[VII]
DESIGNING MOVING TOYS
The boys found this making of toys so fascinating that one was barely finished before another was suggested. So absorbed did they become that even meals were forgotten, and they regarded it as a hardship to be called in to supper, while to be told that it was bedtime was absolute cruelty. They found that it saved time to be systematic, and the usual method of procedure was about as follows:
Fig. 44. The boxers
First, to decide on the practicability of the idea. Second, to sketch out a skeleton figure, as in a ([Fig. 44]), the boxers. When the proper action was secured in these skeleton figures, the bodies were sketched roughly around them as shown at b. Third, the movement of the figures was thought out, and separate drawings traced from the assembled drawing on tracing paper. Fourth, these separate pieces were traced on 1⁄8-inch basswood with the grain of the wood running the long way of the piece, wherever it was possible. Fifth, the pieces were sawed out, and the edges smoothed with knife and sand-paper. Very often, through anxiety to see how it worked, the smoothing of the edges was neglected. Sixth, the parts were put together with brads, and where the points came through they were bent over or "clinched" on the further side. Seventh, after experiments to discover the best position for it, the moving strip was fastened to the legs by 3⁄8-inch brads, and last of all the feet were pivoted to the ground piece in the same way.
