Fig. 453
To make a Bicyclist (Fig. 453). Cut two circles of cardboard, radius 1¼ inches. Mark on them the spokes of a bicycle.
Make two sand-wheels the same size as the bicycle wheels; their width should be about ½ inch to ¾ inch. Take a piece of stripwood ½ inch by ¼ inch and the length of the box. Make holes in it, 3 inches, 4½ inches and 6 inches from one end. Nail the bar across the box 3 inches from ground; make holes in the back of the box exactly opposite the holes in the bar. Make wooden axles to pass right through these holes so that they turn freely in them. The sand-wheels should be glued to two of these axles. Now cut out a piece of cardboard to fit over the front of the box; bore holes in it corresponding to those in the bar, G H. Paint on it a suitable background, as in Fig. 453. Nail small pieces of stripwood, ½ inch by ¼ inch, to the corners of the box (as at A and B in Fig. 453), to which the cardboard can be fastened by drawing-pins or glue. Pass the axles of the sand-wheels through the first and third holes from the end of bar G H, and let them project about 1 inch beyond the cardboard. To these ends the bicycle wheels must be glued. In making this toy it is better not to fasten pieces together too quickly, until all the various parts are ready.
The figure of the cyclist should be cut out to the measurements given for the little gymnast in Chapter XVI. The body and head could be cut out of thin three-ply wood, and the arms and legs of cardboard. The best method of joining limbs to the body so that there is the least possible friction is as follows. Cut off a small piece of a pin, including the head, pass it through the holes, and apply to the cut end a tiny drop of sealing wax. Make holes in the cyclist's feet at G (Fig. 454). Cut a small cardboard wheel, F, about ½ inch in diameter: make a hole in its centre and one near the circumference.
Fig. 454
Glue a piece of match stick into the hole near the circumference, the other end of this match stick must turn freely in the hole in cyclist's left foot. Pass the axle already made through this wheel, to which it must be glued, and through the cyclist's right foot and through middle hole in the bar.
Make two small pulley wheels (e.g. slices of reels with cardboard flanges), one twice the size of the other. Fig. 455 shows how the toy is put together and how it works. A and B are the sand-wheels; axles, F G and F M, are glued into them and into the two bicycle wheels. K H is the axle passing through centre of pedal wheel. N O are pulley wheels glued to axles, F G and H K, respectively, and connected by an elastic band, E. When sand-wheel, A, turns round, wheel, N, turns and turns pedal wheel, F, in Fig. 456, and as O is twice as big as wheel N, the pedal will revolve twice as slowly as the bicycle wheels.
Fig. 455