To use the pump, fill the tube with water and place the lower end of the tube in a reservoir of water. Make a nozzle of the end of a clay pipe stem for the other end of the tube. Then turn the crank from left to right. The first wheel presses the air out of the tube, creating a vacuum which is immediately filled with water. Before the first wheel releases the tube at the top, the other wheel has reached the bottom, this time pressing along the water that was brought up by the first wheel. If the motion of the wheels is regular, the pump will give a steady stream. Two feet of 1/4-in. tubing, costing 10 cents, is all the expense necessary.
Contributed by Dan H. Hubbard, Idana, Kan.
How to Make a Fire Screen
Fig. 1
Fig. 2 Made of Strap Iron
A screen which will not interfere with the radiation of the heat from the fire, and will keep skirts and children safe can be made at little expense out of some strap iron. The screen which is shown in Fig. 1, stands 20 in. high from the base to the top cross-piece and is made of 3/4 by 1/4-in. and 1/2 by 1/4-in. iron. The top and bottom pieces marked AA, Fig. 1, are 3/4 by 1/4 in. and are 30 in. long, bent at an angle to fit the fireplace 7 in. from each end, as shown in Fig. 2. The three legs marked BBB, Fig. 1, are of the same size iron and each leg will take 34 in. of material. In shaping the feet of these three pieces give them a slight tendency to lean toward the fire or inside of screen, says a correspondent in the Blacksmith and Wheelwright. In the two cross bars 1 in. from each end, A in Fig. 2, mark for hole and 3 in. from that mark the next hole. Take the center of the bar, B, 15 in. from each end, and mark for a hole, and 3-1/2 in. on each side mark again and 3-1/2 in. beyond each of these two, mark again.
Mark the legs 2-3/4 in. from the bottom and 2 in. from the top and after making rivet-holes rivet them to the cross bars, AA, Fig. 1.
Cut six pieces, 17-1/2 in. long and punch holes to fit and rivet onto the remaining holes in cross bars, AA, Fig. 1. Clean it up and give it a coat of black Japan or dead black.