The Home Workbench 



Avoiding Dangerous Stair Turns 



THE turn of an ordinary narrow 

 staircase is so sliarp and the steps 

 at the inner part of the turn so nar- 

 row that a person in a hurry is likely 

 to stumble and fall. The danger of 

 injury can be considerably reduced by 

 construcing the stairs with the steps 



f,q ff 



The usual way of building stairs (Fig. A), 

 and the more intelligent scheme of widen- 

 ing the inside steps at the turn (Fig. B) 



wider at the inside of the turn. To ac- 

 complish this, more steps must be allowed 

 for making the turn. 



Instead of the usual sharp right an- 

 gle, each succeeding step should be 

 cut at an increasing angle, so that 

 double the number of steps are re- 

 quired in constructing the turn. By a 

 comparison of the two drawings, it is 

 readily seen that the breadth of the 

 step on the inside of the turn meant 

 comfort and safety in a narrow passage. 



A Dustless Ash Sifter 



THAT unhappy Saturday morning 

 task of the small boy — sifting 

 ashes — may be brightened to some ex- 

 tent by a comparatively dustless ash 

 sifter. Certainly, a device of this sort 

 will be welcomed by the housewife, 



who listens with consternation to the 

 grating sound of the ash-sifter, fully 

 aware of the disaster that powdered 

 ashes wreak on lace window curtains 

 and polished wood work and furniture. 



The dustless ash sifter consists of 

 two boxes, one for sifting the ashes, 

 the other for receiving the waste. The 

 lower box is large, and fitted with a 

 sliding door at one end for removing 

 the ashes when it is filled. The upper 

 box is nailed over a long hole in the 

 top of the other, and is provided with 

 a hinged cover. At one end of the 

 small box a hole is cut to admit the 

 handle of the sifter. The sifter, itself, 

 consists of a fiat wooden frame, made 

 box shaped, from four narrow boards. 

 It is open at the top and screened at the 

 bottom. 



The ashes are placed in the sifter, the 

 hinged top is closed, and the handle 

 is moved back and forth. Unusable 

 ashes fall into the bin below; clinkers 

 and unburned coal remain on the 

 screen. 



A packing box, properly adapted, becomes 

 an excellent dustless ash sifter 



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