Fig. 151. [↑]
Fig. 152. [↑]
The revolving device, while not as familiar as our little windmills, is more easily secured in position but it is not impossible and in fact is not a very difficult task to fasten the windmills. The windmills can be made of stiff paper, any stiff cover paper will do; they spin well and are very light. They are usually made of a square piece of paper which is cut on the diagonal nearly to the center, [Fig. 149]; one of the points of each section is then brought a little past the center and a pin pushed thru, [Fig. 150]. These little whirligigs can be attached with the pin to the framework of the kite at various places. Larger mills can be made of stiffer paper, as bristol board, but the larger sizes will need more anchorage. The wheel will need an axle of wire and to secure it, a paper, perhaps several, will need to be pasted to the wheel and on the wire to prevent its flopping over. The wheels are made from a circular piece and are slitted from the circumference to near to the center and the sections are curved by drawing the paper over a pencil or similar object until the right curvature is obtained, [Fig. 151]. All the sections of a wheel are curved the same way but where there are more than one, part should turn to the right and the others to the left. The framework supporting the axle should reach across the opening and there should be a strip on each side as shown in [Fig. 152]. If the fans will not remain curved, a wire can be run around the outer edge, thus keeping the fans in place and at the proper angle. Other windmills are made with wooden axles that have little diagonal cuts to receive pieces of thin stiff cardboard as fans. These can usually be purchased, but they can also be made; [Fig. 153] has one fan removed. Make a small block and with small saw, make little cuts on the diagonal and set the fans in with glue. Some make little windmills of aluminum, which are similar to the ones made of light cardboard. Windmills can be applied in many ways; for example, they may represent wheels on an automobile kite, [Fig. 154], in which the tires are large and the windmill serves as the center of the wheel. When turning around it cannot be seen that the tire is not turning. Another wheel is shown at a in which small slanting fans are attached.
Fig. 153. [↑]
The most difficult part in making the auto kite is to keep it light and in poise. It will readily be seen that the automobile is a triangular box-kite. The hood of the engine should be open at both ends, with string across to represent screen. The hood instead of being a dead weight will have considerable lifting power, being part of a barrel kite. A framework is shown in [Fig. 155]. The top of the auto might be black or tan, the body red, black, grey, green or brown, the tires light tan, and the moving part of the wheels light yellow.