PRAMUKA : SIMBOL ARAH CHAPTER 3

PRAMUKA : SIMBOL ARAH

CHAPTER 3

CHALK-SIGNS FOR COMMAND AND INFORMATION

FOR THE WAYFARER, PEDESTRIAN, BICYCLIST, MOTOR CYCLIST OR THE AUTOMOBILIST

Fig. 31. Two rude circles intersecting each other is a command to persevere, never say die, don't give up. (Hobo.)

Fig. 32. Circle with arrow. Command to go. (Hobo.)

Fig. 33. A spiral with arrow point to left. Command to come to camp, to come back. (Boy Pioneers.)

Fig. 34. A sign taken by vagabonds from the ancient books of magic, a command to stop, to halt. Stop! (Hobo.)

Fig. 35. A diamond admonishes you to keep quiet, hold your tongue. (Hobo.)

Fig. 36. A cross. A hint to be good. With tramps this means, give them a religious talk and they will give you food. (Tramp.)

Fig. 37. Two signs taken from ancient book of magic and used by tramps to tell where they can get food by working for it. (Hobo.)

Fig. 38. You may camp here. (Hobo sign.) From the letter Teth celestial writing, magic.

Fig. 39. Tells you that you may sleep in the hay loft. Probably taken from ancient magic. (Hobo.)

Fig. 40. Among the tramps and vagabonds this means to tell a pitiful story and you will excite the sympathy of your audience. But with the Scouts it simply means to tell your story, that is, make your report. (Hobo.)

ROAD-SIGNS FOR AUTOMOBILES

Recently the automobilists have adopted some very useful and practical road signs. In the first place they have painted the telephone and telegraph posts with bands of color to mark the roads so colored on the automobile maps, but the real practical road signs consists first of a parabola, which is a term in geometry for a certain curve made by the section of a cone. Fig. A (Plate 1). This warns the chauffeur that he is approaching a dangerous curve in the road. Steep grade ahead is indicated by two straight lines, one a little above the other, joined at the middle ends by a diagonal line, Fig. B (Plate 1), thus showing a profile view of the road with a steep grade to it.

Railroad crossing! look out for the locomotive! is shown by a simple crossing of two lines like a letter X, Fig. C (Plate 1). These signs are very conspicuous on the roads in Connecticut, especially in the neighborhood of Danbury.

Somewhere about 1902 the "Association General Automobile" that is, the French Automobile Society adopted quite an extended series of road signs for the purpose of warning motorists when they approach dangerous grade  crossings, cross-roads, villages, steep hills, bad pavements, arches, gullies and hog-backs, or as the French call them, donkey-backs. They also indicate which way the road is turning, when the road turns to the right it is so shown by Fig. D (Plate 1).

Turning to the left is the same sign reversed with the pointed end pointing to the left, Fig. E (Plate 1).

A winding descent is indicated by a rude S-shaped figure tipped up diagonally with the top end pointing to the right, Fig. F (Plate 1).

A winding ascent is indicated by the same sort of S-shaped figure tipped up towards the left, Fig. G (Plate 1). A steep descent is shown by a bomb set diagonally on the sign with a pointed end aimed towards the right-hand lower corner, Fig. H (Plate 1).

A steep ascent is indicated by the same bomb-shaped figure placed diagonally upon the sign with the pointed end pointing to the upper right-hand corner, Fig. J (Plate 1).

Bad cross-roads is practically the same sign that they use here in America for railroad crossings, Fig. K (Plate 1).

Grade crossing is indicated by a broad band representing the road with two lines crossing it at right angles representing the rails, Fig. L (Plate 1).

A turn in the road going down hill is shown by part of a "U" with the pointed end turning down, Fig. M (Plate 1).

A turn in the road going up hill is a reverse of the last figure with a sharp end pointing up. Fig. N (Plate 1).

Where the road passes under an arch a warning sign of an arch upon the sign-board tells the chauffeur to be careful, Fig. O (Plate 1).

A village is indicated by a couple of crudely drawn houses with a public building in between them; Fig. P (Plate 1).

A donkey-back, or hog-back as we know it in America, is shown by a diagram of that sort of a hill, Fig. Q (Plate 1).

A gulley is indicated by a conventional outline of a gulley. Fig. R (Plate 1).

Bad paving is something all of us would like to know before we hit it, and our machine goes jumping over the stones. The French sign for it is a section of a checkerboard, Fig. S (Plate 1).

The water splash is foretold by the diagram of a fence on the sign-board, Fig. T (Plate 1).

There are many of these French signs which are unnecessary here, in America, as automobile signs, but some of them could be used to advantage on automobile maps and also upon military maps, for in map-making the more simple conventional signs one has the less lettering is necessary, and consequently the more simple and more easily read is the map.