Cassell's Book of In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun

by Various

JACK-IN-THE-BOX.

The toy known as Jack-in-the-Box is familiar to all, and is always the source of much fun; it may be readily made by any ingenious lad who will carefully follow the accompanying description:—

The toy consists of a box containing a figure of some comical shape. Inside the figure a piece of wire, known as the spring, is coiled up, corkscrew-wise, like the spring within a carriage candle lamp. The box should be made so that when the lid is closed the wire or spring within the figure is compressed; on the removal of the pressure from the lid the wire regains its original form, and out springs the figure. The figure is sometimes secured to the bottom of the box, and sometimes attached to the side by a long piece of string, and then when the lid is suddenly unfastened, Jack will spring out of his hiding-place and fly up high into the air.