THE FLYING WHIRLIGIG.
This amusing toy consists of an empty spool with two pins driven into its head, as seen in the figure. With a pair of pliers break off the heads of the pins before driving them in position, then take a piece of soft wood and make a spindle, like that represented in the figure at A, and drive another headless pin into the small end. Lastly, cut from a piece of cardboard a figure like the one marked B, making three holes, a a a, with the point of a darning-needle, corresponding to the two pins in the spool and the one in the spindle.
Bend the edges marked x and y in opposite directions.
Now place the spool on the spindle and wind a piece of twine around the spool; then place the piece of pasteboard upon the top, letting the pins pass up through the row of holes in its center.
Holding the machine upright in the left hand, with a quick movement of the right, jerk the string from the spool, and the cardboard will fly through the air with a very graceful motion.
If stripes of color are added to the ends, as seen in the cut, a much prettier effect is produced while the whirligig is in operation. These stripes can be painted in red, white, and blue water colors, or may be formed by pasting on narrow strips of bright-colored paper.
If the first trial does not succeed, wind the string in the other direction, or put on the “card flyer,” with the other side next the spool. The same causes which make it soar away in the one case will hold it yet more firmly to the spool in the other.
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