[Transcriber's Note
The "LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS" was added.
Many of the figures were NOT in sequential order within the original
publication and are transcribed as printed.
Emphasis notation for italic is _Text_ and bold is =Text=.
Whole and fractional parts of numbers is displayed as 2-1/4.]
HOME-MADE TOYS
FOR
GIRLS AND BOYS
BOOKS BY A. NEELY HALL
_8vo. Cloth. Illustrated with hundreds of full-page
and working drawings by the author
and Norman P. Hall_
=THE BOY CRAFTSMAN= { Price _net_ $ 1.60
{ Postpaid 1.82
=HANDICRAFT FOR HANDY BOYS= { Price _net_ $ 2.00
{ Postpaid 2.25
=THE HANDY BOY= { Price _net_ $ 1.60
{ Postpaid 1.82
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
[Illustration: FIGS. 287 AND 288. AN AUTO DELIVERY-WAGON BUILT OF
CIGAR-BOXES. (See page 192.)]
HOME-MADE TOYS
FOR
GIRLS AND BOYS
Wooden and Cardboard Toys,
Mechanical and Electrical Toys
_By_ A. Neely Hall
_Author of_ "_The Boy Craftsman_",
"_Handicraft for Handy Boys_",
"_The Handy Boy_" _Etc._
With over three hundred illustrations and
working-drawings by the author and Norman
P. Hall
BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD COMPANY
PUBLISHED, AUGUST, 1915
_All rights reserved_
HOME-MADE TOYS FOR GIRLS AND BOYS
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
_Constructive ideas expel destructive ideas from the juvenile mind._
INTRODUCTORY NOTES
Through the author's handicraft volumes, and magazine and newspaper
articles, thousands of boys and girls who never realized they could make
their own toys, have succeeded in constructing models which would do
credit to Santa Claus' master toy-makers.
The success of this new home industry has suggested the need of a volume
devoted entirely to toy-making, and in HOME-MADE TOYS FOR GIRLS AND BOYS
the author has brought together a large number of the toy ideas from his
former handicraft volumes, and from his articles published in the
_Ladies' Home Journal_, _Woman's Home Companion_, _Good Housekeeping_,
the _Boys' Magazine_, and other publications, and he believes that as
collected and arranged the material will be found a veritable gold-mine
of toy-making information.
Go to any toy store and price the toys similar to those described within
these covers, then estimate if you can how much the other toys you do
not find would cost if manufactured, and you will discover that one
hundred dollars would not cover their value. One splendid thing about
these home-made toys is that the greater part of them require little
more than the pick-up material found at home. Few boys and girls are
given a one hundred dollar assortment of toys at a time, yet any one can
own a collection of this value who is willing to spend the time
necessary to follow the instructions given in this book. Probably,
though, some of the toys will be wanted now, and the others one, two or
three seasons hence, because, you see, the book is an all-the-year-round
handy book with suggestions for every season. Some of the toys will be
of especial interest to boys, yet girls who like what boys like will
enjoy making them also.
Home-made toys are generally longer lived than store toys because the
boy or girl who expends a certain amount of effort producing gives them
better care. Home-made toys have a greater value than boughten ones
because there is as much fun making them as playing with them. Doing
something interesting, getting satisfying results out of the work,
putting an idea into tangible form, and having a toy to show of which it
can be said, "I made this all myself,"--these are the factors in
toy-making so fascinating to boys and girls.
It is no less a child's nature to want to do that which is most pleasing
to him, than an adult's, so why not encourage this wholesome activity of
toy-making to which the child takes as readily as a duck takes to water?
It trains the mind to think clearly, the hands to work cleverly,
replaces destructive thoughts with constructive ideas, and, in making
the boy or girl dependent upon himself or herself for toys, is
invaluable in developing resourcefulness.
Recognizing how easily the child's interest is attracted and held by
anything of a building nature, toy manufacturers have placed scores of
so-called "construction sets" upon the market, but, though excellent as
these outfits are, the toys they form are merely assembled, not really
made by the boy or girl, and much of the value of making is lost. Exactly
as good models as those assembled with "construction sets" can be made of
pick-up materials, as chapters in this book show. In fact, some of the
models in the manufacturers' instruction pamphlets--merry-go-rounds,
Ferris wheels and swings--are almost identical with home-made models
devised long ago by the author for his readers. Furthermore, there are
many, very many toys in HOME-MADE TOYS FOR GIRLS AND BOYS which are
beyond the limited possibilities of "construction sets."
A. N. H.
OAK PARK, ILLINOIS,
May 31, 1915.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
HOME-MADE WINDMILLS 1
The Paper Pinwheel--The Pinion-wheel Windmill--To mount
the Pinion-wheel--The Four-blade Windmill--To mount the
Windmill--The Eight-blade Windmill--The Hub--The Eight
Blades--The Shaft--The Tail--To pivot the Windmill--To
operate a Toy Jumping-jack.