(From the Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



San Francisco Office ) 



T'.ST F T FJT PROTECTION FXHIBIT 

 PANAMA PACIFIC III TEFal AT TONAL EXPOSITION R-l 



v 'ith the approach of the forest fire season in the 

 est, the fire protection exhibit of the United States Forest 

 3ervice at the Panama-Pacific Exposition is arousing renewed 

 interest. The display graphically shows in detail the nea:r:.. 

 o'ing taken by the Government to insure the early detection 

 and efficient fighting of forest fires. This is the .most i:.:- 

 -ortant portion of the entire Forest Service exhibit. 



In the center of the space is a large model , measuring 

 12 x 15 feet, showing a ranger district on a national Forest. 

 -. lookout house and a lookout tower occupy the two highest peaks. 

 These are connected by telephone with a ranger station which i.i 

 turn is connected with various users of the Forest at a ranch 

 house, a hotel, and a power-house. The model shows Government 

 roads, trails and bridges, constructed primarily for the purpose 

 of making every part of the Forest accessible to fire -fighters. 

 Pire -fighting equipment boxes are -laced at strategic points 

 along trails and reads, and a fire line kept clear of inflammable 

 material runs along one of the mountain ridges. 



To one side of the large center model a full-size 

 fire lookout house, fully equipped for discovering and locating 

 forest fires, is build on an imitation of a g. eat boulder on a 

 .mountain top. The house is painted white to serve as a con- 

 spicuous target for heliograph messages directed toward it by 

 patrolmen. The building contains binoculars through which a 

 c.istanc forest fire is seen; a fire-finder, by t he aid of which 

 the Supervisor's office can be informed definitely of the loca- 

 tion of a lire; and a special type of telephone in communication 

 h the Supervisor's office. There are also on display in thio 

 tower a portable telephone and a portable heliograph outfit for 

 use by patrolmen. A paid of stereopticon machines are concealeo 



hin the imitation rock on which the house rests and throw 

 pictures and descriptions on screens built into the rock, which 

 tell the entire story of the fire protection work. 



On a redwood tree trunk in another part of the ex- 

 hibit is dis-l^yed a weatherproof iron box telephone, such as 

 is placed along pacrol routes on the Forests. This telephone 

 is connected with the telephone in the lookout and with a Su- 

 rer visor's telephone at the desk of the demonstrator by slack 

 lines attached to tree trunks on swinging insulators, just as 

 the line is installed on a National Forest. This manner of con- 

 str^ction enables the line to stand the stress of the elements 



