GADGETS AND GIZMOS! VOLUME 10, ISSUE 3, January 2021 Crazy Inventions THIS MONTH Happy January! Let’s explore • Cloverbud Fun! the zany world of gadgets and ○ Tall Tower page 2 gizmos. ○ Rain Sticks page 5 ○ Catapults page 7 Alexander Graham Bell • 4-H Fun! famously said, “Watson, come ○ Feed the Birds page here. I need you.” Bell had 10 spilled acid on his clothes, and ○ Vortex Cannon uttered those words. They were page 17 transmitted over his telegraph to ○ Japanese Mini-Kites his assistant, Thomas Watson. page 22 That began telephones. then be removed without ○ Hot Air Balloons damaging the book. Viola! page 26 Velcro was modeled after • 4-H Teens! burdock seeds caught on My favorite accidental invention: ○ LASER Light Show George de Mestral’s socks. the chocolate chip cookie, 1930. Gizmo page 30 Ruth Graves Wakefield was • Cogitation Expedition Silly putty was an accidental preparing chocolate cookies for page 37 discovery. James Gilbert E. her guests at Toll House Inn. Wright was looking for a rubber She was out of baker’s POWER WORDS replacement. chocolate. She thought Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chopped • gadget: a small Can you imagine a world before into bits would melt into and mechanical or electronic Post-It-Notes? This was spread throughout the dough as device or tool, another accidental discover. the cookie baked. Life is just especially an ingenious Spencer Silver wanted to find a better with chocolate chip or novel one strong adhesive when he cookies! • gizmo: gadget, discovered one that lightly stuck especially one whose to a surface, not bond tightly. This issue is chockful whacky name is not known That discovery was shelved for gizmos and fun gadgets. Who • zany: whimsically decades until Art Fry thought knows? Maybe it will inspire you comical; clownish about a bookmark that would to find your own accidental lightly adhere to a page, and invention! COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION 4-H PROGRAMS ARE AVAILABLE TO ALL WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION CLOVERBUD FUN! — Tall Tower 2 The first modern skyscraper, The tallest building in Denver is POWER WORDS Republic Plaza, 717 feet Home Insurance Building, was • demolish: pull or knock built in 1885 in Chicago, IL. It (219 m) and 56 stories. It was down (a building) completed in 1984. It stands as stood 180 feet with 12 stories, • diameter: a straight line but was demolished in 1931. the 137th-tallest building in the passing from side to United States. side through the center The 1,454 foot Empire State of a circle or sphere Building (sketch below) broke How can skyscrapers stand in ground that same year, and it high winds? What is the tallest remained the tallest building in tower you can build that will the world until 1970 with 102 resist a strong wind (a fan on stories. high). There is a secret - can you discover the shape that increases the strength of a building? Directions: GENERAL RULES: • You may only use the same size and shape cups, regular tumbles, measure from the base to the tip of your and/or jumbo craft sticks, and same size blocks in your tower, and record. tower. You may use as • You can build your tower many or as few of these as many times to improve items as you choose. on your design. • These materials may not be altered (e.g. cutting the cup). CHALLENGE ONE: • You will be given four • Build the tallest tower. challenges. After you have How can you increase the built your tower, before it height? You could spend time looking at tall buildings around the world to see what is common about these buildings. Can you add them to your design? • When you are satisfied with your tower, measure from the base to tip of your tower. • Record the height, the MATERIALS • cups (all the same • blocks (e.g. cube shaped shape, for example a 9 building blocks all the ounce Solo cup 3” tall, same size) These buildings are dwarfed by 3.5” diameter) • tape measure the current tallest building. Burj • craft sticks (can use • print page 4 Khalifa in Dubai soars 2,716 into regular or jumbo craft • pencil the sky! sticks, or a combination • fan of the two) • Optional: camera 3 CLOVERBUD FUN! — Tall Tower number of blocks, number of until your tower remains cups, and number of craft standing with the fan on high. POWER WORDS sticks in your design. • design: plan or drawing produced to show the • Optional: take a picture of CHALLENGE THREE: look and function or your tower. • How tall can you build your tower if you only use a single workings of a building, CHALLENGE TWO: block as the base? garment, or other object before it is built or made • Place your fan 12” from your • It may take many tries to tower. build your tower. • redesign: design (something) again or in • Turn the fan on low. Record • Record the height, the on your datasheet if your number of blocks, number of a different way tower remains standing. cups, and number of craft • unique: being the only one of its kind; unlike • Turn the fan on medium. sticks in your design. anything else Record on your datasheet if • Optional: take a picture of your tower remains standing. your tower. • wacky: funny or amusing in a slightly • Turn the fan on high. Record on your datasheet if your CHALLENGE FOUR: odd or peculiar way • Wacky tower! Can you build a unique design? For example, can you add a floor that is not directly over the floor below? CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR DESIGN? tower remains standing. • If your tower tumbled, redesign and rebuild your tower for wind. • Again, record the height, the number of blocks, number of cups, and number of craft sticks in your design. • Optional: take a picture of your tower. • Place your fan 12” from your tower. • Turn the fan on low. Does your tower remain standing? • Turn the fan on medium. Does your tower remain standing? • Turn the fan on high. Does your tower remain standing? • If your tower tumbled, redesign and rebuild your tower for wind. • Do you need to redesign your tower? Repeat this step 4 CLOVERBUD FUN! — Tall Tower Datasheet Challenge Tower Number Number Number Fan Low Fan Medium Fan High (1, 2, 3, or 4) Height Cups Craft Sticks Blocks Still Stands? Still Stands? Still Stands? CLOVERBUD FUN! — Rain Stick 5 A rain stick is a percussion • With your marker, make dots POWER WORDS musical instrument. The origin on the seam half an inch (½”) • diameter: a straight line is not known. There are several passing from side to hypotheses to its invention. side through the center of a circle or sphere It was made from different • helix: spiral; a three- plants, including cactus. When dimensional object like the cactus was dried in the sun, that of a wire wound the center (filled mostly with uniformly in a single water) would become hollow. layer around a cylinder, The cactus spines were as in a corkscrew or removed. The spines were spiral staircase helically nailed into the cactus. apart. • hypothesis: position or Pebbles and seeds were poured • To determine how long and proposed explanation into the cactus tube. The ends how many nails you need made on the basis of were sealed. depends on the tube you use. limited evidence as a • Measure the diameter of your starting point for further Rain sticks are found around the tube. Many paper towel and investigation world. They are made from gift wrap tubes are 1½”. Most • invert: put upside down bamboo or plaited reed strips. mailing tubes have bigger or in the opposite diameters. position or order Inverting the rain stick, the Your nails need • percussion: musical pebbles and seeds bounce off to be slightly instruments played by the spines into the tube, making shorter than the 1½” striking or shaking with a soft sound like rain falling. It diameter of your the hand e.g. drums was used to call rainstorms. tube. You want the nail to reach continued on page 6 Similar instruments were made most of the way POWER WORDS in Southeast Asia, Australia, and through your tube without Africa. Instead of using cactus, piercing the far side. The these instruments were made example (above) the 1½” tube need to use gloves. Your with bamboo. can use nails that are 1” to 1¼” finger can get sore, and the long. Directions: • To determine how many nails • If you cannot locate a long count the number of dots you tube, you can save up two or made along the spiral seam of three paper towel tubes and your tube. tape them together end to end. • Poke the nail at each marker Paper tubes have a spiral dot, and push the nail all the seam. Be sure to line the way into the tube. You may spiral seams. MATERIALS popcorn, or tiny pebbles • sturdy long tube (mailing • wax paper tube or paper towel tube) • paint (acrylic or tempera) • permanent marker • paint brushes • ruler • yarn or twine • flat-head nails (directions • rubber bands for size and how many) • masking tape • masking tape • beads, feathers, etc. • brown paper bag • scissors • dried rice, beans, CLOVERBUD FUN! — Rain Stick 6 • Seal the other end of your continued from page 5 tube. • plait: a single length of • Paint your tube. Do you want hair or other flexible material made up of three or more interlaced strands; a braid • region: an area or division, especially part of a country or the world having definable characteristics but not always fixed boundaries your rain stick to look natural or colorful.