The pattern we have given is easy to make. The instrument may be of different dimensions and of different materials. It may be fitted together in a different manner, but it must have its central figure with the opposite sides equal.
Our mathematical friends will soon be able to demonstrate the reason of its action, and it may be no little satisfaction to the bulk of our readers to find that there is some practical use in old Euclid after all!
CHAPTER XLIII.—MY FLAGSTAFF, AND HOW I RIGGED IT.
There are many forms of flagstaffs, and many ways of erecting and rigging them. They are sometimes made of iron, and are not unfrequently rigged with wire or with wire rope. Some are fitted with topmasts, yards, and gaffs, others simply consist of the one pole.
The flagstaff we are going to describe is not one that will run our readers into any unnecessary expense. It can be erected, fitted, and rigged by any ordinary boy of average ability, at a small expense, although of course the more money that is laid out upon it the better it should look when erected.
We shall give the description, however, of the very cheapest that can be made consistently with safety. To commence with, the staff itself can be obtained from any builder by purchasing a small scaffold pole, which will cost—according to your skill in bargaining—from one penny to three halfpence a foot. This can either be planed and varnished; or, if our reader is not much of a carpenter, it may be painted white with paint obtained already mixed from the nearest oilshop at about sixpence a pound.
The height we must leave to the taste of the reader, but the following scale will be found convenient, and will look very well. Let the pole be 46 feet in length. Then a hole will have to be dug in the ground 6 feet in depth to receive that amount of the staff. But before it is erected it must be rigged and have the ‘knees’ screwed or nailed upon it. A big flagstaff would have ‘crosstrees’ like the topmast of a ship, but it will be more easy and will look less clumsy simply to fix it with knees. These are pieces of wood which will be described [afterwards], and which have to be fixed about 30 feet from the ground.
The next thing to arrange is the rigging. For that we shall require three shrouds on each side and one stay in front, besides signal halliards to hoist and lower the flag. Two-inch rope will do very well for the shrouds, but 21⁄2-inch would perhaps be a little safer. Rope is sold by weight, and 2-inch rope may be purchased at sixpence a pound, a pound of 2-inch rope equalling one fathom, which is 6 feet. The easiest way of measuring in order to ascertain what length of rope you will require is as follows. Having obtained your staff, lay it upon the ground. Then measure off the 6 feet that has to go in the ground and mark it with a piece of chalk. Now measure the 30 feet and mark the staff where the knees will be placed. Now measure a straight line at right angles to the lower chalk mark, where the staff, when erected, will be flush with the ground.