412 



Popular Science Monthly 



Making an Amusement Park Out of a 

 Vacant Lot 



TWO boys of South Andover, Mass., 

 with some mechanical skill, recently 

 found that a shaded lot can be converted 

 into an amusement park at a cost of about 

 fifty cents, the only purchases necessary 

 being some 

 nails and a 

 few packing 

 boxes for the 

 merry - go- 

 round. With 

 these and 

 some oak 

 saplings, 

 which were 

 cut down in 

 nearby 

 woods, they 

 constructed a 

 crude but 

 highly satis- 

 factory -car- 

 ousel which 

 soon covered 

 the cost of 

 construction 

 and brought 

 in clear 

 profits for the 

 entire sum- 

 mer. 



The oak 

 saplings formed the arms of the supporting 

 framework. They were eight in number 

 and eight feet long. Eight being the 

 magic number, accommodations were pro- 

 vided for eight persons, regardless of weight, 

 and eight minutes was the duration of the 

 ride. The motive power was furnished 

 by the promoters of the idea, who took 

 turns pushing on a bar attached to the 

 central support. 



According to the juvenile patrons of the 

 improvised amusement park, the only 

 thing lacking was the music, without 

 which a merry-go-round loses much of its 

 thrill. When a whistling 

 quartette and a harmonica 

 failed to meet the demand 

 of the patrons, the promo- 

 tors found that their 

 savings for this first season 

 would have to be invested 

 in a phonograph or hand- 

 organ in order to double 

 the proceeds next year. 



The proprietors of the homemade merry-go-round charged 

 one cent a ride for children and adults and made money 



He Hitches His Fishing Line to a 

 Five-Foot Kite 



FISHING for Corbina with kites to 

 carry the fish lines into deep water 

 is the innovation in angling recently in- 

 augurated by Thomas McD. Potter, of 

 the Los Angeles motorcycle club at Seal 

 Beach. 



At Seal 

 Beach there 

 is a fine Cor- 

 bina "hole" 

 just far 

 enough from 

 the pier to 

 be out of the 

 reach of the 

 best casters. 

 Boats , of 

 course, could 

 be used, but 

 they cost 

 more than 

 kites, are 

 conducive of 

 seasickness, 

 and don't of- 

 fer half the 

 sport that 

 kite fishing 

 does. 



Potter does 

 his fishing as 

 illustrated in 

 the drawing below. Better sport cannot 

 be imagined, while from the mechanical 

 point of view the method is quite as 

 satisfactory as it is original. 



The kite used is about five feet high, 

 which is big enough to have sufficient 

 "lift" for almost any fish that chances 

 to get on the hook. When the line is 

 pulled in the fish 



is hoisted to the 

 kite, where it re- 

 mains until the kite 

 is taken in. 



Agate 



Agate ring 



Agste ring 



When a fish gets on the hook the kite bobs up and down. 

 A quick pull on the line raises the fish to the kite 



