ORIGINAL STREET FAIR BOOTH WITH REVOLVING ILLUMINATED BALL.
It has always been my theory—and I have yet to hear it successfully disputed—that it is better to have an attractive advertisement costing $1 than a poor one costing twenty-five cents; and on this hypothesis the above booth will be described. The street fair is one of the best chances for advertising you will ever get. Your audience is not going to be the same that critically and leisurely inspected your show windows and the goods and taste displayed therein the week before. It is going to be a rushing, pushing, good natured and sight seeing crowd. It will not be one that will be critically inclined, nor have time for minute details. Knowing this to be a fact, it is “up to you” to get in your advertising and do it with a booth that will arrest the eye, whether in a hurry or not. Here is where you can use all the loud, flashy and contrasting colors you want.
BICYCLE PARADE FLOAT.—Softley.
First you must see if your electric light company has the “strings” of lights (see Fig. 1), shown running from the center to corners, on hand. There are companies who keep these on hand, with weatherproof sockets, to be rented out for just such purposes. The lights shown around the edges can be put in by any electrician at a small cost on one circuit. Both these and the “strings” are supposed to burn steadily, and not connected to the flasher. The carpenter contractor will undoubtedly put in an appearance in due time. These contractors usually put up the booths for a stipulated price, rent you the lumber and remove it when the fair is over.
Next is the ball frame (see Fig. 2). This is intended to be six feet in diameter, made of strips of wood or moulding ¼ × 3 inches, soaked in hot water and bent to form. The 3-inch width is to give you a base for the lamp sockets. Between the six ribs shown run hogshead hoops to give fullness between the ribs shown. The frame can be covered with two contrasting colors in six equal sized pieces for daylight effect, and the colored lights will take care of this part in the evening. The shaft should be of 1-inch gas pipe. Having had a platform built inside the booth flush with the gables, it will be a length equal from the floor of the platform to the peak of the roof, plus the height of the ball and six inches for clearance. Have the bottom drawn to a point or filled with a pointed plug shown at C (Fig. 2), and provide a socket bearing. This bearing is intended to support the entire ball and not offer undue friction to its rotation. It will also be necessary to provide an extra shield near the bottom to prevent a heavy wind forcing it out of the socket sideways. At a point just under the peak of the roof, which is also the upper bearing for the shaft, drill two ½-inch holes. Drill two holes also at a point between the roof outside and the bottom of the ball, shown at A. The contact rings and brushes at B are fully described in detail in the March issue of The Show Window. These will be made the same, only larger. Equip the shaft with a 5-inch grooved pulley belt direct to the countershaft of your flasher, and it will run about thirty revolutions per minute.
PARADE FLOAT.—Bittman.
