Procure a piece of lamp cord, 15 or 20 ft. in length. Fasten an ordinary plug to one end of this cord and the other end to the two binding posts. Open one of the conductors in the cord at some point and introduce a single-pole switch, as shown in the sketch. Close the gap between the two pieces of copper by means of a piece of No. 32 gauge copper wire. Place the flash-light powder in position, but do not cover up the wire or have it in actual contact with the powder, and close the circuit. The operator may include himself in the picture by having a sufficiently long piece of lamp cord and the switch properly arranged.
A Simple Twine-Ball Holder
In looking for a place to put a twine ball I happened to see a tin funnel and it gave me the idea which I put into practice. I punched three holes at equal distances apart in its upper edge and attached three strings which were run to an apex and tied to a screweye in the ceiling. The end of the twine from the center of the ball was run through the funnel stem and allowed to hang as in an ordinary ball holder.—Contributed by W. C. Loy, Rochester, Ind.
A filler for birch, red gum and beech can be made of 1 lb. of bleached shellac to each gallon of water.
A Toy Popgun
A toy popgun can be easily made of two blocks of hard wood, 1/2 in. thick; a joint of bamboo, about 7/8 in. in diameter and 6 in. long; a small hinge, a piece of spring steel, 1/2 in. wide and 1 in. long, and a piece of soft wood for the plunger.
The plunger A is cut to fit snugly, yet so it will move easily in the piece of bamboo B. One of the blocks of hard wood, C, is bored to fit one end of the bamboo, the other block has a 1/4-in. hole bored, to center the hole in the first block. The two blocks are hinged and the spring latch attached as shown in the sketch. The spring has a hole drilled so it can be fastened with a screw to the outer block, and a slot cut in the other end to slip over a staple driven into the block C.