Boy Scout Handbook 1911

Each scout in a patrol should be able to imitate the call of his patrol animal. That is, the scouts of the Wolf patrol should be able to imitate a wolf. In this way scouts of the same patrol can communicate with each other when in hiding, or in the dark of night. It is not honorable for a scout to use the call of any other patrol except his own.

The patrol leader calls up his patrol at will by sounding his whistle and by giving the call of the patrol.

When the scout makes signs anywhere for others to read he also draws the head of his animal. That is to say, if he were out scouting and wanted to show that a certain road should not be followed by others, he would draw the sign, "not to be followed," across it and add the name of his patrol animal, in order to show which patrol discovered that the road was bad, and by adding his own number at the left of the head to show which scout had discovered it.

Each patrol leader carries a small flag on the end of his staff {23} or stave with the head of his patrol animal shown on both sides. Thus the Tigers of the Twenty-seventh New York Troop should have the flag shown below.

(Result of work of Committee on Badges, Awards and Equipment: Dr. George J. Fisher, Chairman, Gen. George W. Wingate, Dr. C. Ward Crampton, Daniel Carter Beard. C. M. Connolly, A. A. Jameson. Ernest Thompson Seton.)

The examination for these badges should be given by the Court of Honor of the local council. This examination must not be given any boy who is not qualified as a first-class scout. After the boy has passed the examination, the local council may secure the merit badge for him by presenting the facts to the National Council. These badges are intended to stimulate the boy's interest in the life about him and are given for general knowledge. The wearing of these badges does not signify that a scout is qualified to make his living by the knowledge gained in securing the award.

Scouts winning any of the following badges are entitled to place after their names the insignia of the badges won. For instance, if he has successfully passed the signaling and seamanship tests, he signs his name in this manner--

To obtain a merit badge for Agriculture a scout must

1. State different tests with grains.

2. Grow at least an acre of corn which produces 25 per cent. better than the general average.

3. Be able to identify and describe common weeds of the community and tell how best to eliminate them.

4. Be able to identify the common insects and tell how best to handle them.

5. Have a practical knowledge of plowing, cultivating, drilling, hedging, and draining.

6. Have a working knowledge of farm machinery, haymaking, reaping, loading, and stacking.

7. Have a general acquaintance of the routine seasonal work on the farm, including the care of cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs.

8. Have a knowledge of Campbell's Soil Culture principle, and a knowledge of dry farming and of irrigation farming.

To obtain a merit badge for Angling a scout must

1. Catch and name ten different species of fish: salmon or trout to be taken with flies; bass, pickerel, or pike to be caught with rod or reel, muskallonge to be caught by trolling.

2. Make a bait rod of three joints, straight and sound, 14 oz. or less in weight, 10 feet or less in length, to stand a strain of 1-1/2 lbs. at the tip, 13 lbs. at the grip.

3. Make a jointed fly-rod 8-10 feet long, 4-8 ozs. in weight, capable of casting a fly sixty feet.

4. Name and describe twenty-five different species of fish found in North American waters and give a complete list of the fishes ascertained by himself to inhabit a given body of water.

5. Give the history of the young of any species of wild fish from the time of hatching until the adult stage is reached.

To obtain a merit badge for Archery a scout must

1. Make a bow and arrow which will shoot a distance of one hundred feet with fair precision.

2. Make a total score of 350 with 60 shots in one or {25} two meets, using standard four-foot target at forty yards or three-foot target at thirty yards.

3. Make a total score of 300 with 72 arrows, using standard target at a distance of fifty yards.

4. Shoot so far and fast as to have six arrows in the air at once.

To obtain a merit badge for Architecture a scout must

1. Present a satisfactory free-hand drawing.

2. Write an essay on the history of Architecture and describe the five orders.

3. Submit an original design for a two-story house and tell what material is necessary for its construction, giving detailed specifications.

To obtain a merit badge for Art a scout must

1. Draw in outline two simple objects, one composed of straight lines, and one of curved lines, the two subjects to be grouped together a little below the eye.

2. Draw in outline two books a little below the eye, one book to be open; also a table or chair.

3. Make in outline an Egyptian ornament.

4. Make in outline a Greek or Renaissance ornament from a cast or copy.

5. Make an original arrangement or design using some detail of ornament.

6. Make a drawing from a group of two objects placed a little below the eye and show light and shade.

7. Draw a cylindrical object and a rectangular object, grouped together a little below the eye, and show light and shade.

8. Present a camp scene in color.

To obtain a merit badge for Astronomy a scout must

1. Have a general knowledge of the nature and movements of stars.

2. Point out and name six principal constellations; find the North by means of other stars than the Pole-star in case of that star being obscured by clouds, and tell the hour of the night by the stars and moon.

3. Have a general knowledge of the positions and movements of the earth, sun and moon, and of tides, eclipses, meteors, comets, sun-spots, and planets.

To obtain a merit badge for Athletics a scout must

1. Write an acceptable article of not less than five hundred words on how to train for an athletic event.

2. Give the rules for one track and one field event.

3. Make the required athletic standard according to his weight, classifications and conditions as stated in chapter eight.

To obtain a merit badge for Automobiling a scout must

1. Demonstrate how to start a motor, explaining what precautions should be taken.

2. Take off and put on pneumatic tires.

3. Know the functions of the clutch, carburetor, valves, magneto, spark plug, differential cam shaft, and different speed gears, and be able to explain difference between a two and four-cycle motor.

4. Know how to put out burning gasoline or oil.

5. Have satisfactorily passed the requirements to receive a license to operate an automobile in the community in which he lives.

To obtain a merit badge for Aviation a scout must

1. Have a knowledge of the theory of aeroplanes, balloons, and dirigibles.

2. Have made a working model of an {27} aeroplane or dirigible that will fly at least twenty-five yards; and have built a box kite that will fly.

3. Have a knowledge of the engines used for aeroplanes and dirigibles, and be able to describe the various types of aeroplanes and their records.

To obtain a merit badge for Bee Farming a scout must

1. Have a practical knowledge of swarming, hiving, hives and general apiculture, including a knowledge of the use of artificial combs.

2. Describe different kinds of honey and tell from what sources gathered.

To obtain a merit badge for Blacksmithing a scout must

1. Upset and weld a one-inch iron rod.

2. Make a horseshoe.

3. Know how to tire a wheel, use a sledge-hammer and forge, shoe a horse correctly and roughshoe a horse.

4. Be able to temper iron and steel.

To obtain a merit badge for Bugling a scout must

1. Be able to sound properly on the Bugle the customary United States Army calls.

To obtain a merit badge for Business a scout must

1. Write a satisfactory business, and a personal letter.

2. State fundamental principles of buying and selling.

3. Know simple bookkeeping.

4. Keep a complete and actual account of personal receipts and expenditures for six months.

5. State how much money would need to be invested at 5 per cent. to earn his weekly allowance of spending money for a year.

To obtain a merit badge for Camping a scout must

1. Have slept in the open or under canvas at different times fifty nights.

2. Have put up a tent alone and ditched it.

3. Have made a bed of wild material and a fire without matches.

4. State how to choose a camp site and how to prepare for rain; how to build a latrine (toilet) and how to dispose of the camp garbage and refuse.

5. Know how to construct a raft.

To obtain a merit badge for Carpentry a scout must

1. Know the proper way to drive, set and clinch a nail.

2. Know the different kinds of chisels, planes and saws, and how to sharpen and use them.

3. Know the use of the rule, square, level, plumb-line and mitre.

4. Know how to use compasses for scribing both regular and irregular lines.

5. Make an article of furniture with three different standard joints or splices, with at least one surface of highly polished hard or decorative wood. All work to be done without assistance.

To obtain a merit badge for Chemistry a scout must be able to pass the following test:

1. Define physical and chemical change. Which occurs when salt is dissolved in water, milk sours, iron rusts, water boils, iron is magnetized and mercuric oxide is heated above the boiling point of mercury?

2. Give correct tests for oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, chlorine, and carbon dioxide gases.

3. Could you use the above gases to extinguish fire? How?

4. Why can baking soda be used to put out a small fire?

5. Give tests for a chloride, sulphide, sulphate, nitrate, and carbonate.

6. Give the names of three commercial forms of carbon. Tell how each is made and the purpose for which it is used.

7. What compound is formed when carbon is burned in air?

8. Tell process of making lime and mortar from limestone.

9. Why will fresh plaster harden quicker by burning charcoal in an open vessel near it?

To obtain a merit badge for Civics a scout must

1. State the principal citizenship requirements of an elector in his state.

2. Know the principal features of the naturalization laws of the United States.

3. Know how President, Vice-President, senators, and congressmen of the United States are elected and their terms of office.

4. Know the number of judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, how appointed, and their term of office.

5. Know the various administrative departments of government, as represented in the President's Cabinet.

6. Know how the governor, lieutenant-governor, senators, representatives, or assemblymen of his state are elected, and their terms of office.

7. Know whether the judges of the principal courts in his state are appointed or elected, and the length of their terms.

8. Know how the principal officers in his town or city are elected and for what terms.