Chapt. xiii. An impromptu winch. 159 



be bought in most bazaars ; but in any case can be readily 

 made by any jeweller. Pass little bits of flat-hammered 

 wire through them, and tie them on in position. Your 

 rod is ready. 



The reel is a little more troublesome, 

 Winch. ^ut it can be done. Troublesome rather to 



describe than to make, for the crudest carpentering and 

 blacksmithing will suffice. Almost every native carpenter 

 has a clumsy sort of lathe worked on the ground by two 

 men. That will do very well. Make him take a piece of 

 close grained wood the size you want your reel to be. 

 It is easier to make it large than small, so take a piece of 

 wood 5 inches deep and broad, by three inches long. Reduce 

 it to a disc, or Dutch cheese shape, of 5 inches in cir- 

 cumference, and keeping it in that position in the lathe, 

 cut a groove in it of about 2 or 2£ inches in breadth, so 

 as to leave walls on either side of half an inch or there- 

 abouts, of enough in fact for strength; and leave enough of 

 axle in the centre for strength. Bore a hole through this 

 axle from end to end, where the lathe mark shewed the 

 centre. Through this hole run a smooth iron pin of 

 nearly the thickness of a quill, with a knob at one end, 

 and clamped or screwed at the other end to a small block 

 of wood, the same size as the winch or less, and half an 

 inch thick. To this block of wood attach firmly a piece of 

 flat iron, a little thicker and narrower than ordinary hoop 

 iron; run it down till clear of the edge of the winch, and 

 then bend it across it at right angles, and let it be long 

 enough to come two-thirds across, and weld or rivet at 



