Footboard

“ A metal bar, which is polished so as to look like silver, runs across the footboard and supports the feet. The body, it must be understood, swings forward from these high wheels, so that the whole of the weight, instead of being supported, hangs from it. ”

“ The longer part is the headboard, the shorter part is the footboard.
2. Fit the headboard and footboard on the ends of the box and hold them with both hands. Slide the box up or down until it looks like a bed.
3. Lay the footboard down, but hold the headboard and box together, until you fasten them.
4. Fit the footboard on again to match the headboard, and fasten it.
5. Cut the bottom of headboard and footboard to look like legs. Also cut the slats in the headboard and the footboard.
6. Paint brown or white.
[31]
Details of Bed. ”

“ On the sliding seat, you row against your stretcher (that’s the foot-board) and the legs furnish most of the power. The skill comes in in blending everything together in one easy, natural motion, and getting back to take your next stroke without checking the boat by the return of your slide. I could feel all along that I was gaining, though I was slow on the recover, and bungled my oar still. The fellows all seemed to think I was going to make good in the second, and I was delighted, for our second is about the best second on the river, and Mac sets a perfectly wonderful stroke. ”

“ A piece of thin board is then cut nearly to the shape of the foot, and is fixed by a pivot joint across this space; a couple of strings leading from holes in the board support it at any angle that is most comfortable for the foot, which is bound to it; and a small bracket beneath the end of the principal board raises it so far that the heel cannot chafe or press upon the mattrass, which, however slight may be the contact, becomes, when endured for hours without a change of position, more painful to a helpless man than one in health, and free from constraint, can readily believe.
Fig. ”

“ Next you step into a pair of thirty-pound iron shoes that are strapped over your rubber feet. And now they lead you to an iron ladder that reaches down from rail to water. You lift your feet somehow over the side, right foot, left foot, and feel around for the ladder-rungs. Then you bend forward on the deck, face down, as a man would lay his neck on the block. ”

“ A foot-board passes from this platform to the front platform, where the driver and cook may stand. Stores may be placed in the lockers at the side of the range, and under the rear foot-board. The chimney may be turned down above the roof, to pass under trees, etc., and may be of any height to secure a good draught. By bending the axle like that of an omnibus, the vehicle may be hung without danger of top-heaviness. Cooking vessels more bulky than heavy may be suspended from the roof, over the range, when not in use. ”

“ A smooth plank, ten feet long, resting upon trestles placed at either end, assists the acrobat to vault high in the air. Each time he falls the rebound sends him up again. This is the principle of the buck-board. Remove the trestles, put a pair of wheels in the place of each, and you have the vehicle itself, minus shafts or pole, according as one or two horses are to draw it. Increased weight bends the board or the spring more and more until it is in danger of touching the ground. The passengers sit in the hollow of this spring, the natural tendency of which is to shoot them into the air. ”

“ The Foot-Cycle.—Persons who know the ease and exhilaration of skating as compared with walking will be interested in an effort to invent a foot-cycle which will do for the foot on the ground what the skate does on the ice. The roller-skate does this in a measure, but it is adapted to hard surfaces only. What is needed is something in the order of a miniature bicycle—a machine capable of going over surfaces hard and soft, in fact, a sort of bicycle skate. Here is vast room for a fertile inventor. ”

“ The head or top of the board is round, and there is a hole through the top of it for a string to be passed through, so that when the women tire of holding them, or have a mind to work, they hang the board to the limb of a tree, or to a pin in a post for that purpose, and there the children swing about and divert themselves, out of the reach of any thing that may hurt them. ”

“ Did any one ever hear of an arch requiring support? * * * What is called the transverse arch is in reality a portion of an elliptic spring; and the moment you fill up the natural hollow of the foot you destroy its elasticity. What carriage-maker puts supports under the arches of his carriage-springs? The human foot is a combination of bones and strong muscles that act as springs, and at each point where it comes in contact with the ground is placed a cushion to prevent jarring. ”

“ It seems that the Gilbert Islanders select a stout, well-grown cocoanut tree and attach a cord to it, on the other end of which is a club. A young woman climbs on the trunk, and taking her seat there is swung by a youth, who, watching his chance when the motion is well under way, catches hold with his hands and swings with her.197 The Greeks had several forms of the swing, among them the joggling board, consisting of a flexible plank supported at its ends on fixed beams, and the rope swing which with its comfortable seat supported by four cords was used by adults. ”

“ Trapeze-evolutions, spring-board and dumb-bell practice rank, therefore, highest among the gymnastic specifics; wood-cutting and sawing among the more arduous kinds of manual labor; and trotting down-hill among the various modes of pedestrian exercise. It is worth a dyspeptic's while to hire a sedan-chair to lug him to the top of an out-of the-way hill, and a boy to run him a race to the foot of it. ”

“ The slightest tendency to stoop was at once corrected by the use of the backboard, which was strapped flat against the back of the waist and shoulders, extending up the back of the neck, where a steel ring covered [134] with leather projected to the front and encircled the throat. The young lady of fashion undergoing the then system of boarding-school training enjoyed no bed of roses, especially if unblessed on the score of slenderness. A hard time indeed must an awkward, careless girl have had of it, incased in stiff, tightly-laced stays, backboard on back, and feet in stocks. ”

“ We must look closely at the foot lever if we are to understand it. It is arched or bent; the front pillar of the arch stretches from the summit or keystone, where the weight of the body is poised, to the pad of the foot or fulcrum (Fig. 6) ; the posterior pillar, projecting as the heel, extends from the summit to the point at which the muscular power is applied. A foot with a short anterior pillar and a long posterior pillar or heel is one designed for power, not speed. It is one which will serve a hill-climber well or a heavy, corpulent man. ”

“ Take a short run, place the toe of the right foot against a wall and throw the left leg over it, making a complete turn at the same time so that when your foot touches the ground your back is to the wall. The right foot is the pivot on which you turn and you must take especial care to keep it quite close to the wall while you perform the Turn Over. ”

“ G, the foot-rest, is made of cardboard and fastened to box, B, by two wedge-shaped pieces of wood. The ladders are made of strips of cardboard, with half matches as rungs. N is a piece of cardboard gummed underneath A and projecting from it 1⁄2 inch for the fireman's stand. This stand, seat, foot-rest, ladders, etc., should be coloured red. The small wheel is about 2 inches in diameter. The diameter of the large wheel can be measured when the smaller wheels are in position. ”

“ I prefer myself to fit in the backboard by means of stops on the floor and back of the well, making it keep one position, and that at a considerable slope, and have not found a swinging backboard so comfortable as some appear to have done.
For the paddle, for which I think about 7 feet 6 inches long over all is a good length, take a light, clean piece of yellow pine, or fir, 11⁄2x11⁄4 inches, not more, and 6 feet long. In the ends of this cut slots 6 inches long, each to receive two pear-shaped pieces of very light half-inch plank, 1 foot 3 inches by 8 inches. ”

“ If you get a rope—a strong rope—and put a loop in it for your foot, and pass the other end of the rope to me around the staunchest railing of your balcony, I will let you down to the level of my own. Then you can easily swing yourself within reach. If you find you cannot climb back, I can help you, by pulling on the rope and you will ascend as you came down. ”

“ Frame of the Ice Boat. run from the ends of the crosspiece to the forward and rear ends of the backbone, and at the rear end several boards nailed across the braces served as a seat for the boat.
Our next task was to rig up the runners. For these we used skates, which were so arranged that we could remove them whenever we wanted to. Three blocks of wood were used for the runner shoes. Two of
Fig. 165. Runner Shoe. them were cut from a 2 by 4 scantling and measured a foot in length. The third block was only 1 inch thick, but was otherwise of the same dimensions. ”

“ The housings leave much to be desired, and the seats are much out of repair, and one is lucky to find the foot-board slung at a usable level and fairly horizontal, and if the protecting rail of the seat does not slip out. ”

“ For paddling out the sideweight shoe is used with the weight on the outside of the foot, be sure and fix the foot by lowering the inside of foot from center of toe back to the inside heel, have the inside of foot lower than the outside for a paddler, and have the outside of foot lower than the inside for a front shin, knee and arm hitter. A hind foot has to be fixed the lowest on the inside for speedy cutting, shin and hock hitting. ”

“ A center-board is a plate of wood or metal, suspended, usually by a corner pivot, within a sheath or box in the waist, which can be let down through the keel into the water, so as to form an adjustable keel. It is the most convenient form of a very old device for preventing a boat’s drift to leeward, or tendency to capsize under the pressure of the wind. ”

“ A foot that is kept high on the inside and low on the outside will help to prevent winging in to the knees. There are lots of paddlers who do not begin to paddle until the foot has left the ground quite some distance, and to prove this I have seen the shoes worn by some paddlers and the most of the wear on the shoes of the paddling leg or legs was at the outside toe of shoe. A paddler that leaves the ground from the inside toe of shoe can be made to carry the leg straighter in a line at speed easier than one that leaves the ground from the outside toe. ”

“ The new-fashioned mahogany bedsteads made with fixed foot-board, and both the iron and brass bedsteads with railings at the foot, are each and all, during the progress of labor, very inconvenient; as the patient, with either of these kinds of bedsteads, is not able to plant her feet firmly against the bedpost—the foot-board of the former and the railings of the latter being in the way of her doing so. ”

“ In balance climbing, footwork must be placed first. For footwork on rock the right footgear with the right sole is all-important. If we wear a nailed boot, it should be as light as is consistent with strength and the weight of the climber—that is, of the lightest alpine pattern. [10] Large men often like the heavy iron-clad boot for the impetus it gives to a longer swing on levels or downhill. ”

“ With the sole of the foot on the floor, and the heel well down when the leg is carried forward to the extreme position, the angle that the leg makes with the floor will indicate sufficiently, much as is shown in the picture of sitting down using only one limb. ”

“ Like an athlete, running along a spring-board to gather momentum for his tremendous leap, he took a couple of steps down the incline of the roof to the edge, from which he made a tremendous bound far out in the muddy torrent. ”

“ The shoe should be long enough to extend well forward of the toes—two-thirds of an inch longer than the longest measurement of the naked foot; the inner sole border should be straight, broad across the ball and for average work on the roads need not be heavy but above all things it should conform to the foot. Have the heel fit snugly but across the ball or front of the foot arch no compression at all.
The tendency is to overdo foot covering, getting the shoes too heavy. There is no need of lugging around extra weight. ”

“ In order to prevent the foot from working its way backwards, a strap or sling, the “adiman,” passes round the back of the heel. With this arrangement the foot works, so to speak, like a scale beam, the bearing part being the ball joint of the great toe, and as either end of the beam tilts up or down, so the shoe is dragged on or becomes a resting spot until its fellow passes skimmingly forward, leaving a well-marked pair of grooves behind the traveller.
Makeshift snow shoes are often made in the forest from light, tough boards. ”

“ If you put your heel down first, while crossing on a slippery log as in ordinary walking, the natural result will be a fall. With your entire foot as a base upon which to rest, the body is more easily balanced and the foot less likely to slip. When people slip and fall on the ice, it is because the edge of the heel strikes the ice first and slides. ”

“ From the above it will be seen that there is plenty of room for improvement in the ski-runner’s footgear. We recommend a thick under-sock, a pair of good “Ladder,” a stout boot, fitting well about the ankle, but with plenty of room at the toes, and a piece of skin covering the toes and held in position by the toe strap. But, all the same, we frequently suffer from cold feet, and we wish somebody would invent something better. ”