Window Watchers (May 10, 1954)

hi window Watchers just pinning up this picture on the bulletin board of the moth on a spreading board or a penny board and the reason that's up their day is because well remember when we talked about pinning boards and spreading boards before for our insects when we we caught them in our in our insect net or butterfly net and this is what happens to the net after we catch them we want to put them on this board and spread them out like this and pin their wings down so that they'll dry and then we can mount them and they'll be very pretty with their wings all spread out like this and let's just look at this one here that's already made first of all see this slit in the center here it's very a very narrow slit down here at the bottom isn't it and then it gets wider and wider and wider and it gets a little wider toward the top so that if we catch a bigger butterfly or a bigger moth then this one here if it's bigger it will fit in up here won't it and if it's smaller it will fit in way down here at the bottom and I have some pieces of cardboard ready here this corrugated cardboard with the little things it's the thick kind of cardboard and that's just what this spreading board is made out of here just piece of cardboard glued together and I'll show you what I need here's a larger piece I think I'll use it for the bottom and then I have another size that will fit right on top of here a little bit smaller then I really didn't pay too much attention on whether or not I was cutting him out the same size because that really doesn't make any difference the difference comes in putting on the top layers that form the narrow channel that fits down stoppies put some paste along here on this cardboard and paste down the first piece now you can use find this cardboard anywhere old boxes and just cut them up in pieces with scissors it's not very hard to cut through then I'm going to stick this other one light on top there a little dry and it's not as you can see even if not the same size but it doesn't really make that much difference and then I have two pieces here i'm going to put those on but these pieces here are the ones it's going to start making the slit it's going to be narrow you can almost put them right together down to the bottom if you die so that this little slit gets wider and wider and wider so that you can move your different size insects up or down so I know put some paste on the back side of this one here get it all over like yeah you probably want to get the paste in all the corners so that it will stick down nice and tight for you the reason to use so many pieces you can put more than that on if you want you to build it up a little more like the one we looked at before and then I'm going to set that off this one on at a slight angle so let it slam it just a little bit instead of running straight up and down mill and then the second one I'm going to put some paste or some glue on this one to ensure that it gets all over the back as much as I can get on it could even dump some some of the pace got on the cardboard and spread it around I suppose and then now this is the one that makes the groove so we want to write together at the bottom and leave it open a little farther about half a fingers width care Topsy some of these insects are rather flat so instead of leaving it just like that i'm going to put two more pieces on top of it right along following the same lines like that see so with my glue turn this over here I'll put some I'm gonna pace I think I'll just pour a little blob of it out here this time and see how the spreading of it around works I think it's going to pour out very well but I'll push a lot on there there is three big blob I'm reading around and this should be the top very top layer the cardboard should be pasted down pretty well I think their way I even had some left so I'll just save it on my brush now I'll turn this one over here put it right a long same edge the one that's underneath it right there and then we'll do the same thing to this one you trying to get some little paste on the starboard spread it around a little bit well we are turn it over make sure that it runs right along that same angle of the other cardboard underneath it there we are and that finishes it that wasn't very hard was it and it's something like this is very handy to have fun especially when we go out and start catching our butterflies and moths and then we can mount them so that it will look just like this one spreading the wings apart and pinning them down but will probably be talking more about that a little later but right now i do want to mention what we talked about before this little booklet it's called the 4-h club insect manual and in this booklet it tells all the different kinds of insects all the different kinds that you might find in your butterfly net when you go out and start hunting them and of course you probably won't know one insect from another so then all you have to do is look it up there on pictures in here and descriptions of all different kinds of insects and it will help you decide what kind of an insect you've caught this time and it's a very handy little thing and a lot of you have written in and asked for it so if you would like one of these little booklets that will tell how to tell your insects apart you just write to sunny care the window watchers and we'll be glad to send you one for your charge of course and it's called or h club insect manual and you can ask for that or ask for a book bug book and we'll be glad to send it to you and be sure you include your name and address and your age can you remember that now okay i think i'll lay this side here and i have some things on various shelves up the bookcase here then I think you might be interested in you know have you ever had somebody say show you something and say well now can you do this without doing something else pulling a trick on you more or less well I'd like to show you several tricks today that you might pull on someone else and this is the first regular bottle just any kind of a bottle that a penny will slip into it you drop this to the top of the whole bottle right here it had dropped right into the bottom and then using this penny seat fits right through the dejare drop then we need little piece of cardboard not heavy cardboard cut off of a in a kind of a box and long enough so that when you bend it in half like this and say it up here on top of the bottle I have to do a little pinching around here on the sides on this corner where it's been if you put a layup any across it like that but will hold it up there now the question that you ask the person that you're playing a trick on this time is can't oh it popped open well we'll just have to pinch it together a little bit tighter right here because you have to have this cardboard pinched enough so little it'll sit on there with the penny on top of it so that it won't let the penny fall through the hole in the bottom try another there now I hope that stays now then the question is can you make the penny drop into the bottle without touching the bottle or the paper or the penny you think you could do it well I'll show you how I have a glass here that's full of water and I'll just dip my finger in and then I'm going to let a drop drop right down there I'll miss at that time right where the car piece of cardboard is folded and watch what happens stop touching it now did you see it move a little bit that time where it went see dropping the water on this corner right here forces the cardboard open it put some water right here in this little group and it makes it open up and the penny drops through so you might try that on your friend sometime and see whether or not they can do that and then here's another one you can do this trick with toothpicks i'm going to use clothespin just because i have so many of them here they are you're going to use this trick takes 15 of them and you can count them while I put them out there just to see that there are 15 you want to make three squares first of all you want to count the clothes pins why like putting them down there's three there's four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve now then in the first 10 spin or whatever you're using sticks even work goes up and down like that the next one so cross next one goes sideways there now this is the question there are 15 clothes pins there can you take away six of them and have 10 left I think about it there are 15 so you have 15 clothes pins minus six and can you get it to come out 10 no 6 15 is usually nine isn't it well look at this minute can you figure out how to take away six of them and have 10 left well here I'll show you 12 three four five and six you took six away we have 10 left definitely that's kind of fun you want to try that on your friends sometime I bet they won't be able to get it then here's something else that you might try this is small boxes it takes 12 clothes pins or toothpicks or whatever you're using and this time we're going to make squares three and on the top like this using clothes pin you see this clothespin acts as a side for this square and this one we use three on the top roll two down here on the bottom so that when we get all through how many squares we're going to have got respite this now then this question is can you take three of these clothes pins away and have three squares left now the squares have to be just exactly the same size as they are right here you look at I'll give you a minute and see whether or not you can just imagine taking three of them away and still having three squares left think you know what it is think you take these three here well you're wrong because then there's four squares left or do you think you can take these three out here oh that's not right either because these two pins are still there aren't they well this is how it is done here's one here's to here's three I've taken three away and I still have three squares of the same size we start with left that's kind of fun trying to pull tricks on your friends isn't it sometimes we'll have to talk about doing some other kinds of tricks oh there's a lot of things like this that you can do there's also a game that you can play it it takes quite a bit of talent of just laying out so many clothes pins perhaps 12 or 15 each time and then you take one and your friend takes one and the object is to see who takes the last one the person that has to take the last stick or clothes pin or whatever you are using loses the game you try that sometime it's hard not to take that last stick or clothes pin but this has been kind of fun and we're going to have to talk about doing some tricks later on again so tell now goodbye you