The Canvas Bucket.
This same trick was used for cooling our drinking water whenever we went off on an expedition away from camp. We had a heavy canvas bucket, the kind used on ships. We would fill this bucket with water and then hang it up in the wind. The water seeping out of the pores of the bucket would be evaporated by the wind, and this would, in a few moments, make the water inside delightfully cool. Such buckets may be bought for $1.50 to $2.00 apiece, but ours was a home-made affair, and made somewhat differently from the store kind. The canvas used was the heaviest we could find. A piece 9 inches in diameter was cut out for the
Fig. 261. Bottom of Bucket. bottom. A ring 7 inches in diameter, made of heavy brass wire, was laid on the canvas, and the cloth was turned over it and sewed down the inside of the ring. For the sides of the bucket we cut a piece 14 inches wide and 23 inches long. The upper edge was strengthened by a piece of light rope held in place by hemming the cloth over it. The lower edge was now sewed to the bottom, just inside the wire ring and then the ends of the piece were joined, completing the sides of the bucket. The bail of the bucket was formed of a piece of rope fastened to the roped upper edge of the bucket.
Fig. 262. The Canvas Bucket.
But to return to the current wheel; the day after it was completed, when I went over to Lumberville for the mail, I was met by old Jim Halliday, who wanted to know what sort of a rig we had out on the river. I told him, and after a dint of much persuasion, induced him to take a ride back in the scow with me. He had never visited our camp and hadn’t realized how handy we were with the tools, because, with the exception of the current wheel, all our work had been done on the opposite side of the island. We made him a guest of honor, showing him over the whole place. The bridges struck him as remarkably clever, but what pleased him most was our current wheel.
“I swan,” he said. “Ef that ain’t jest the thing I have been awantin’ for the past twenty year. What’ll ye sell me the hull plant fer, boys?”
Mr. Halliday’s Water Wheel.