Category Archives: Scouting

Operating a Landline Telegraph

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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.

Crystal Sets for the Poor and Needy, 1924

A hundred years ago today, the May 16, 1924 issue of the Washington Star carried this item. Many listeners had graduated to tube sets, and radio executive Le Roy Mark wanted to see to it that their old crystal sets made it into the hands of the poor and needy of Washington. He had begun an ongoing campaign to collect old crystal sets at Piggly Wiggly and Peoples Drug stores in the District, from whence they would make it into the hands of the needy. 400 names had already been collected, but Mark requested that clergymen and physicians send him the names of others who might benefit.

The Boy Scouts of the District had volunteered to install the sets. The only expense would be the cost of antenna wire, and contributions were being solicited for that purpose.

According to his 1938 obituary, Mark was a pioneer of radio broadcasting in Washington, as well as the insurance industry. The obituary still remembered him as “a leader in the campaign to provide funds to furnish radio sets to all shut-ins, particularly to make available a sufficient number of sets to enable all hospitalized World War veterans to listen to radio programs.”

1924 One Tube Broadcast Receiver

A hundred years ago this month, the May 1924 issue of Boys’ Life showed scouts how to put together this one tube broadcast receiver. The design was the winner of a contest put on by the magazine as the very best one-tube receiver. The winner was C.H. Brown of Edgewood, Maryland.

The magazine noted that the set was not regenerative. That was good, in that it wouldn’t break into a squeal to the consternation of listeners living nearby. It could be used for ‘phone signals, modulated CW, and spark transmissions. It was, however, no good for those newfangled CW signals that were showing up on the air.

A number of tubes could be used in the set, such as a UV-199, C-299, UV-201A, or C-301A. The set used a reflex design, meaning that the tube had two functions. It first amplified the incoming RF signal, which was then detected by a crystal detector. It was then fed back to the same tube which amplified the audio. This design accounted for the extraordinary distance and volume of which the set was capable.

Total cost was said to be about $18.00.

1954 Homemade Boat

If a scout 70 years ago needed a boat, he could make this one himself, thanks to the plans found in the March 1954 issue of Boys’ Life. Dubbed the “Nee Deep”, the 8-foot punt had a carrying capacity of two to three persons. It could be powered by oars, or a small outboard motor of less than 3-1/2 horsepower.

Most of the boat was pine, with the bottom being a sheet of 1/4 inch exterior plywood.

Of course, don’t follow the example of the scout in the illustration. When you’re out on the water, you should have (and preferably wear) a Coast Guard approved personal flotation device.

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Give Your Boy Scout a Brownie, 1924

If you were in the market for a gift for your Boy Scout a hundred years ago to celebrate the anniversary of the BSA, you couldn’t go wrong by getting him a Brownie camera from the Eastman Kodak Company. And if you were in Omaha, the place to get it would be the Kodak counter of the Robert Dempster Co., 1813 Farnam Street, as seen in this ad from the February 13, 1924, issue of the Omaha Bee.

While London Burned: Scout Edward John Cox

The February 1944 issue of Boys’ Life carried the stories of a number of British Scouts who had demonstrated bravery during World War II. Shown here is Scout Edward John Cox. During a heavy air raid, he was stationed at his post on the roof of St. George’s-in-the-East Church.

His mother and younger sisters had taken refuge in the crypt under the church. Incendiary bombs crashed around him, and he seized sandbags to quickly extinguish them. But as the raid continued, a big bomb blast into the church belfry, which almost immediately became a roaring mass of flames.

One of the men around him realized that eventually, the belfry would collapse, causing the massive bells to fall through the church and into the crypt. He raced down and gasped out the news to the marshal. Together, they started evacuating the mothers and children. Scout Cox kept going back again and again until all of the children were evacuated.

The last person had just been evacuated when the timbers of the belfry broke through the church and into the crypt.

The UK Scout Association awarded Scout Cox the Silver Cross, an award for acts of bravery in the face of danger where life has been at considerable risk.

1924 Telephone Workers: Risking Life and Limb

A hundred years ago, the telephone had become an essential part of American life, and the public had come to take it for granted as part of their normal business and social lives, as well as relying upon it in emergencies.

But The Telephone Company and its workers didn’t take it for granted. Despite fire or storm or flood, the telephone operator stuck to her switchboard. And the lineman and a quarter million employees risked life, limb, and even health to make sure that messages continued to go through.

All the public had to do for all of this was to pay the moderate cost.

This ad appeared in the February 1924 issue of Boys’ Life.

Wigwag Signaling

Sixty years ago this month, the October 1963 issue of Boys’ Life magazine showed Scouts the art of wigwagging, which is the “other” method of sending a message with signal flags. The most common method, semaphore, uses two flags, and each letter is sent by holding the flags in a certain position. Wigwag, on the other hand, uses a single flag, and uses Morse code. For a dot, the flag is waved in a figure eight to the sender’s right. The dash is formed by waving the flag to the sender’s left.

For a break between letters, the flag is held upright. After each word, the flag is held down.

Coke Ad: 1953

Seventy years ago, America’s youth knew how to make a party click, thanks to the spin of a record, the cut of a caper, and, of course, a bottle of Coke.

This ad appeared in the September 1953 issue of Boys’ Life.

1963 Science Fair Ideas

If Junior is looking for ideas for the science fair, here are some oldies but goodies, from the August 1963 issue of Boys’ Life. Any of these will certainly earn Junior a nice participation ribbon. But if you’re looking for more spectacular ideas, some of which are very easy, and some of which are very complicated, be sure to check out our full category of Science Fair Ideas.

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