The wheels, etc., should be painted black or grey. The cannon itself may be made of white paper and painted grey or yellow, or else made of yellow or light brown paper.
A =Cart= must next be made to carry ammunition for the cannon. The shells for the cannon described would be about 2-1/4 inches long, so the cart must be 2-1/2 inches long, and 1-3/4 inches wide (Fig. 342). It can be made of wood or cardboard. Notice the end to which the lid is attached.
The wheels must be the same size as those used for the cannon and can be made and attached in the same way to an axle, but this axle must project some distance beyond the wheel, as in Fig. 343, and have a groove filed round it, so that short chains may be fastened on each side; ropes are attached to these chains to allow the cart to be pulled along by hand.
Fig. 344 shows the shaft. It is 1-1/2 times the length of the cart. It can be made of strips of cardboard or wood. Matches painted black make good shells.
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).