500 Projects for Your Kids

The classic collection of ingenious devices and diversions for kids.

---

In the time before television--and even radio--when kids were bored and money was tight, they turned to this now-classic tome where they found no shortage of fascinating, fully illustrated projects to amuse, delight, and entertain. Originally published in 1916, each entry details ingenious plans and instructions for how to make candle sconces and copper trays, canoes and paddleboats, tents and lampshades. Other entries show how magic lanterns and stereoscopes work, how to make a lens from a piece of ice, and how to make elementary scientific instruments such as a hygrometer, a thermometer, a weather balloon, an aquarium, a wireless telegraph, a battery, and a voltmeter. The diversions don't stop there, however. The book also describes how to make a puppet theater with moving figures, magic tricks to make coins and handkerchiefs disappear, and how to make the "spirits" play a violin. Or kids can learn about old-time photography, how to make windmills, electric locomotives, a small butter churn, and hundreds of other fun and improbable devices. Some of the projects may need more adult supervision; for instance, when you are building your fully operational steam engine, wind-powered two-seater tricycle, or glider for jumping off cliffs. But even if you don't get that far, you and your child will doubtless pore over the hundreds of fanciful inventions and amusing illustrations for hours.