Popular Science Monthly 



Obtain two light bamboo sticks for the 

 boom, and gaff and make the sail from any 

 material at hand. Unbleached muslin is 

 cheap and it makes a very good sail. If it 

 is not wide enough the strips may be sewed 

 together. A good length for the mast is 

 three-quarters the length of the boat. The 

 boom should be just long enough to clear a 

 person seated in the cockpit. The sail 

 should be laced to the mast and boom with 

 stout twine or fish cord. This will make it 

 loose enough to permit a good fit, and in a 

 wind it will blow out smooth and snug. A 

 sheet rope is provided so that the sail can be 

 readily handled from the cockpit and 

 "trimmed" as the sailors say, to suit any 

 breeze that blows. 



With a small iceboat of this character 

 one can sail with the wind or sideways at 

 great speed. When the craft is first 

 launched rub some thick grease on the 

 bottoms of the staves to make them slide 

 along easily. In time they will wear so 

 smooth that no grease or oil will be needed. 

 The bottoms of the staves can be covered 

 with thick tin if desired to increase the 

 speed of the boat, but as a rule it will go 

 fast enough for all ordinary purposes. 



A Homemade Sight-Feed Oil 

 Indicator for an Automobile 



THE lower-priced cars are not usually 

 equipped with an oil-gage or indicator, 

 and consequently, if engine trouble occurs, 

 the driver does not know whether it is the 



LEATHER 



RING *- 



"A" CASING 



GLASS "C""' 



BRASS DISK D 



LEATHER WASHER 



A sight-feed oil indicator made from various 

 odds and ends collected from the scrap pile 



fault of the lubricating system or not. The 

 addition of some form of sight feed placed 

 somewhere on the dash will readily show 



any trouble of this nature which occurs. 

 We seldom realize when gazing at the 

 junk pile in some forgotten corner of the 

 garage-shop with what a little amount of 

 effort many of the discarded parts collected 



BRASS DISK D 



Lock ring and brass disk for holding the 

 glass in the casing to prevent oil leakage 



there could be made to save both time and 

 money in making quick repairs or in rigging 

 up some handy device. 



The device illustrated herewith is the 

 simplest form of a sight feed. It was made 

 out of a discarded octagonal hub cap, A, the 

 flat portion of which had been removed on a 

 turning lathe. Directly beside the portion 

 removed, a square groove was turned on the 

 inside for the purpose of holding the ring B, 

 which served to hold the glass C and brass 

 disk D in position. The cover E was made 

 from a cast iron pipe end, the thread on the 

 inside of which fitted into threads on the 

 outside of the body A. The brass pipe 

 unions E were tapped into the cap D, the 

 lower one being fastened directly, and the 

 upper through the medium of the collar F. 

 The tube G, bent at one end, and provided 

 with a thread at the other, was inserted 

 within the casing to so guide the stream of 

 oil that its flow might readily be noticed. 

 Leather gaskets were inserted as shown to 

 prevent leakage. The method of connect- 

 ing the device is clearly shown in the 

 illustration. — Adolph Klein. 



Removing Nitric Acid Stains 

 from the Hands 



IT IS next to impossible to remove nitric 

 acid stains from clothing, if it has not 

 already burnt a hole through the material. 

 But the yellow stains can be removed from 

 the hands by applying permanganate of 

 potash at the end of a glass rod or dropper, 

 and then washing them in water. This 

 treatment turns the stain brown. The 

 hands are then dipped in dilute hydro- 

 chloric acid (muriatic), and then washed 



