The fish is cut from wood five-eighths of an inch thick, and all around the edges the wood is bevelled so as to give the fish a rounded effect. The fish is balanced on the edge of a piece of wood to determine where the rod will pass through it; then with a quarter-inch bit the hole is carefully bored through from top to bottom. The compass-point letters can be made from sheet tin and supported on two cross sticks and a stout wire hoop from twelve to fifteen inches in diameter.
The lady with the parasol is cut from wood half an inch in thickness. She is fifteen inches high and twelve inches wide across the bottom of the skirt. From the shoes to the hat, a quarter-inch hole is bored entirely through the body, but if this be found too difficult, a staple at the top and bottom will answer instead. Through these staples the rod will pass.
The squirrel is made in the same manner as the lady, and either balanced on the rod which passes through the body or by means of staples driven at one side. A ring and washer should be provided on the rod for the bottom of the vane to rest on, as there would be too much friction if the vane rested on the top end of the pole into which the rod is driven.
The bird vane is cut out and balanced the same as the fish, and the modelling may be carved in the wood or painted, to give shape and character to the vane. Otherwise it would be but a blank piece of thin board cut in the shape of the outline.
In all of these vanes it is necessary, of course, to have the greatest overhang on the side opposite to that facing the wind, otherwise they would not indicate properly.
A Wind-pennant
An excellent and reliable wind indicator is shown in Fig. 7, the illustration of the wind-pennant. It consists of a metal hoop on which a funnel-shaped silk or cotton fabric pennant is sewed fast, and when this latter is filled by a breeze it stands out, as the illustration shows.
A pennant fifteen inches long should have a hoop five inches in diameter, and it can be made either from wire rings bent as shown in Fig. 8 A, or from sheet metal, as shown at Fig. 8 B.
The sheet metal should be perforated with small holes all around one edge to pass the thread through, when sewing the fabric fast, and the edges should be smoothed so as not to cut the threads. If the hoop is made of wire, a ring should be formed at top and bottom for the upright rod to pass through; but if it is of sheet metal a hole at the top and bottom will admit the rod.
This pennant is very useful at the mast-head of a boat, and is much more satisfactory to watch than the perpetually bobbing flat pennant, as it does not break or fall down unless it is calm, and only shifts from side to side as the wind blows it.