The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 | Page 4

and it may be necessary to use a little water. If the snow is of the right consistency, there will be no trouble in packing and working with it. As most of the blocks are to be of the same size throughout, it will pay to make a mold for them by forming a box of old boards nailed together, minus the top, and with a movable bottom, or rather no bottom at all. Place the four sided box on a flat board and ram snow in it, forcing it down closely. Then by lifting the box up and tapping the box from above, the block will drop out. In this way blocks of uniform size are formed, which makes the building simpler and easier.
While one boy makes the blocks another can shave them off at the edges and two others can build the house, one inside of the circle and the other outside. The Eskimos build their snow houses in this way, and the man inside stays there until he is completely walled in. Then the door and a window are cut through the wall.
[Illustration: Laying the Snow Bricks]
[Illustration: Three-Room Snow House]
Each layer of snow blocks must have a slight slant at the top toward the center so that the walls will constantly curve inward. This slant at the top is obtained better by slicing off the lower surfaces of each block before putting it in its course. The top will then have a uniform inward slant.
The first course of the snow house should be thicker than the others, and the thickness of the walls gradually decreases toward the top. A wall, however, made of 6-in. blocks throughout will hold up a snow house perfectly, if its top is no more than 6 or 7 ft. above the ground. If a higher house is needed the walls should be thicker at the base and well up toward the middle.
The builder has no mortar for binding the blocks together, and therefore he must make his joints smooth and even and force in loose snow to fill up the crevices. A little experience will enable one to do this work well, and the construction of the house will proceed rapidly. The Eskimos build additions to their houses by adding various dome-shaped structures to one side, and the young architect can imitate them. Such dome-shaped structures are shown in one of the illustrations.
A fact not well understood and appreciated is that the Eskimo beehive snow house represents true arch building. It requires no scaffolding in building and it exerts no outward thrust. In the ordinary keystone arch used by builders, a, temporary structure must be erected to hold the walls up until the keystone is fitted in position, and the base must be buttressed against an outward thrust. The Eskimo does not have to consider these points. There is no outward thrust, and the top keystone is not necessary to hold the structure up. It is doubtful whether such an arch could be built of brick or stone without scaffolding, but with the snow blocks it is a simple matter.

** Secret Door Lock [6]
The sketch shows the construction of a lock I have on a door which is quite a mystery to those who do not know how it operates. It also keeps them out. The parts of the lock on the inside of the door are shown in Fig. 1. These parts can be covered so that no one can see them.
[Illustration: Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3; The Lock Parts]
The ordinary latch and catch A are attached to the door in the usual manner. The latch is lifted with a stick of wood B, which is about 1 ft. long and 1 in. wide, and pivoted about two-thirds of the way from the top as shown. The latch A is connected to the stick B with a strong cord run through a staple to secure a right-angle pull between the pieces. A nail, C, keeps the stick B from falling over to the left. The piece of wood, D, is 6 or 8 in. long and attached to a bolt that runs through the door, the opposite end being fastened to the combination dial. Two kinds of dials are shown in Fig. 2. The piece D is fastened on the bolt an inch or two from the surface of the door to permit placing a spiral spring of medium strength in between as shown in Fig. 3. The opposite end of the bolt may be screwed into the dial, which can be made of wood, or an old safe dial will do. A nail is driven through the outer end of the piece D and the end cut off so that it will pass over the piece B when the