Scouting, Volume 30, Number 1, January 1942 Page: 8
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MAIN land
Z' OoudCt
Autos as placed for signaling test
1read — someplace — that most
disasters strike at night. Whether
this is true or not, certainly a
fire or a great storm or an elec-
trical breakdown seems the more
fearful when it occurs during the
sunless hours.
Reading that excellent article on
signaling in November Scouting,
it occurred to me that most Scouts
had become in varying degrees,
fairly proficient at visual signaling.
We knew the various codes and in
a sense had developed a universal
language. Messages have been sent
for hundreds of miles, from Troop
to Troop, by wig-wag or semaphore
but only in the daytime. Our tal-
ent, in effect, was but fifty per cent
useful, for most of us have done
little or nothing about signaling in
the nighttime.
Accordingly, I did a little ex-
perimenting, with some results that
I hope will prove interesting and
useful to brother Scouts.
Nighttime signaling equipment
should be part of the gear carried
by the trailers and field units of
every Emergency Service group,
just as signal flags now are, and
it should consist of an apparatus
more powerful than a flash-lamp
or a shutter lantern. This low
range type of equipment has its
place, of course — say across a
flooded stream or for short dis-
tances over which a message could
not be carried by a messenger or
a sound apparatus.
In a series of tests it was found
that the ordinary flashlight was
of little use above a half-mile. It
was practically useless at any dis-
tance if it was used against a back-
ground of other lights. Over rough
water, flashed from a boat, many
letters were distorted due to bob-
bing of the boat and refraction
and, during several tests, the lamp
itself failed or weakened electri-
cally. The general feeling was that
the flashlight was a good practice
instrument and possibly quite use-
ful under special conditions, but
that it hardly filled the bill as an
all-purpose night signaling device
to be included in field equipment.
It is interesting to note also that
wig-wag signals did not get over
with the accuracy of Morse code
signals. Semaphore signaling with
Signaling
By Call 3). Jlcwie
a light requires a tell-tale, that is
a fixed light worn at the belt of
the signaler, or resting at his feet,
as a reference point around which
the movable light is moved. A two-
cell flashlight at three-quarters of
a mile on a clear night in open
country was read with far more
accuracy sending Morse than
Semaphore, for obvious reasons.
2
Clamp TVpe..
Scrap iro/ legs
Witw W/AJC^ Mor
WoRK/Alt Ll6UT
KIomiTOR Liem*
IKOAJ strap
bolted
use olo aoto mead
LAMPS . COST about .50 4 .
11
CANN/AS^OCKET
FoR COILED
WIRE
.AMp BlKi
Main SwiTcH
Key
tlattop 8~
pad
eaImer
maudles
letter..
Jtfn
electrical circuit
♦■Monitor. li«-ht
Take, off
Fuse
U*mt-
We type
ABooT &' TalL
Drawings by the Author
Here is the complete self-contained outfit for night signaling
Q SCOUTING
Invite Troop Alumni to Your Boy Scout Week Events
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 30, Number 1, January 1942, periodical, January 1942; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth313078/m1/10/?q=%22%22~1&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.