The Daily Missoulian., 1910-11-30
Cavalry Buzzers the Thing

Zine on which the test was made runs
from Stevensville to the Ambrose /
ranger station. distance of Is miles.
This line is metallic circuit from
Stevensville out about seven miles. +
From thence to the Ambrose ranger
station it is a grounded line. The t
telephone on this line are of the usual ,
forest service type with 1900 ohm
ringers. One member of the party was
left at Stevensville with a cavalry |
Luzzer. field buzzer and a grounded !
forest service telephone. The rest of 7
the party went to a po'nt about three !
miles from Stevensville with cav
airy buzzer and field buZZer. A !
ranger was located at the grounded
telephone at the Ambrose station. 1t
was found that either the cavalry buz-
ger or the field buzzer in Stevensville
could be used to talk with the ranger
at the Ambrose station, Is miles away;
that either of the buzzers located three
| miles from Stevensville could talk with
the Ambrose ranger station. with
/ either of the buzzers at SteNensville,
or with the grounded telephone at
Stevensville: and that the ranger at
the Ambrose station could talk with
either of the buzzers at Stevensville
or at the point three miles from Ste
vensville very plainly. ring on the
grounded telephone ringer would cause
the buzzer to buzz, tut the buzzer
could not call the telephone. The
buzzers would call each other very
easily with the buzz call. If the reg
ular telephone receiver was left off the
hook, the buzz call could be heard very
distinctly at the ranger station, but
when the receiver was on the hook no
sound could be heard Lieutenant
Standforde stated that he thought
simple buzzer, similar to the ordinary
call buZzer in an office room, could
be attached to our telephones at
very reasonable cost, by means Of
which a cavalry buzzer at any point
on the line could summon one to the
light buzzer wire for the reason that
the light buzZer wire would be of great
/ value to the forest service for the pur-
pose OF giving telephone service to
lookout points, to camps of fire fight
ers and other temporary camps.
A Practical Wire.
In connection with this test consid
Grafton has been given to the insulated
No. 1S copper wire. on which the West
ern Electric company of Salt Lake City
has placed a price of $13 per mile. This
is q moderately flexible, fairly we'll in
suated wire. weighing SO pounds per
2 mile Assistant District Forester Mar
tin considers it perfectly feasible to
reel UP this wire at the end of the
field season and relay it the following
spring. He believes that with such
9 use, during the summer months only.
e this wire will have life of six or
seven years, and that if left on the
ground during the entire year it would
e have a life of at least four or five
i years.
0 This wire has been used in this dis
t trict on the Cabinet and Clearwater
; national forests during the past sea-
\ son to connect lookout points which
8 would be occupied during the summer
e months only with permanent forest
8 service telephone lines, where such
Y connections traverse rough. rocky
e country in which it was impossible to
a string telephone line to trees and the
e erection of poles would have been very
u expensive. This wire is laid directly
r on the ground and the telephone line
g can, consequently. be extended with
u great rapidity. The wire has about
s the same resistance as No. 12 galvan-
$ ized iron wire, and it is consequently
u feasible to use this wire up to as
u great distance as a No 12 galvanized
iron wire is used In addition to con-
u Meeting lookout points with permanent
: lines, this wire was found of great
u service on the Cabinet forest during
. the past fire season in temporarily
= closing breaks in permanent forest
9 service lines, resulting from the burn
ing out OF a number Of poles, and ir
o laying short temporary lines as thu
u exigencies of the fire season required
MY conclusions following the dem
II onstration made by Lieutenant Standi
- forde in Missoula and the test on thu
y Bitter Root forest are:
- Forsstsr's Conclusions.
IT First That the light buzzer wir
will unquestionably be Of the utmos
value to the service in perfecting it
:. fire protection This wire can in al
probability be used effectively wit
~ either regular telephone instrumen
~ or with test set up 10 distance @
49, 10 Or Is miles, and with the field Ouz
( ! ger or cavalry buzzer of the sigma
~ corps up to distance of o5 miles.
:. can be strung out from horseback @
-, by hand with great rapidity. Even !
rough, heavily timbered country
crew of two or three men can lay OF
- line at practically the same speed a
~ they can walk. The wire can be reele
- up, stored for further use or trans
- ferred Immediately to use at otht
~ points with almost equal facility.
~ I believe that this wire will be foun
- extremely useful in our fire protet
". ton system for two purpos ses, viz
or First. for extending lines to temporar
~ patrol or lookout points as require
= during the fire season; second, fl
a running temporary lines to camps es
-. tablished at forest fires where mol
than two m. three days work will