At the front of the wheel fasten a spool with steel wire nails driven through the tin to act as a hub. Then give them both a coat or two of paint.
Make a shaft from hard wood an inch square, and cut it in from one end about ten inches, as shown in Fig. 3. At the other end bind the wood for an inch or two with linen line or fine wire to prevent its splitting, and bore a hole in the end with an awl. Through the spool and disk, and into the hole in the shaft, drive a flat-headed steel wire nail or a screw, three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter, to act as the pinion on which the wheel may revolve.
From light wood, three-eighths of an inch in thickness, cut a fan-tail seven inches wide at one end and two at the other, and, having passed it through the cut in the shaft, make it fast with small nails or screws.
Balance the shaft and wheel on your finger to determine where to pierce the hole through which the upright shaft on the pole should pass; then bore it out with bit and brace so that the shaft will fit snug but not tight.
To the top of the shaft, over the hole, attach another spool, so as to form a longer bearing; or a strap of metal may be tacked so that it will bridge up over the hole about two inches. In this bridge a corresponding hole may be cut, through which the vertical shaft or pin will pass. This is to hold the vane steady on the long pin of quarter-inch round iron driven into the top of the pole, and prevent it from dipping forward or backward.
Place this vane on a shed, the end of a barn roof, or on a high pole where the wind has free access to it.
A Wind-speeder
Wind-speeders may be constructed of metal or partly of wood, but one that can easily be made by a boy consists of two sticks, four ordinary tin funnels having their ends stopped up with a plug of wood, and a pole, into the end of which a long iron pin is driven and on which the hub revolves. Fig. 4.
Two hard-wood sticks thirty inches long and three-quarters of an inch square are cut at the middle so that they will lap, and with steel nails they are attached to a hub three-quarters of an inch thick and three inches in diameter, in the centre of which a quarter-inch hole is bored. The end of each stick or arm is cut in to receive the funnels, and they are held in place by straps of tin passed around each neck and tacked fast to the top and bottom of the cross sticks.
With a sharp-pointed awl or punch a small hole is made through the strap and neck, and a long, slim steel nail is driven through both into the end of the sticks to give the funnels an additional purchase.