Eighty-five years ago this month, the April 1940 issue of Boys’ Life contained some pointers from William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt for Scouts to learn the Morse Code, which was then a requirement for First Class. The best way was to sit down with a buddy and learn the letters with a buzzer telegraph set, and the simple instructions for making such an instrument are shown below. Then, you could continue your signaling in the great out-of-doors.
Sixty years ago this month, the March 1966 issue of Boys’ Life carried a feature by William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt showing a number of methods to determine the points of the compass. The method shown above, if you had the time, was exact.
A faster but less accurate method was shown at the left. You place a straight stick in the ground so that it casts no shadow. You wait, and the inevitable shadow will be pointing approximately west. How close the method worked depended on how close you were to noon, and how close you were to the equinoxes.
One hundred years ago this month, the March 1925 issue of Boys’ Life showed Eagle Scouts Andrew S. Bostwick and H.I. Swanson, both of Troop 711, Brooklyn, at the controls of the radio they had built. The magazine reported that they picked up 150 stations during the course of one evening.
Perhaps the duo inspired some scouts to build the two-tube receiver described in the same issue of the magazine:
A hundred years ago this month, the February 1925 issue of Science and Invention gave these self-explanatory plans for constructing an emergency foot bridge. It had the advantage of being able to use it as you constructed it, since you pushed each new section into place.
Each support was a pair of jumping poles. You would form them into an “X” shape, and then push them out ahead. Perhaps some student will be inspired to turn this into a science fair project. Or perhaps a scout looking for a good pioneering project might be inspired. (If the water below is deeper than ankle-deep, then the current Guide to Safe Scouting calls for participants to wear a life jacket.)
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Last month, we showed how young men a hundred years ago could set up a telegraph system to communicate with a friend down the street, using, of course, Eveready batteries. But what if the friend lived across the street? According to this ad in the November 1924 issue of Boys’ Life, running a wire across the street might not be possible, since many towns forbade it. But there was still a solution in the form of this lamp signaling outfit. With three Eveready dry cells, and a four-volt Eveready automotive lamp, your friend across the street could easily copy your code visually.
Of course, before taking the key, it was best to put on a tie.
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A hundred years ago, these young men (Bill and Sam) kept in touch and built up their code speed with this telegraph system linking their houses. All they needed was two buzzers, two keys, two switches, and enough wire to connect their houses down the street. And, of course, they needed some batteries, but this ad warned them not to just walk into the store and ask for a dry cell. Instead, they were to ask for Columbia Eveready by name. Those peppy batteries made the buzzer yelp at the slightest touch of the key, allowing them to quickly build up their speed. And for easy connections, you could get the batteries with Fahnestock clips.
The ad appeared in the October 1924 issue of Boys’ Life.
Most of our readers will recognize the figure shown in this ad from the August 1939 issue of Practical Mechanics as Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scouting movement. But the ad reveals that B-P was also a proponent of Pelmanism, what the ad calls the Science of Success. It was a system of brain training, which was said to develop the mind just as physical training strengthened the body.
The ad invited you to write in for details of the course in Pelmanism. But thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can now download the entire course for free. If you prefer hard copies, reprints are available at Amazon.
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Shown here, in the August 1949 issue of Radio News, is Charles Schram, W9UBT, instructing the Scouts of Troop 510 of Chicago on the finer points of Ham Radio. The troop’s scoutmaster decided that ham radio would be a worthwhile activity for the Scouts, and started seeking an instructor to get them started. He called all of the clubs in the area and wasn’t able to find any volunteers. So he started calling individual hams and initially struck out. But eventually, he called Schram, who enthusiastically accepted the assignment.
Schram was an active ham and former scout. He was first licensed in 1941, and served in the Army starting in 1943, where he was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge. Forty-five scouts, as well as nine fathers, signed on for the classes. Of the scouts, 32 were twelve years of age.
Schram died in 2017 at the age of 93.
A hundred years ago, Eveready ran this ad in the June 1924 issue of Boys’ Life, stressing the fun and utility that a flashlight and good batteries would bring.
Shown is their model 2671, which was said to have a 200 foot range.
According to the ad, you need one for gathering firewood after dark, exploring, or signaling. You also needed one for fun nights around the house. Chances are, there was an old flashlight around the house. If so, you could reload it with a fresh set of Eveready batteries.
One helpful hint was to know what size batteries your flashlight took. Then, you could buy a new set without bringing in the flashlight.
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This weekend, I had the pleasure of demonstrating a landline telegraph to a group of scouts at the BSA Northern Star Council Spring Camporee at Stearns Scout Camp near South Haven, MN. Over 500 scouts attended, and the theme of the event was American Heroes. The event included a group of Civil War reenactors from the New Ulm Battery, complete with their cannon. Since the telegraph shaped the Civil War, we were placed near them. The two awnings here, about 100 feet apart, were separate telegraph stations, with the line connecting them run through the tall grass.
We showed the scouts the telegraph in action, and let them hear what it would have sounded like during the Civil War. I don’t know the exact age of the instruments we used, but they were probably at least a hundred years old. They were purchased on eBay by another scout leader who got them working.
Since I am not able to copy the clicks and clacks of a landline telegraph sounder, we also hooked in a beeper. With that in place, I asked the scouts to send their name, and to their amazement, I copied it correctly.
The purpose of a telegraph is two-way communications, so I gave them a pencil and paper and told them I was going to send them a message. According to conventional wisdom, you need to memorize the code before you can start receiving it. But these scouts, and other guinea pigs I’ve experimented on in the past, prove that this is not true. I printed up copies of the simple chart from LearnMorseCode.com shown here. It might be gimmicky, but it works. You place your finger or pencil at the spot marked “start.” Moving down the chart, if you hear a dash, you go to the left. If you hear a dot, you go to the right. When you are done, you are pointing at the letter in question. I encouraged the scouts to write down the dots and dashes, and then use the chart when they were done. But many of them were able to do it in real time. I found that people (young people, at least) can learn the code very quickly using this method, without having to memorize it first. After hearing a letter just a few times, they get it without bothering to look at the chart.
The round object shown in the top photo is a reproduction U.S. Army cipher wheel. Not unlike a typical secret decoder ring, this replica is available on Amazon and is nicely crafted. (If you want to download and print a similar one, you can do so here.) You can read more about how it was used at this link. It was apparently used mostly for messages sent by flag, but it could be used for telegraph messages as well. Most of the letters are represented with numbers containing 1’s and 8’s. But the 8’s are really 2’s. Eights are used only because they are easier to read on the circular rule. When used on the telegraph, the “dot code” was often used, as it permitted minimally skilled operators to use the telegraph. So if A=1221 in that day’s code, then the letter could be sent by sending one dot, two dots, two dots, and one dot.
