1990 



Canadian Forestry Journal, December, 1918 



Airplanes Directed by Wireless Phone 



Squadronsof American airplanes fight- 

 ing in France up to the moment of the 

 armistice were manoeuvering under 

 the vocal orders of the squadron 

 commander that reached each pilot 

 by radio telephone. 



News of the successful develop- 

 ment of this device, hitherto a mili- 

 tary secret, though some inkling of it 

 had reached the Germans just before 

 hostilities ceased, is now allowed to 

 become public by John D. Ryan, 

 U. S. director of aircraft production. 



"There are some details concerning 

 it which we cannot discuss yet," Mr. 

 Ryan said, "but the radio devices 

 worked out during months of experi- 

 ment went into actual service some 

 weeks ago. I have myself, standing 

 on the ground, given orders to a 

 squadron flying in the air and watched 

 tnem manoeuver accordingly. The 



PIT TIMBER IN N. S. 



The coal mines of Nova Scotia 

 furnish a constant market for mine 

 timbers, utilizing an average of twen- 

 ty-two miUion feet yearly. These 

 include pit props of spruce or fir five 

 feet long and five inches at the small 

 end. The average price for these is 

 about one and one-quarter cents 

 per foot. Pit ties from four to five 

 feet long and from four to six inches in 

 diameter fetch from five and one half 

 to twelve cents each. Railway ties 

 of hemlock, six by seven inches and 

 eight feet long bring fifty-five cents 

 each. Booms of black spruce from 

 eleven to seventeen feet long with an 

 eight inch top fetch from sixty cents 

 to ninety-four cents each. 



Wood is used in mines in preference 

 to other material because it will give 

 way slowly when subjected to great 

 weight, gradually splintering and 

 cracking, giving the miners warning 

 and a chance to get away. Wood 

 decays rapidly in mines owing to the 

 damp conditions, so it must be re- 

 placed often. The chief sources of 

 supply in Nova Scotia are Cumber- 

 land, Colchester, the Cape Breton 

 Counties, Guysboro and Antigonish. 



transmission of the voice is clear 

 enough to be heard distinctly through 

 the sound of the airplane motor. It 

 is in every way the most satisfactory 

 means of communicating between 

 planes in the air and from the ground 

 to planes." 



Mr. Ryan said he could not dis- 

 cuss the distances over which the 

 radio telephone has worked, but it is 

 known to be a matter of some miles. 



W. C. Potter, of the equipment div- 

 ision of the bureau, explained that the 

 idea of the radio telephone was con 

 ceived some time ago by a number of 

 experimenters. 



"For some months it has been pos- 

 sible in our offices in Washington to 

 hear the airplanes flying miles over 

 the city," he said, "talking to each 

 other and to the ground as they 

 worked out and perfected the device.*" 



MARITIME BARREL SUPPLY 



In the western part of Nova Scotia 

 and in all the fishing centres there is 

 an increasing demand for barrel hoops, 

 staves and headings and there the 

 question of an adequate supply of 

 cooperage material is of equal im- 

 portance to that of fuel. Such mat- 

 erial that formerly came from the 

 waste stock of the large saw mills has 

 lately been very much curtailed 

 and in future more dependence must 

 be placed on direct production and 

 manufacture where the wood is grown. 

 Accessibility is a prime factor in this 

 industry and consequently a suffici- 

 ent supply of cooperage material 

 depends largely on the quantity the 

 farmers can furnish. The practise 

 of a yearly cut of hoop poles is 

 recommended, with the object of 

 getting regular crops. This prac- 

 tise also allows the smaller trees to 

 grow to a proper hoop size and pre- 

 vents overgrowth that is unsuitable 

 for cooperage and yet of little value 

 as fuel. — From "The Farm Woodlot 

 in Nova Scotia.'' 



