Before bending
the boards we had fixed screw eyes in the ends of each batten, except the
forward one; a rope had been strung through these screw eyes and the ends
were now tied to the head piece and drawn tight so as to bend the boards
into a graceful curve. In this way the ropes were of service not only for
curving the front end into a hood, but also for side rails, to hold on by
when shooting swiftly around curves.
[Illustration: Fig. 177. Tying Down the Head Piece of the Toboggan.]
[Illustration: Fig. 178. The Toboggan.]
The Rennwolf.
[Illustration: Fig. 179. Dimensions of Rennwolf.]
The runners of the rennwolf were made of hickory strips, 1 inch thick, 2
inches wide and 8 feet long. At their forward ends these strips were
tapered down to a thickness of 1/2 an inch and curved upward. About 30
inches from the rear end of each runner an upright post was nailed. The
post was 3 feet long and was braced by a diagonal brace 24 inches long, as
shown in Fig. 179. A tie bar was nailed to the post about 6 or 8 inches
from the bottom and connected with the forward curved end of the runner.
The two runners were now placed parallel to each other about 18 inches
apart, and connected by four cross bars, one at the forward end, and three
on the upright posts, in about the positions illustrated.
Pages:
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151