Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/954

 Popular Science Monthly

��Obtain two light bamboo sticks for the boom, and gaff and make the sail from any material at hand. Unbleached muslin is cheap and it makes a very good sail. If it is not wide enough the strips may be sewed together. A good length for the mast is three-quarters the length of the boat. The boom should be just long enough to clear a person seated in the cockpit. The sail should be laced to the mast and boom with stout twine or fish cord. This will make it loose enough to permit a good fit, and in a wind it will blow out smooth and snug. A sheet rope is provided so that the sail can be readily handled from the cockpit and "trimmed" as the sailors say, to suit any breeze that blows.

With a small iceboat of this character one can sail with the wind or sideways at great speed. When the craft is first launched rub some thick grease on the bottoms of the staves to make them slide along easily. In time they will wear so smooth that no grease or oil will be needed. The bottoms of the staves can be covered with thick tin if desired to increase the speed of the boat, but as a rule it will go fast enough for all ordinary purposes.

��A Homemade Sight-Feed Oil Indicator for an Automobile

THE lower-priced cars are not usually equipped with an oil-gage or indicator, and consequently, if engine trouble occurs, the driver does not know whether it is the

��LEATHER

RING *-

��"A" CASING

��GLASS "C""'

��BRASS DISK D

���LEATHER WASHER

��A sight-feed oil indicator made from various odds and ends collected from the scrap pile

fault of the lubricating system or not. The addition of some form of sight feed placed somewhere on the dash will readily show

��any trouble of this nature which occurs. We seldom realize when gazing at the junk pile in some forgotten corner of the garage-shop with what a little amount of effort many of the discarded parts collected

���BRASS DISK D

��Lock ring and brass disk for holding the glass in the casing to prevent oil leakage

there could be made to save both time and money in making quick repairs or in rigging up some handy device.

The device illustrated herewith is the simplest form of a sight feed. It was made out of a discarded octagonal hub cap, A, the flat portion of which had been removed on a turning lathe. Directly beside the portion removed, a square groove was turned on the inside for the purpose of holding the ring B, which served to hold the glass C and brass disk D in position. The cover E was made from a cast iron pipe end, the thread on the inside of which fitted into threads on the outside of the body A. The brass pipe unions E were tapped into the cap D, the lower one being fastened directly, and the upper through the medium of the collar F. The tube G, bent at one end, and provided with a thread at the other, was inserted within the casing to so guide the stream of oil that its flow might readily be noticed. Leather gaskets were inserted as shown to prevent leakage. The method of connect- ing the device is clearly shown in the illustration. — Adolph Klein.

��Removing Nitric Acid Stains from the Hands

IT IS next to impossible to remove nitric acid stains from clothing, if it has not already burnt a hole through the material. But the yellow stains can be removed from the hands by applying permanganate of potash at the end of a glass rod or dropper, and then washing them in water. This treatment turns the stain brown. The hands are then dipped in dilute hydro- chloric acid (muriatic), and then washed

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