An Aerial Ropeway

This increasingly popular form of transporting goods suggests an up-to-date mechanical toy which will provide a great deal of amusement.

The first necessity is a pair of stout wooden uprights, suitably weighted so that they will not pull over. Wood one inch square in section and about six inches high will be suitable, if each upright is firmly screwed to a square wooden base, having sides three inches long.

Near the top of each post fix a pulley wheel, the two being at the same height up the posts.

Now stand one post on a table and the other on an adjoining sideboard, the idea being that there should be deep gap between them.

Next run an endless strip of stout, flexible wire from one pulley wheel to the other and see that it is quite tight.

The ropeway is finished; but a truck is wanted to complete the equipment. Diagram A shows a suitable pattern. The body can be made out of cardboard or sheet iron and the hooks and slinging frame of stout zinc wire.

To work the model, place the truck on the endless wire at B and rotate the pulley at C. When the truck reaches C it is unloaded, and on twisting the pulley at B it is brought back to the starting-point.

Another way to set up the ropeway is to attach a fixed single wire to the posts, to hang the truck to the wire by means of two of the contrivances shown at D, and to haul it backwards and forwards with thin string. The contrivance D is a curtain roller.