Stenciling with Photographic Films
Serviceable Stencils may be Cut from Photographic Films, and Afford a Practical Means of Making Signs and Other Forms
Photographic films make excellent material from which to cut stencils for use in marking show cards, placards, etc., as well as for other uses to which stencils are put. Pictures, or other designs to be stenciled, may be pasted to the film and the outline cut, care being taken that the design is adapted for stenciling. This is important, since frequently binding strips must be left in the design in order to make it possible to cut a satisfactory stencil from it. The films are used with the rough side down, to prevent them from slipping. A variety of subjects for stencil design may be adapted from pictures clipped from publications or other sources.—Robert Smith, New Westminster, B. C., Canada.
A Gas-Stove Lighter
For lighting the gas stove, matches are not only untidy but inconvenient. In lieu thereof I use a simple affair consisting of a wood handle with a large nail set in the end, with which it is only necessary to touch the burner in order to start a flame. There is nothing to wear out and no parts to renew. Furthermore this gas lighter uses only one wire—a fact that is apt to strike a person as being rather unusual on first thought. However, if the reader will connect one terminal of a 60-watt lamp with the gas main or to the gas stove and then touch the other terminal successively with each of the two ends of the live wires it will be found that the lamp will light up with one terminal but not with the other, for the reason that one side of the circuit is usually grounded at most electric-light plants as a precaution against lightning.
All that is necessary to get a spark is to provide a suitable resistance coil with an iron core, so that the fuse will not be blown and to secure sufficient inductance to get a hot spark. The writer uses an ordinary 50-ohm telephone induction coil, in which the primary and secondary are placed in series by the diagonal connection indicated in the sketch. Almost any coil or electromagnet of 25-ohm resistance, or more, connected in a circuit will prove safe and give a hot spark. Place the coil in some out-of-the-way corner, and run one strand of the usual flexible cord to the handle, which should be hung at some convenient point at the right-hand side of the stove. Let the handle itself be long enough so that there will be no tendency to catch hold of the metal point. Run the flexible cord through the center and out at the lower end, into which a wire nail with the head removed is driven. Solder the wire to the nail, and the lighter is ready.
Single Contact Point for Making a Spark to Light a Gas-Stove Burner or Tip
For lighting Bunsen burners, and other fixtures using rubber tubing, a small wire may be run down the center of the tubing so as to ground the burner, or else a small surface on the workbench may be covered with tin and this grounded, so that it is only necessary to set the burner thereon to get a light.—John D. Adams, Phoenix, Arizona.