folk toys are back again - popular science magazine ... - Arvind Gupta

place the pith ball in the acorn cup andblow lightly but steadily into the openend of the larger reed. When done right,the ball rises slowly in a jet stream ofair, hovers a few inches above the nozzle,and then as you ease off, settles back.The other flipperdinger is harder tomaster. Here the pith ball has a wirethrust through it—one with a crook inone end. You hang the crook over thebasketball ring. Then, with plenty ofwell-controlled lung power, you can unhookthe ball, lower it through the ring,and, finally, blow it back up again andreplace the crook on the wire.Fly killer. This potent and fairly accuratelittle weapon could almost becalled a one-armed crossbow. It has abarrel made of a short elderberry stickwith its forward end hollowed out, and along slot cut through its side wall andinto this cavity. Near the back of thebarrel a strip of seasoned hickory is fastenedin an angled notch with a woodscrew. The other end of the hickory stripis slimmed down and bent in a permanentbow by soaking. In cocked position,the pointed tip of the bow is placed inthe slot and drawn back until it enters ahole in the opposite side of the barrel.This depresses a trigger made from asliver of springy wood.To load the fly killer, you slip a flatheadedwood shaft into it. Pressing thetrigger pops the bow tip out of the holeand sends it flying forward in the slot,snapping the missile out with enoughforce to shatter a window at 10 paces.Bullroarer. Simplest of the toys, thebullroarer (whizzer) is a thin cedar paddleattached to a rhododendron handlewith a doubled length of stout cord. Whenit's swung in circles through the air, itmakes an awesome, buzzing sound. Acopper-wire swivel on the handle preventsthe cord from winding around thewood.Cornstalk fiddle. Not even a tone-deafCherokee could confuse this with a Stradivarius.But for caterwauls that wouldmake a mountain lion lift his eyebrows,you can't beat a two-string cornstalkfiddle. Instrument and bow have strips oftheir bark slit in such a way that, with"bridges" formed of twigs inserted beneaththem, they become tensioned bowand fiddle strings. Properly rosined beforeit leaves the Folk Toys Industryworkshop, a cornstalk fiddle is good formonths of ear-piercing screeches.147