It is a good plan to stiffen the body with corner braces, using ¹⁄₈ by ³⁄₄-in. band iron. The floor of the body should be strongly fastened, tongue-and-groove boards being used, and the side corners should be fitted with iron braces at the bottom. The body may be extended farther over the rear, if more loading space is required.
One coat of priming and one of paint finishes the box, and with the name of the merchant on the front and rear, the whole makes a neat advertising feature. Regarding the selection of a bicycle, since great speed is not essential, the lower the gearing is, the easier it will be to propel the load, and for ordinary work, where only small grades are covered, a gear of about 65 will be found efficient.
Handy Use for Adhesive Tape
Adhesive tape is useful in the shop and for the home mechanic, for many purposes: to mend broken handles temporarily; to bind up a cut finger; to prevent a hammer or ax handle from slipping in the hands, by applying tape around the handle; for making a ferrule for an awl, chisel, etc.; around the nail set it will keep that tool from jarring the hand; around a lead pencil in the vest pocket as a guard.
A Toy Machine Gun That Fires Wooden Bullets
For use in the mimic battles which most boys like to stage in this war time, an interesting mechanical toy that a boy can easily make of materials picked up in the workshop, is a machine gun having a magazine for wooden bullets, and which can be made as a single or a double-barrel gun. The construction of the single-barrel arrangement is detailed in the [sketch] and the modification for a double-barrel gun is shown in the [smaller diagram]. It is a duplicate of the first type, suitably mounted as shown. The gun is fired by turning the crank on the wheel and the bullets can be quickly replaced in the magazine at the top.
The Machine Gun is Fired by Turning the Crank at the Wheel, the Pins on the Latter Drawing Back the Hammer, Which is Hooked Up with a Rubber Band
The support for the gun is made of wood and braced strongly at the base. The gun proper is set into the top of the vertical piece, as shown, and the magazine, which is bent from a piece of tin to the shape detailed in the sectional view, fits on top of the breach of the gun. The hammer, which drives the bullets, is made of a piece of stiff wire bent to the shape shown. The lower curved end is connected to a small nail set on a block at the shaft of the wheel. To fire the gun, the hammer is drawn back by contact with the small nails set into the side of the wheel. As the wheel is turned, the nails grip the hammer and then suddenly release it, driving out the lowest bullet each time. The bullets are piled in the magazine, as shown in the detailed view at the right, where the rear view of the gun barrel is indicated.—Edward R. Smith, Walla Walla, Washington.