firmly on the floor. With the pres- sure "just right" you can move the door freely, yet it will remain wherever it is set. The knob will slide over a rug or doorstep. It will not be in the way if fastened on the inside of the door, and the wind will not be able to blow the door shut or further open. — Clarence T. Hubbard.

��Tearing a Pack of Cards in Half with Ease

ALTHOUGH the popular trick of tearing l\ and quartering a deck of cards can be classed as a feat of strength, there is a "wrinkle" which, if mastered, will permit the pasteboards to be torn with very little exertion. The method described is a sure one, and is j ust as effect- ive as if actual strength were used. A girl can do the trick if the. instructions are carried out. Take a pack of new cheap cards and "bake" them in an oven for more than an hour. Cut a slit about Y2 in. deep on each side of a card case. This cannot be seen, and when the cards are passed around for the usual preliminary examination, by the spectators the case is retained by the per-

���The cards will tear in two easily after they have been baked

��former, by whom the cards are returned to the case after the inspection. The cards after being baked will be very brittle and when placed in the case will tear easily, as the slit will give away and the two portions of the card case will act like grips in severing the 52 cards it holds.

��Reshaping Artists' Paint Tubes for Refilling

THE tin-foil tubes used as containers for artists' colors are usually thrown away when empty. These can be refilled or used for other purposes by blowing them out with a bicycle pump. Sufficient pres- sure will straighten out all the kinks and render them almost as good as new. When blown out to their original size, open the bottom end, insert the contents and fold over again as before. — L. B. Robbins.

��An Automobile Steering Wheel for a Bob-Sled

NO automobile ever has its steering wheel directly over the front axle, and no bob-sled to steer best should have the wheel over the front bob. The illustration shows an arrangement which has the "feel" of a real automobile when coasting down a

���Cylinder drum attachment for a bob-sled. It is like the steering mechanism of an automobile

hill. The steering wheel and post were set nearly half way back on the top plank of the bobs in a leaning position, like the wheel and post of an automobile. On the lower end of the post a wooden roller about 6 in. in diameter was fastened. About the middle of this a 34 _m - rope was wrapped several times, and then the ends were taken through a pulley on either side to the ends of the cross-piece of the front bob. Any turn of the wheel thus revolves the roller which wraps the rope, pulling the front bob in the direction desired. Such a pair of bobs can be built at home with materials found in the scrap heap. For my bobs I used seasoned oak, soft pine for the top plank, and old carriage tires for the runners. The wheel of an old corn cutter makes a fine steering wheel, or the steering wheel may be sawed out of hard wood with a compass saw. — F. E. Brimmer.

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