CHAPTER XXIII.
HOME-MADE TOYS
It may be that some of these toys would amuse only little boys, but we have included them because our directions will enable older boys to entertain their little sisters and brothers.
How to Make Fire Balloons.—You will require for materials, tissue paper, which may be all white, or varied in colour. A balloon of white and red gores alternately is perhaps the best, as it may be used day or night; and as the balloon is constantly turning when it is in the air, the stripes add to the effect. Then again there are conditions of the clouds and atmosphere when a white balloon ascending by daylight would be scarcely visible, and for parachute purposes a daylight ascent is desirable. Tissue paper, then, paste, bonnet wire or cane, finer wire; some tow, cotton wool, or common sponge, or better than all, some round lamp-cotton, and methylated spirit or tallow, as fuel for your furnace.
The shaping of the gores which are to form your balloon must be your first consideration. You will find it advisable not to go in for overgrown balloons. They are far more troublesome to build, and to manage when they are built, and are little if any more effective than those of moderate dimensions. About four feet in height is the size which produces the best results, and in making it one is neither cramped for room, nor are the gores of unmanageable proportions.
Twelve or fourteen gores, if you use two colours, or thirteen if you confine yourself to one, will be needed; and it will be wise not to attempt to emulate the graceful pear-shape of the ordinary passenger gas balloon, but to aim at something approaching much nearer to a ball in form. The pear-shaped balloon would take fire to a certainty. Fig. 1 is an example of the unsafe form which is to be avoided; Fig. 2 is a perfectly safe model.
Fire Balloons.
A piece of common cardboard or stout brown paper, six feet in length and a foot in width, will serve for a pattern gore. Fold it exactly in half lengthwise, and then mark off each foot, beginning at the bottom (Fig. 3). At a measure off horizontally 2 inches; at b, which is the first foot, 3½ inches; at c, 5 inches; at a point 4 inches above d, the third foot, measure off 6 inches; at e 5½ inches, marking each point. Then connect the points by as graceful a curve as may be, and cut through the line thus obtained, unfold the pattern, and you have your standard gore.
Sufficient tissue paper should have been pasted together by the narrow edges from which to cut the 12, 13, or 14 lengths of 6 feet each. The sheets should now be placed one upon the other, and the pattern being opened out and laid upon the top, the whole of the gores may be cut at one operation.