Cassell's Book of In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun

by Various

This interesting little toy is best if made on a long box of very thin deal wood, about four or six inches deep, a circle an inch and a half in diameter, in which some small holes are to be drilled, being marked on the upper side of the box. Bridges, like the bridge of an ordinary violin or fiddle, are to be fastened on to each end of the upper side, and over these bridges are to be passed a number of strings of very fine cat-gut. The strings at one end are to be secured in the framework of the box, and at the other on screw pins, which are themselves fastened to the box. The strings can then be relaxed or tightened, as desired, by turning these pins, and the notes emitted by the different strings altered and arranged according to fancy. The instrument so made should be blown upon or placed in a current of air where the wind can pass freely over it, and then, according to the degrees of strength with which the strings are blown upon, different sounds will be produced.

Animated Serpent.

ANIMATED SERPENT.

The animated serpent is a simple and pretty toy. To make it, obtain, if possible, a piece of thin sheet copper or sheet brass, and if not, a piece of card of firm substance, but not too thick. Draw upon the material the form of a coiled-up serpent; cut out the serpent with the point of a sharp pen-knife, and fasten a thread through the tip of the tail. When this is done, fasten to the mantelpiece, or to some board to be placed thereon, the other end of the thread, taking care that the stove register is open. The weight of the serpent's body and head will cause the coils and head to fall below the suspended tail, and then, as a current of air is always passing up an open chimney, the serpent will revolve with more or less rapidity, according to the strength of the draught of air. It is well that the serpent when made should be striped green, black, and yellow, and should have glass beads, to represent eyes. Any situation in which there is a draught of air will be suitable, as well as the chimney-piece, in showing off the toy when made.

ANNULETTE.

See "[Parlour Croquet]."

APPLE MILL.

This is a top-toy readily made with a nut, an apple or potato, a wooden skewer, and a piece of string. First procure a good-sized Spanish or Barcelona nut, and through it bore a small hole, carefully removing all the kernel therefrom, and then make another small hole in one side of the shell. Pare down an ordinary wooden meat-skewer until it is thin enough to pass through the nut at the holes first bored therein, being careful to leave a head to the skewer at the top to prevent it passing entirely through the nut-shell. A piece of string should next be attached to the skewer at a point just beneath the head, the opposite end of which is to be passed through the hole in the side of the nut. The string is then to be wound round the skewer as the string is wound round an ordinary humming-top, leaving a small piece to pull. If an apple or potato is then stuck upon the pointed end of the skewer, and the string is pulled as when a humming-top is to be spun, the "apple mill," as made above, will spin round with considerable velocity.