Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys

by Joseph H. Adams

The New Tent

One great drawback to the pitched or army tent is that in wet weather, when one has to stay in-doors, it is not a comfortable abode unless you sit down or keep close to the ground, for there is little or no head room.

In the illustration of the new tent with French roof (Fig. 14) you can readily see the great advantage of this new method of construction, for it affords a great deal of head room.

Two uprights, three ridge-poles, and four angle-bars will be required for the frame, and some long, slim poles with crotched ends can be cut to prop the guy-ropes out from the tent as shown in the illustration. For a party of three or four boys this tent should measure seven feet and six inches high, six feet and six inches broad at the top, eight feet at the bottom, and ten or twelve feet deep. The sides and top are in one piece, twenty-one feet long and ten or twelve feet wide. The rear end is made in one piece and sewed fast to the edges of the sides and top.

At the front two flaps are sewed to the top and sides. They each measure seven feet and six inches long at the inner edge, four feet across the bottom, three feet and five inches at the top, and seven feet long at the outer edge. They are cut as shown in Fig. 15 A, and when the tent is set up the canvas will appear as shown in Fig. 15 B.

The frame is composed of two uprights two inches square and nine feet long, eighteen inches of which is set into the ground. There are three ridge-poles two inches in diameter and ten feet long; and four brace-bars two inches square, four feet and three inches long, bevelled at the lower ends to fit against the upright post as shown at Fig. 16 A. An iron pin (Fig. 16 D) is driven in the top of each upright and at the outer ends of the brace-bars over which the ridge-poles fit, they having been provided with holes for the purpose. Angle-irons are screwed fast to the bevelled ends of the brace-bars, and a collar of iron is made and screwed to the uprights so that the tongue end of the angle-irons will fit in them as shown at Fig. 16 B. Stout screw-eyes and wire hold the braces in position at the top, as shown at Fig. 16 C, and so prevent the outer ridge-poles from straining the canvas.

THE NEW TENT

One of the best anchorages for the guy-ropes of a tent is made with the lock-stake and deadeye cleat shown at Fig. 17 A. A stake with a notch to hold the rope is driven into the ground, and another notched stake is driven in close to the head, so that when in far enough the notch in the latter will hold the head of the former as shown at Fig. 17 B. The deadeye cleat is cut from hard-wood seven-eighths of an inch thick, and is two inches wide, six inches long, and provided with two holes three inches apart. At one end a jaw is cut, so that a rope may be caught in it as shown in Fig. 17 A. Steel wire nails are passed through the holes indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 17 C, and riveted at the point ends to strengthen the deadeyes.

The manner in which it is used is shown at Fig. 17 A, and if the holes are made the same size as the diameter of the rope, the harder you pull on the tent end of the rope, the more securely the deadeye cleat holds, and the loose end of the rope caught first in the jaw can be given a turn or two around the cleat to make it fast.