In the summer of 1860, the Second Opium War was reaching its climax. Three years earlier, Britain and France had invaded Canton, China, in order to expand their trade in such unsavory commodities as opium and indentured servants. Chinese Emperor Xianfeng had resisted the outsiders, and a low-intensity war continued in fits and starts. The […]
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Fiery devices have always fascinated me. From Jam Jar Jets (MAKE Volume 05) to Fire Pistons (Volume 19) to Faux Flames (Volume 25), I’ve built all sorts of fire-related projects. So when a friend told me about a device that lets you visualize sounds using fire, I knew I had to make one. I found […]
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Need a bright surface for your projector? Get high gain at low cost using house paint and sandblasting beads.
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OK, so it’s not, actually. Bulletproof, that is. But with 3/32″ aluminum sheet covers, nickel-plated steel piano hinges, and all-riveted construction, it’s a damn sight tougher than just about any other 3-ring binder you’re likely to encounter in the wild. Especially those crappy cardboard-shrinkwrapped-in-vinyl models most of us had to make do with as schoolkids. […]
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What do you do with the toilet brush right after you use it? Hang it up? Lay it in the sink or bathtub to dry first? Or maybe you have one of those brushes with a built-in base that keeps the bristles corralled when not in use. All of these alternatives kinda skeenge me out, […]
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Use a simple mortise-and-tenon joint to make these fine looking shop horses that you will use every day and will last a lifetime.
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Although it sounds like some kind of euphemism from Brave New World, a “pneumatic trough” is actually a very handy piece of classic chemistry lab kit. Besides providing a convenient means to collect samples of pure gases for various experiments, a pneumatic trough with a graduated container allows the easy volumetric measurement of reaction yields […]
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