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Bell Tent, 14 ft: Twenty-Two Duck Sections, a Galvanized Hoop at the Apex and a Two-Piece Pole (Boy Mechanic, 1913)
A round bell tent 14 ft across "for lawns, as well as for a boy's camping outfit", from The Boy Mechanic (1913): twenty-two tapered sections of unbleached tent duck sewn into a cone on a small iron hoop, a 2 ft 2 in wall, three ventilators, webbing-bound edges with eyelets for the stay ropes, and one centre pole.
Sizes are his; the pole length is worked out from them.
Intermediate
About 3 days
Instructions
1
1
The cover, checked
The cover, checked
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
2
2
Read The Boy Mechanic
Read The Boy Mechanic
"To make such a tent, procure unbleached tent duck, which is the very best material for the purpose."
3
3
Cut and sew the cover
Cut and sew the cover
Cut 22 sections of unbleached tent duck, each 10 ft 6 in long and 2 ft 2 in wide at the bottom, tapering in a straight line to a point; these sizes allow for lapped seams. Double-stitch the seams on a machine. Sew the last seam only 4 ft down from the top, leaving the rest as the door, and stitch an extra gusset at the end of it so it will not rip.
Materials for this step:
Canvas Fabric1 piece
Sewing Thread1 pieceTools needed:
Sewing Machine
Scissors
Tape Measure
Pencil4
4
Bind the edges and cut the ventilators
Bind the edges and cut the ventilators
Fold back the edges of the opening and the bottom edge of the cover and bind them with wide webbing, 3 in across, with eyelets at the seams for the stay ropes. Near the apex cut three triangular ventilators 8 in long and 4 in wide at the bottom, and hem their edges.
Materials for this step:
Cotton Webbing1 piece
Eyelet22 piecesSewing Thread1 pieceTools needed:
Sewing MachineScissors
Hammer5
5
Make the wall
Make the wall
Make the wall of the same cloth, 2 ft 2 in high. Bind its upper edge with webbing and its bottom with canvas, and stitch coarse canvas 6 in wide along the bottom to fill the space between ground and wall. Stitch the top of the wall firmly to the cover along the dotted line of his Fig. 2.
Materials for this step:
Canvas Fabric1 pieceCotton Webbing1 pieceSewing Thread1 pieceTools needed:
Sewing MachineScissors6
6
Fit the apex hoop and hood
Fit the apex hoop and hood
Have a blacksmith make a hoop of 1/4 in round galvanized iron, 6 in in diameter. Stitch the canvas at the apex round the hoop and along the sides, and make the apex into a hood lined with stiff canvas.
Materials for this step:
Iron Rod1 pieceCanvas Fabric1 pieceSewing Thread1 pieceTools needed:
Sewing NeedleScissors7
7
Make the pole, pegs and blocks
Make the pole, pegs and blocks
Make the tent pole 3 in in diameter in two sections with a socket joint, rounded at the top to fit the apex; its length is about 10 ft (our figure from step 1). Cut small pegs for the wall loops, stakes for the stay ropes, and a wooden block for each stay rope to hold its end and adjust its length (his Fig. 6).
Materials for this step:
Wooden Pole1 piece
Wooden Stake1 piece
Hardwood Strip1 pieceTools needed:
Hand Saw
Brace and Bit8
8
Pitch it
Pitch it
Raise the cover on the pole. Fasten the wall down with loops of stout line on its lower edge and small pegs driven through them into the ground. Run the stay ropes from the eyelets in the cover to stakes in the ground, through the blocks, and adjust them until the cover is tight.
Materials for this step:
Cotton Rope1 pieceTools needed:
Hammer9
9
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Bell tent troubleshooting.
Flow
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10
10
History and honest limits
History and honest limits
From **The Boy Mechanic**, edited by H. H. Windsor, Popular Mechanics, Chicago, 1913, p. 190, "How to Make a Bell Tent", credited to the Cleveland Plain Dealer; text checked on the 1913 scan. He gives no pole length, number of stay ropes or peg sizes: the pole length is our geometry. Thread, tools and metric figures are ours.
Materials
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