I downloaded a copy of this recently, and have had fun browsing through it. You never know when some of this might come in handy! There are a couple of entries that are a bit off, however, in the section on determining direction:
[COLOR="Blue"]MAKING IMPROVISED COMPASSES
You can construct improvised compasses using a piece of ferrous metal that can be needle shaped or a flat double-edged razor blade and a piece of nonmetallic string or long hair from which to suspend it. You can magnetize or polarize the metal by slowly stroking it in one direction on a piece of silk or carefully through your hair using deliberate strokes.
USING THE MOON
Because the moon has no light of its own, we can only see it when it reflects the sun's light. As it orbits the earth on its 28-day circuit, the shape of the reflected light varies according to its position. We say there is a new moon or no moon when it is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun. Then, as it moves away from the earth's shadow, it begins to reflect light from its right side and waxes to become a full moon before waning, or losing shape, to appear as a sliver on the left side. You can use this information to identify direction.
If the moon rises before the sun has set, the illuminated side will be the west. If the moon rises after midnight, the illuminated side will be the east. This obvious discovery provides us with a rough east-west reference during the night.
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Whoever wrote this does not understand the phases of the moon, although the "right-side lit = west" works, at least if you know you are in the northern hemisphere!
Magnetizing a needle by rubbing it with a piece of silk? Are they confusing magnetism with static electricity? The manual does go on to say that you can also do this by rubbing the needle with a magnet.
When I was first getting into astronomy as a teenager, I had an uncle tell me that in the army they taught that you could tell which way the wind would blow the next day by which way the Milky Way ran through the sky at night. I didn't try to argue with him.
[COLOR="Blue"]MAKING IMPROVISED COMPASSES
You can construct improvised compasses using a piece of ferrous metal that can be needle shaped or a flat double-edged razor blade and a piece of nonmetallic string or long hair from which to suspend it. You can magnetize or polarize the metal by slowly stroking it in one direction on a piece of silk or carefully through your hair using deliberate strokes.
USING THE MOON
Because the moon has no light of its own, we can only see it when it reflects the sun's light. As it orbits the earth on its 28-day circuit, the shape of the reflected light varies according to its position. We say there is a new moon or no moon when it is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun. Then, as it moves away from the earth's shadow, it begins to reflect light from its right side and waxes to become a full moon before waning, or losing shape, to appear as a sliver on the left side. You can use this information to identify direction.
If the moon rises before the sun has set, the illuminated side will be the west. If the moon rises after midnight, the illuminated side will be the east. This obvious discovery provides us with a rough east-west reference during the night.
[/COLOR]
Whoever wrote this does not understand the phases of the moon, although the "right-side lit = west" works, at least if you know you are in the northern hemisphere!
Magnetizing a needle by rubbing it with a piece of silk? Are they confusing magnetism with static electricity? The manual does go on to say that you can also do this by rubbing the needle with a magnet.
When I was first getting into astronomy as a teenager, I had an uncle tell me that in the army they taught that you could tell which way the wind would blow the next day by which way the Milky Way ran through the sky at night. I didn't try to argue with him.
