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                       THE BOY MECHANIC
                            BOOK 2

  [Illustration: FOUR-PASSENGER COASTING BOBSLED See Page 24]

                             THE
                        BOY MECHANIC
                           BOOK 2

                 1000 THINGS FOR BOYS TO DO

                      HOW TO CONSTRUCT

  DEVICES FOR WINTER SPORTS, MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA, INDOOR
        GAMES, REED FURNITURE, ELECTRICAL NOVELTIES,
             BOATS, FISHING RODS, CAMPS AND CAMP
               APPLIANCES, KITES AND GLIDERS,
                     PUSHMOBILES, ROLLER
                       COASTER, FERRIS
                            WHEEL

                             AND

      HUNDREDS OF OTHER THINGS WHICH DELIGHT EVERY BOY

                   WITH 995 ILLUSTRATIONS

             COPYRIGHTED, 1915, BY H. H. WINDSOR

                           CHICAGO
                    POPULAR MECHANICS CO.
                         PUBLISHERS



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Transcriber's Note:

This etext differs from the original as follows. Two minor typographical
errors were found and corrected. In the chapters on making fly-fishing
rods (pages 59-71), several lists of materials or dimensions that were
printed as running text have been reformatted as lists for clarity. The
text is unchanged.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: After the First Station has been Selected, It is Marked by
a Pile of Stones, a Stake, or, If Precise Work is to be Done, a Tack in
the Top of a Stake. The Table is Then Set Up over This Station Point and
Leveled So That the Surface of the Paper will Be Truly Horizontal
(Inset: UNCLE JOHN'S FARM Scale 1/16" = 1' Jimmy Smith--Surveyor) ]

[Illustration: The Boy Surveyor]




Plane-Table Surveying By Harold G. McGee


    [In the training of a boy for a trade or profession there is
    none so profitable for outdoor work as that of a surveyor. This
    article sets forth how to accomplish surveying and the making of
    simple maps with the use of commonplace tools that any boy can
    make.--Editor.]

Surveying and map making have always been two of the most interesting
things a civil engineer has had to do. And, like George Washington, many
of the men we look up to today as successes in different lines worked as
surveyors in their younger days. Surveying takes one out of doors, and is
apt to lead him into the unknown and unexplored byways of the earth.

Though modern surveyors often use precise and expensive instruments,
creditable surveys can be made with simple and inexpensive apparatus. Of
such apparatus, two of the simplest are the plane table and the camera.
Since one must know the principles of plane-table surveying before he
can do camera surveying, this paper will describe the plane table alone,
leaving the camera for another chapter.

A plane table is simply a drawing board mounted on a tripod so that it can
be set up and worked upon in the field. One kind of plane table, which is
used in the army for reconnaissance, does not even have a tripod; it is
simply strapped to the arm of the man who is using it.

Plane-table maps vary greatly in scale and the area they represent.
Landscape artists' plans may show only single city lots, while some
topographic maps cover hundreds of square miles on a single sheet. For
maps of a small farm, a park, or a residence block in the city, a plane
table is almost ideal, since plane-table maps are made with rather simple
apparatus and do not require much actual measuring on the ground. Most
objects are located without ever going to them, or even sending a rod-man
to them.

[Illustration: Just a Few Weeks After George Washington's Sixteenth
Birthday, in 1748, Lord Fairfax, Owner of a Large Estate in Virginia, Took
Him into His Employ as a Surveyor]

Besides the plane table itself and a sheet of paper, only a small
carpenter's level, a tape to measure a few distances with, and some spikes
for markers, a hard lead pencil, a ruler, and a few needles are absolutely
necessary