It was during these long voyages, when time hung heavily on their hands, that they acquired their skill in fashioning these mechanical toys, which almost always had for their motive power the wind or the waves.
The simplest form of windmill from this source I remember seeing is very easily constructed. It is made from an oblong piece of wood like Fig. 1. Through the center of this bore a hole, _a_, for the pivot upon which it will finally turn, and mark the two lines at _b_. Now, commencing at the point _b_, cut off the corner, _b c_, and make the surface flat as in Fig. 2; then cut off the opposite side of the other end, indicated in Fig. 1 by the dotted lines _d e_, in a like manner. Your figure will now resemble Fig. 2, and both ends will form a prism like _b c d e f_; but _b c d e_ should be a thin flat blade, so the corner or edge, commencing at _f_, should be cut down in the same manner that _e d_ was treated in Fig. 1. Make the other blade to correspond and chamfer out the middle, or square piece, as seen in Fig. 3. This middle piece is not a square, although I have spoken of it as such, but is oblong, to allow room for another two-bladed piece made precisely like this to interlock with it. When these two pieces are fitted together, fasten them with one or more nails, and then insert the small round stick upon which the windmill is to turn. Fig. 4 shows an arrangement by which two windmills are operated on the same stick. These should turn in opposite directions to make them effective, and this is easily accomplished by simply cutting the vanes of the one so that the wind shall strike it at an angle opposite to that with which it strikes the other. Should you care to decorate them in colors, it had best be done by painting bands or stripes across each vane, all to correspond with each other in width and shade. For instance, take the windmill in Fig. 4; let the outside bands be of chrome yellow and one inch wide; the next red and two inches wide; while the third yellow, and the fourth blue, should each be an inch in width. The axis should have a greater diameter where the larger revolves upon it, but should be cut smaller where it meets the back of the little windmill. Nails in front and back of the larger, and front of the smaller, are necessary to keep them in place.