CHAPTER IX

A FIRE-ESCAPE (PLATE XIV)

To make this toy, plenty of used matches are required, and some strips of light wood (that obtained from a soap-box or chocolate-box will do) and liquid glue.

Two lengths of wood, Q R and S T, are cut 12-1/2" × 1/2" × 1/4", and one long edge of each is rounded. These pieces are sand-papered if they are rough or uneven.

Twenty-three pencil dots half an inch apart are marked down the middle of the widest side of one piece. The two pieces are then clamped together (the piece with the 23 marks on top), and holes drilled through them both together with an Archimedean drill.

Next seventeen matches are taken, and cut exactly to the length 1-3/4 inches; the ends are tapered so that they will fit in the holes drilled. Beginning from one end of one long strip, hammer these matches in the first seventeen holes, place the second long strip of wood on top of these matches, so that the first seventeen holes are exactly over the seventeen matches and hammer it on. (Be careful to hammer in between the holes, a file makes a good hammer.) Hammer first one strip, and then the other until the matches are driven firmly in the holes, as far as they will go; file away all projecting ends of matches. Through the eighteenth hole of Q R and S T, a long piece of wood, A B, must pass to project 1-1/3 inches on each side of the ladder (Fig. 345).

Two pieces of wood, 3-1/2" × 1/2" × 1/4" (C D and E F), are cut, and have six holes drilled in them; these six holes must be marked off from the six remaining holes in the main ladder, so that they will come exactly opposite them; these pieces are secured to the main ladder by matches, and by the cross-piece, A B. The whole ladder is then glued to a strip of wood, G H, 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch of a length equal to the total width of the ladder. This can be put aside for a time.

Next the shaft in Fig. 346 is made. K P is the same length as G H in Fig. 345 and about 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch; K M, L N, O J, P U are each 4-1/4 inches long, they are the same distances apart as C G, Q R, S T and E H in Fig. 345. They are held together by strips, V, W, X, Y, Z. These strips may be matches; in this case they must be inserted first, and then the whole of K M P U is glued to K P.

This shaft is fastened to the main ladder in Fig. 345 midway between A B and G H, so that when the shaft is horizontal the main ladder makes an angle of 72° with it.

Fig. 347 shows the shaft M K, P U, attached to the main ladder; it is supported in its place by four struts, two on each side (_a_ and _b_ in Fig. 347). Care must be taken to saw off the ends M, N, J, U (Fig. 346) so that they rest exactly against C D, R Q, S T, E F (Fig. 345), at about an angle of 72°. The ends of the struts must also be carefully bevelled to fit; the main ladder can then be glued to the shaft and the struts to the main ladder and shaft.

Small wheels of cardboard or wood are nailed (as for ship's cannon) at each end of G H.

An axle for the larger wheels must be made to be glued on K P (Fig. 347). Care must be taken in deciding on the size of the large wheels, the diameter must be such a length that the shaft, K M P U, is parallel to the ground.

Next the back portion shown on the plate is made similarly to the shaft shown in Fig. 346. It is glued to G H so as to be at right angles to the main ladder. Pieces of wire bent and pushed into holes in C D and E F form railings. Pieces of stout thread are attached to strengthen the whole, as shown in the plate. An extra ladder (necessarily narrower) can be made to rest on the bar, X, and lean inside a piece of bent wire as shown. The wheels can be made of cardboard or sawn from any of the materials suggested in Part I, Chapter XIII.

_Note._--In making the fire-escape it will be a help to cut out two cardboard angles of 72°, these help to keep the shaft K M P U in the right position while the glue is drying.