Inexpensive Bobsled: Barrel-Stave Runners, Block Knees and a Bolted Front Bob (Boy Mechanic, 1915)

The materials: four good, solid barrel staves; four blocks 4 in long, 4 in wide and 2 in thick; two pieces 12 in long, 4 in wide and 1 in thick; one piece 12 in long, 2 in wide and 1-3/4 in thick; and a good board 4 ft long, 12 in wide and 1 in thick.

Make each crosspiece-and-knee unit from one 12 x 4 x 1 in piece and two of the blocks, as in his figure, and nail a barrel stave to each side for runners.

Fasten one bob to one end of the board. Attach the other at the centre of its crosspiece with a bolt, so it can turn. Fasten the 1-3/4 by 2 in piece, 12 in long, across the top of the board at the front end.

Fasten a rope to the knees of the front runners; it steers the sled.

From "An Inexpensive Bobsled" by H. J. Blacklidge, in **The Boy Mechanic, Book 2**, Popular Mechanics, 1915 (Project Gutenberg 44585; checked on the archive.org scan boymechanicbook200chic2, p. 49). Which end of the board gets the bolted bob, the bolt size and the stave length come only from his figure or are not given. The tools and metric figures are ours.