OBJECT:
How to construct a sewing needle compass.
MATERIALS:
Styrofoam cup, Hand-sewing needle, Magnet, SAFETY SCISISSORS.
PROCEDURE:
SAFETY FIRST, Be sure to take every possible precaution to prevent INJURY by using SAFETY GOGGLES, when handling sharp or pointed objects.
1. Most steel objects can be made into a weak magnet, by holding the steel object in a north and south direction and vibrating it. If the object is large, such as a steel bar, you can strike it with a hammer, while holding it, in a north and south direction. The other method is by using a strong permanent magnet and stroking the object, like you would a cat. Stroking the object in one direction, while holding the steel bar or screwdriver (scissors and so on), and using your strong permanent magnet. For example, if you are using a screw driver, place one end of the magnet at the tip of the screw driver, and stroke it all the way down to the handle, and slightly beyond the end of the handle. Then lift up the magnet away from the end of the screwdriver, several inches, and proceed to repeat the stroking process again. The more times that you repeat the stroking process, the stronger the object will be magnetized. It will also help, if you rotate the screwdriver slightly on its axis, after each stroke. Find some tacks or paper clips and see if you can pick them up with this newly made magnet.
Growing up as a child, small minds need simple toys; it was fun using a permanent magnet and a wooden chair that had plywood or a type of veneer for the seat area. Which meant that it was very thin, and finding some small nails, tacks, or paper clips and placing them on the chair, and then placing the magnet under the seat and watching the fun begin. You could move the object up and down, and even by tapping the seat with the magnet you could get the tacks to stand up on their ends. You could even form a train like structure, with the paper clips, and lead them around. However, there were one type of nails that I would never use, those were the wooden nails. As mentioned before my Dad was a cobbler, in the true sense of the word, or a shoemaker although these words have changed their meanings. A cobbler was one who would make a shoe or a boot from scratch, I have several pair of leather shoes that he made for me, my only regret, that I was not able to get his work as he was working on tape, for posterity and even in this country at times he would use wooden nails, to attach leather heels to shoes. This is, not as strange as it may sound, wooden nails have been used through the centuries, to hold wooden objects together, and leather heels on shoes. First let me explain, how these wooden nails would be made. If you can picture a comb that is used on your hair, a wooden wedge, about one eight of an inch thick, would be split off with an axe from a piece of hard wood. Then using a sharp knife, you would cut a forty-five degree edge on one side of the wedge and then repeat the process on the other side of the wedge, such that the wedge had a V shape on top. Getting to look more like a comb, you then would take your sharp knife, and make your individual teeth on the comb. By putting your knife on top of the V shape wedge, and forcing the blade down, requiring very little force; the individual nails would be made. Depending on what the nails would be used for, they would range in size from half an inch to about one inch. You then would take your shoe that you would be working on, which would be placed on a small flat iron shoe, (I don't know the English word for this instrument or device). Then using an awl, you would make a hole through the thick leather and the heel, and then you would drive your wooden nail into the hole. There would be many nails that would not go in all the way, but that was no problem, because with a sharp knife, you would even them with the heel surface. Because of capillary action within the nails, a small amount of water that the heel came in contact with would cause the nails to expand and strengthen this attachment. However, leather heels do not have the same cushion effect as rubber heels do.
2. Find a hand-sewing needle, using a permanent magnet stroke the needle in the fashion described above. (Note: magnets can be obtained from: small speakers, purchase them at the dollar stores, you may have to visit several, before you find a set. Then there is the Radio Shack electronics store, be sure to buy the least expensive magnet. You can also use your magnets that are used to hold messages on the refrigerator.)
3. Using SAFETY SCISISSORS, cut about one inch off from the bottom of the Styrofoam cup, for a mini container, then proceed to cut the remainder of the Styrofoam cup that is left, from top to bottom. Then cut a strip a quarter of an inch wide from top to bottom. Then approximately cut a one half inch of that newly cut piece. So you end up with a piece of Styrofoam measuring one quarter of an inch wide and a half an inch long. Note of CAUTION: You should never use a Styrofoam cup to drink hot liquids from, because the foam releases synthetic estrogen like products.
4. Fill your one-inch Styrofoam container half full with water. Take your needle and pass it through the quarter of an inch by half an inch Styrofoam piece, try to pass needle through the center of your quarter of an inch side. So the length of your needle is parallel to the half-inch side. If your needle, that you are using, is a large needle, you may have to use a small piece of Styrofoam from packing material, try to keep it as small as possible.
5. Place your needle that is embedded in the Styrofoam into the container, (If you find that your Styrofoam container is to small, you may find anther plastic cap, that can accommodate the needle.) The other solution, if it is not an inexpensive needle, then use SAFETY GOGGLES and two pair of pliers; hold the needle with one pair of pliers, and with the other pair of pliers snap off the needle point (side). I would strongly suggest using this piece for another compass. CAUTION: If you are not going to use this small piece, then use a piece of masking tape and wrap the small needle and discard it in that manner.
6. Observe the newly made compass. Make sure it is not located near any metallic objects like iron or steel that may be located under the table that is used for support. You should have a general idea where North and south would be located. You always know where East and West are located, when there is sunlight. You have to remember that poles of North and South always attract, and like poles of North and North or South and South always repel. If your permanent magnet has no labels of North (N) or South (S), then it is a good time to label it, with a permanent marker. The needle point that is pointing North, if you bring your unlabeled magnet to that side and if it repels or moves away, then that side of the magnet is really the South pole of the magnet. If on the other hand it attracts, or moves toward the magnet, then that side of the magnet is really the N pole. You have to remember that the needle points, north and south because that part of the needle is really the opposite of the earth poles. If you have spare needles, then I would suggest making another needle compass, and see how it reacts with this one.
I have seen a dozen or so of animal shows, of hatching sea turtles, and they all knew where the ocean was located. As a matter of fact, during my Junior High years, while swimming at a certain lake, and coming across dime size baby toads, and I would take them out into deep water and release them, or one, and it would always head for shore. Pigeons are notorious for finding their way home, having raised them, and run several experiments on them, they always would come home. The first thing the pigeons do, when released, they would circle the area once or twice and then head for home. Scientists believe that Pigeons have built in compass in their brain.
7. As mentioned before, many of your steel objects may already have been slightly magnetized, structures like your refrigerator, depending on how long you may have had it. Other objects could that would be included are like steel door frames, or pipes, small objects like other needles, screw drivers, scissors, you can check them out by placing your needle compass close to the object. Like your refrigerator, and other large objects, by placing the compass needle, near the top of the object, then moving it to the bottom of the object, see if there is any change in the compass.
8. You can make a compass from an old bike tires rims that is the spokes of the wheel, magnetize it and suspend it by thread from the SBB stand.
9. Speaking of needles, there was one mystery that had always puzzled me for a long time, until recently, when my Dad explained it to me. My Dad was a cobbler by profession, having learned his trade right after the revolution. You have to realize the importance of needles, when there were no machines to do any sewing of leather shoes or boots and leather soles. Mother would provide all the flax thread needed, but how to get this thread though leather shoes and boots and not to speak of leather soles. Every so often he would share some of his experiences that he had while serving as an apprentice to the master cobbler. He would mention how he would practice sewing these pieces of leather together, and he mentioned that he would use wild boar's hair for needles. The hair would be better described as bristles, located on the back between the shoulder blades. I have never seen boar's bristles, and I wondered at that time, how in the world would you make an eye on the bristle, so that you could pass thread though it. Well, as it turned out to be, there were no eyes on a bristle. To sew two pieces of leather together, you would always use an instrument called an awl, which is a sharp pointed piece of stiff wire attached to a piece of wood for a handle. Now, to attach the thread to the bristle, you just would use a small piece of bees wax, at the end of the bristle, and attach your thread to the wax and pass the bristle, through the holes that were made with the awl. So, you SEE there were no eyes in the boar's bristle. The bristle is tough and flexible, and the thread would stay attached to the bristle, for some time. Today, bristles are no longer used, instead a fine piece of wire with a loop on one end, the loop is the result of folding this fine steel wire and twisting the wires to the end, such that the loop will measure about half an inch and the twisted wire would measure about six inches.
The awl is an ancient instrument, used in working with leather and canvas. Mentioned in the Bible spelled " Aul". Certainly Louis Braille was very familiar with the awl, because his father worked with leather. At a very young age, while playing next to a table with an awl resting on it, since the awl has a ball like handle, so that it can fit in the palm of your hand, it also makes it unstable and tends to roll if jarred slightly. Looking up to see what he might have disturbed, only to find an awl coming down right into one eye. The one eye got infected and he lost vision in that eye and then the other eye got infected, and he lost all vision. And in 1829 he invented the Braille system of raised dots on paper to represent letters, giving blind people the ability to read printed material.
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