Buy one, take it and a permanent pen to a carpenter, and leave with twenty. Measure each new one to the original rule to prevent compounding errors. Ceil- ing board is a cheap source of flat wood, although it is not very stiff.

For flame tests in chemistry, you can use a steel wire thoroughly scraped clean with iron or steel wool.

Satisfactory retort stands may be produced by cutting a piece of cement rein- forcing rod (re-rod, about 1 cm in diameter) and placing it in a metal tin full of wet cement. Once the cement hardens, you may attach a boss head and a clamp to have an equivalent stand. Stiff wire may be used in place of boss heads and clamps but they do not hold burettes as well. Especially if you have the misfortune of owning fragile glass burettes, the investment in good clamps is worthwhile. Of course, if you use syringes as burettes, there is no need for a retort stand.

Hang the pendulum from any elevated point. You can place a chair on a desk and hang a pendulum form the legs, or for a smaller diameter rod anchor a welding stick under a large rock.

Improvise! Both wire and strings of bicycle inner tube are versatile and effective binding agents.

Razor blades. You can find ways to modify them to remove one of the edges and add a handle, though students are pretty skilled with these blades. Dull blades should be discarded – because students need to apply more pressure when using them, there is a greater risk of slipping and thus of cuts. Sharp tools are much safer. For dissection, find a way to attach a handle to the blade to increase the pressure the student is able to safely apply to the cutting point.

Stop watches with the look of athletic and laboratory stopwatches are often available in big city goods markets for much less than at laboratory supply stores. Many digital wristwatches also have a stopwatch feature and these are widely available.

A welder or metal worker in town can make these. Bring a sample to make sure the stand is not too short or too tall. You can also make your own from stiff wire.

Put a hole in the cap of a water bottle. Perhaps the best method is to use a syringe needle. Gently and firmly apply pressure and push the needle through the lid. This is gives a very small hole that responds well to the application of pressure. If more movement of liquid is needed, puncture more holes with the syringe needle. You can also heat a stiff wire in a flame and burn the hole, hammer a nail through the cap, or use a small knife like an awl.

White paper works just as well. If your students are using syringes as burettes, they can also hold their flask up against a white wall.