42 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



A Three Inch Telescope for One 

 Dollar. 



BY F. H. VAN HISE, SUMMERLAND, BRITISH 

 COLUMBIA, CANADA. 



At Dr. Bigelow's request I describe a 

 telescope that I have made. 



The lens (A) (see drawing) is one 

 that we have had for several years. It 



THE ONE DOLLAR TELESCOPE. 



cost fifty cents at a receiver's sale. It 

 is three inches in diameter, and has a 

 forty-eight inch focus. The eyepiece 

 (H) is a tripod microscope that cost 

 fifty cents. 



The main tube is made of two paste- 

 board mailing tubes, each two and 

 three-quarters inches outside diameter, 

 and twenty and one-half inches long 

 (one was a little smaller, so I glued a 

 piece of building paper over it to make 

 it of the same diameter). Then I glued 

 another piece of paper over the two to 

 fasten them together. M is a paste- 

 board mailing can, three inches in di- 

 ameter and six and one-half inches 

 long, with a tin screw top and tin bot- 

 tom. I cut off the bottom and cut out 

 the screw top, so as to leave only a rim 

 (B) that Would hold the lens (A) in 

 place. The tube F is one and one-half 

 inches in diameter, eleven inches long, 

 and slides in tube E for rapid focusing. 

 The legs of the tripod microscope (eye- 

 piece) fit over the tube F, and are held 



in place by wrapping them with string 

 and gluing paper over the string. 



The upper part of H screws out of 

 the tripod part for focusing. This I 

 use for the fine adjustment. 



The tube E fits into another tube 

 that fits into the main tube, and the 

 latter fits into M. To make these tight, 

 I glued paper around the smaller tubes 

 and then altogether. 



I fastened two pieces of wood (C) 

 one inch square and fourteen and one- 

 half inches long, one on each side, by 

 gluing strips of cloth along the edges, 

 and strips of tin one-half inch wide, 

 tacking one end of the tin to one piece, 

 passing it around the tube and tacking 

 it to the other piece. These are to 

 stiffen the tube and to hold the pivots 

 (D) which are one-half inch in diame- 

 ter and extend five-eighths. Before 

 fastening the pieces C, I found where 

 the telescope balanced and at that 

 point I bored the holes for D. Before 

 fastening them together, I blackened 

 the tubes on the inside with turpentine 

 and lampblack, using an old toothbrush 

 fastened to a rod. I covered the out- 

 side with wrapping paper, and painted 

 it with varnish and lampblack. I made 

 the tripod head of thin boards (see 

 photograph). When I wish to use it, 

 I bolt it to a camera tripod. 



This telescope magnifies about forty- 

 nine diameters. I can see the four 

 brightest satellites of Jupiter and the 

 rings of Saturn (the latter not very 

 plainly). The mountains on the moon 

 are well shown. 



The lens is not a chromatic. It shows 

 prismatic colors around the object 

 (Jupiter and Saturn are beautiful in 

 colors !) but it is a good deal better 

 than a field glass. 



The forests of Oregon and Washing- 

 ton invade an unoccupied area at a 

 rate between one hundred and fifty and 

 three hundred feet during each gener- 

 ation. 



Da-, 



,--| t'2\ 5/8 in. 



