Painting the Canoe
The canvas should be given a coat of shellac before the paint is applied. This makes it waterproof. Then four coats of paint are applied to fill the fibers of the canvas. To make a smooth finishing coat, rub down the second and third coats with fine sandpaper. The entire woodwork of the canoe should be finished with three coats of good-quality outside spar varnish.
A slatted grating, made of soft-pine lattice stuff, about 1¹⁄₈ in. wide and 1¹⁄₄ in. thick, will afford protection to the bottom of the canoe. For summer use this is desirable, but may be omitted on long trips and when soft footwear is worn. The grating should not be fastened to the ribs, but the parallel strips screwed, or nailed, to cross strips, curved to fit the contour of the canoe’s bottom. The grating should extend from well under the stern seat up to the stem splice in the bow, and should be nicely tapered to make a neat appearance. By fastening two or three little blocks of wood so that they will extend up between the slats, one may screw small brass buttons into these blocks to keep the slatted floor in place, thus making it easily removable when washing out the canoe.
A Ring-and-Egg Trick
This trick consists in borrowing a ring and wrapping it in a handkerchief from which it is made to disappear, to be found in an egg, taken from a number in a plate.
Obtain a wedding ring and sew it into one corner of a handkerchief. After borrowing a ring, pretend to wrap it in the center of the handkerchief, but instead wrap up the one concealed in the corner, retaining the borrowed one in the hand. Before beginning the performance, place in the bottom of an egg cup a small quantity of soft wax. When getting the cup, slip the borrowed ring into the wax in an upright position. An egg is then chosen by anyone in the audience. This is placed in the egg cup, the ring in the bottom being pressed into the shell. With a button hook break the top of the shell and fish out the ring. The handkerchief is then taken out to show that the ring has vanished.
Lock for Gasoline Tank on a Launch
Filler-Pipe Cover Lock to Prevent the Theft of Gasoline from a Motorboat
Having trouble by thefts of gasoline from the tank in my launch, I made the following device to prevent them, which proved very effective. A strap hinge, about 12 in. long, was procured, and on one wing, near the outer end, I fastened a staple made of a large nail, and near the center a large hole was drilled to fit over the pipe, or opening, to the tank. The other wing of the hinge was bent to the shape shown, and an oak block was fastened in the bend with wood screws. A hole was bored in the block to fit over the end of the pipe. A slot was cut in the same wing at the end to receive the staple. In turning the wing over to cover the pipe end, the staple was brought into position for a padlock. After locking the device, most of the screws are covered so that it is almost impossible to remove them without taking off the lock.—Contributed by Stephen H. Freeman, Klamath Falls, Oregon.