Toys were us (12) – Rubber seed ‘propeller’

My previous post about the rubber seed pods reminded my fellow blogger Philip Chew of another rubber seed toy that he used to play with. He has kindly emailed me a sketchto illustrate the description he gave in the comments section of the earlier post; which I have reproduced below.



I remember playing with rubber seeds and also the seed pods. Besides rubbing hot rubber seed on unsuspected victims, I made a propeller turned continuously by attaching it to a rubber seed.

Materials used:

A rubber seed, an ice cream stick, a short satay stick and a piece of string.


Method:

1) Make 3 holes on the rubber seed (top, bottom and center).
2) Empty the contents (kernel) inside the seed.
3) Fashion a propeller from ice cream stick and stick it to one end of the satay stick. Put the other end through the top hole on the rubber seed until it appears at the bottom.
4) Tie the piece of string to the center of the satay stick. Take out the free end of the string from the center hole. Pull tight and then roll the string around the satay stick many times by turning the propeller.
5) Now pull the string and the propeller will turn in one direction. The trick is to pull the string half way and let go for it to rewind around the stick. When pull again the propeller will turn in the opposite direction.