Apart from the materials dealt with there are numerous little fragments. A pane of glass is broken, for instance, and in most cases all the pieces are thrown away. Now this is quite unnecessary, for from them can be made some
Japanese Wind Bells.—Probably most boys and girls have heard or seen the jolly little "wind bells" which the Japanese people make, and which many English folk now hang in their houses. As they are made simply of slips of glass and pieces of wool or string, there is not much difficulty in their construction; and they are worth all the trouble you take, for their merry little tinkle is a pleasing sound.
The slips of glass—they are generally little rectangles, varying from 1 in. to 2 in. in width, and 2 in. to 4 in. in length—are suspended so that when a gentle breeze disturbs them the corners strike gently. To secure a proper suspension, you can either take a board, 6 in. square, and hang the strings from it, or you can make a conical wire frame, about 6 in. across, and hang the pieces of wool (or string) from the two rings (Fig. 92). The pieces of glass, which can be of any shape and size, should be fixed by means of sealing wax. It is usual to give the glass slips a few dabs of colour, so as to give a brighter effect at night. If you can introduce one or two pieces of coloured glass, the same effect will result.
Fig. 92.
Other broken things, too, can be turned to account.
One such toy, made up of things otherwise quite useless, is
A Musical Box.—This entertaining musical toy, capable of producing the most beautiful sound effects, can quite easily be made with a few broken wine glasses. So long as the bowl part of the glass is intact, it does not matter to what extent the stem or foot part has been damaged, provided there is enough of the stem remaining to insert in a wooden block.
The sound effects are produced by rubbing the ball of the finger gently round the rim of the glass. For this the finger-tip must be absolutely clean, particularly of any grease, and must be thoroughly wet. Probably for the first time or two of rubbing nothing will occur. If that is so, continue wetting the finger, and rub it on an india-rubber sponge or a piece of soft india-rubber. You will know at once when the finger-tip is in the right condition, for it will commence to "drag" on the rim. Eventually a most beautiful pealing note will be emitted, which note will alter slightly in tone if water be poured into the glass.