Canadian Forestry Journal, April, 1919 



149 



A MACHINE TO LOCATE FOREST FIRES 



The Osborne fire-finder, now in use by the 

 Dominion Forestry Branch at Kamloops, was in- 

 vented by W. B. Osborne, of the United States 

 Forest Service at Portland, Oregon. It consists 

 of a heavy circular metal base graduated near 

 the outer edge. This base is supported below 

 on four short metal legs or points which rest 

 on two solid metal rods. The rods are screwed 

 to a board and act as a track or guide upon 

 which the points can slide back and forth. This 

 sliding device is for the purpose of overcoming 

 any nearby obstruction which may be in the 

 line of sight, as for instance an upright or a 

 window-frame in the lookout station itself. 



Attached to the graduated circular base, and 

 lying flat upon it, is a detachable circular disc 

 of sheet metal. Mounted on the surface of this 

 metal disc is the map of the country surround- 

 ing the lookout station. The map is so mounted 

 that the position of the lookout station on the 

 map is exactly in the centre of the disc. The 

 whole map and disc is covered with a trans- 

 parent shellac or varnish to preserve it and 

 prevent it becoming marked or weathered. 



Fitting on top of the graduate base piece is a 

 sliding metal ring of a slightly smaller diameter 

 than the base, and which may be turned through 

 360 degrees in either direction. To this sliding 

 ring are attached two upright sighting pieces, 

 also a handle or grip for the purpose of turning 

 or sliding the ring. The sighting is done through 

 a small slit, or a peep-hole, in the eye piece upon 

 a vertical horse-hair in the object piece. A 

 horizontal horse-hair is also stretched between 

 the two sighting pieces. Stretched with edge up 

 between the two uprights, and just above the 

 map is a flexible metal tape. It is graduated 

 into inches and fractions of inches from the 

 middle towards the ends, and by means of it 

 the distance from the lookout station to any 

 point on the map may be read. Attached to 

 the sliding ring, at the base of the upright eye 

 piece, is a vernier for the purpose of reading 

 the angle through which the line of sight is 

 turned. 



The instrument also includes an attachment 

 for the sketching of a panoramic profile of the 

 surrounding country. A paper circle is laid 

 over the map. Then by following with the 

 "point" the outline of the mountains and hills 

 as they exist, their profile is automatically trans- 



fire flniler 



;it work. See accompanying 

 article. 



ferred to the paper. The thumb-screw imparts 

 a horizontal movement to the pencil at the same 

 time that it moves the point in a vertical one. 

 The complete instrument weighs about fifty 

 pounds. 



BOY SCOUTS TO PLANT. 



In order to give permanent expression to "all 

 Colonel Roosevelt stood for to the boys of the 

 nation," 16,000 troops of the Boy Scouts of 

 America, comprising 440,000 members, have 

 been instructed to plant one or more trees with 

 suitable inscription and ceremony in memory of 

 the former President, the National Council of the 

 organization said in a telegram of condolence 

 sent to Mrs. Roosevelt at Oyster Bay. 



FORESTRY AT OXFORD. 



(London Times.) 

 A statute was presented to Congregation at 

 Oxford by Sir Herbert Warren, President of 

 Magdalen, establishing a Professorship of Fores- 

 try, as a Chair of the first ord?r. with an en- 

 dowment of £900 per annum. He said that the 

 subject was one both poetically and practically 

 worthy of Oxford. If England no longer de- 

 pended on her oak forests for her "wooden 

 walls", yet the pit-prop was the support on which 

 rested both our navy and our industrial pros- 

 perity. 



