“Now cut a round bristolboard disk for the merry-go-round, Polly,” Donald said, “while I rig up a stand for it.”

The disk Polly made was seven and one-half inches in diameter with a round hole in the center a little larger than the hole in a spool, and while she was drawing the circle and cutting it out Donald found a level-sided block of wood, two and one-quarter inches high, for the base of his stand. To this block he nailed small strips of wood, one on either side like the supports on the front upright. (Figure 10.) Then, selecting a medium-sized spool, two smaller spools and a buttonhole twist spool to make the shaft of the merry-go-round the proper height, he glued the two smallest spools together and the larger and buttonhole twist spools together. On top of the smallest spools he glued the disk. Taking a second spikelike wire nail, longer than the one used on the sand tower (M, Figure 10), he slipped it through the disk and the two smallest spools, then stopped and thought a moment. “A washer will have to go on now,” he said, “to make these upper spools turn easily on the lower ones.” So he cut a washer like N, Figure 10, from a piece of very glossy writing paper, making it a little larger than the end of the spools. “I’ll glue these two lower spools to the block before I put the nail through,” he continued as he covered the bottom of the buttonhole twist spool with glue and fitted it on top of the block exactly in the middle. He waited a while for the glue to dry; then, placing his paper washer on top of the large spool, he dropped the point of the nail down through the washer and the spools and drove the nail into the block far enough to hold it quite steady, but leaving enough space between the top of the disk and the head of the nail to let the disk turn freely. “We will put the merry-go-round here,” Donald went on, as he placed the block directly at the front edge of the board about seven and one-half inches to the right of the sand tower. “It won’t do to have it too far from the wheel.” Then, driving nails through the strips of wood on either side of the block, he fastened the merry-go-round in place. “Now get a piece of tape for the belt, Polly, and we will make her spin,” he said. “Get cotton tape; linen is too slippery.”

Polly returned with a piece of cotton tape a little over a quarter of an inch wide and about twenty-five inches long. Donald passed it over the belt spool on the wheel shaft and around the belt spool on the merry-go-round shaft (Figure 11) and pinned the lapped ends together. Then Polly poured sand in the funnel of the sand tower and Donald watched the working of the belt, tightening or loosening it as it seemed to require. When it was in perfect working order Polly sewed the ends of the tape together, making a lapped seam, as in Figure 11. Then she proceeded to fasten a piece of thread about a yard and one-quarter long to each of the winding spools. First she placed one end of the thread lengthwise on the spool and then glued a strip of paper around the spool and over the thread. Looking up from her work, she found Donald drawing a circle on a piece of writing paper.

“I am making a cone,” he explained, “to fit over the lower spools and prevent the thread from catching on the block.”

Donald made the circle for his cone six and one-half inches in diameter, and at the center he cut a round hole large enough to fit around the spool. Out of this circle he cut a pie-shaped slice four and three-quarters inches wide at the outer edge. (Figure 12.) Adjusting the cone on the lower part of the winding spool, he lapped the edges and pasted them together. The cone stood out beyond the side edges, but did not touch the block.

“I am going to put these on the merry-go-round, they will look so pretty ‘as they sail, as they sail,’” chanted Polly, showing four little boats she had cut from writing paper and painted in gay colors with watercolor paints. Polly had made the boats with extensions at the bottom, which she slit up through the middle. Bending one half out on one side and the other half out on the other side, she pasted the extensions to the top of the disk near the edge, placing the boats at equal distances apart. By this time Donald had begun a little wagon, making it of a match box by cutting writing paper wheels and pinning them on to the box with ordinary pins, one pin for each wheel. “The wagon must not be heavy,” he said, “because our machinery is light.” The children chose a small, light toy basket to use as a miner’s bucket, and then made two paper doll miners to put in the bucket and a paper doll lady to ride in the wagon. The end of the thread hanging from the winding spool on the wheel shaft they tied to the handle of the basket and the thread fastened to the winding spool on the shaft of the merry-go-round they tied to the front of the wagon. Then they carried the whole thing out on the beach and set it up on an empty box which they had put on top of a little hill of sand to raise it high above the ground. Donald found a smooth board, one end of which he propped up directly under the merry-go-round and on this he set the little wagon, drawing it down the full length of the thread. Polly scooped a hole in the sand for a mine and dropped the little basket in it. Then, all being ready, Polly held her hand under the funnel for a stopper, Donald filled the funnel with dry sand, Polly took away her hand, the sand began to run out in a steady stream, the wheel whirled round, the merry-go-round spun merrily, fluttering the tissue-paper pennants on the little boats and tipping them most naturally. The miner’s basket emerged from the mine and slowly ascended, and the little wagon climbed up the incline, bearing its lady passenger.

How to Make a Trolley Car

By Adelia Belle Beard

One of the Authors of Things Worth Doing

[All rights reserved]

“Polly!” called Donald, leaning over the banisters, “I’ve a jolly good idea this morning and I want you to help me.” Polly had been romping with her two fuzzy little kittens in the lower hall, but she promptly deserted them and mounted the stairs on a run.

“What is it?” she cried, appearing at the Kraft Shop door before Donald had reached his seat at the table.

“What do you think of making a little trolley car?” he replied.

“One that will go on a real trolley wire? I think that will be just loads of fun. How long can we have the line?”

“As long as we like, but I will use linen thread instead of wire; it is easier to manage.”

“And we will use spools for wheels, of course, and bristolboard for the car,” said Polly.

“Yes, and I’m going to make as much of the car in one piece as I can.”

“Then I don’t see what I can do,” Polly objected.

“Oh, there will have to be some separate parts,” Donald hastened to say. “You can make the little top roof and the trolley pole, and you can get the spools and thread and two little sticks for axles. That will be a big help. Now look at my pattern; you see, I’ve worked it down until it fits into an oblong, fourteen inches long and seven and one-half inches wide. This takes in the main part of the car, but not the platforms. (Figure 1.) Now I will carry these two lines (J H and J L) down to make a platform and the upright front of the platform. I don’t suppose it is called a dashboard.”

“Where will you put the other platform?” inquired Polly.

“At the upper right hand corner,” said Donald. Then Donald drew below the lines H H and above the lines G G the platform which, for lack of space, is given separately here, but which must be traced and made a part of the pattern by being fitted out at each end of the car.

“This projection,” (M) Donald continued, “is to fasten the front of the platform to the roof.”

“You haven’t made a place for the wheels,” said Polly.

“You’re right, I haven’t. We will put them here,” and Donald drew the axle guards, marked F. “This is the place for the doors,” he went on, indicating the spaces at either end of the two sides of the car. “The top part of the door is glass, you know,” he said. On the door at the upper left-hand corner (Figure 2) he made the catch B and on the middle line of the lower door he cut the slot B. The inner edge of the slot is on the line, the outer edge is left of the line. The order was reversed on the right-hand side. (Figure 2.) Here he put the catch (A) on the lower door and the slot (A) on the upper door.

“If you will tell me how large you want the little top roof I’ll make it now,” said Polly.

“All right. I’ll draw a place for it, then I’ll know,” and on the top of the car Donald drew the oblong two and one-quarter inches wide. The top line of the oblong was three-eighths of an inch below the line I I, and the bottom line of the oblong was three-eighths of an inch above the line J J, Figure 2.

“Now I have it,” he said. “You must make the little top roof just eight inches long and two and one-quarter inches wide. Draw an oblong exactly that size, you know, for the top. I want it to stand up half an inch above the car, so you must add half an inch at each side and each end, with bend-overs and catches at each corner to hold the sides and ends together, and slits in the sides for the catches. Then make large catches to hold the top roof to the other roof, one catch at each end of each side and one in the middle of each end. (Figure 3.) Be sure and make the side catches half an inch from the end of the oblong.”