Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/220

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��Popular Science Monthly

���Filipinos built six of these towers so that the engineers of our Coast and Geodetic Survey could survey an island of dense jungles

��Building Eiffel Towers in the Philippine Jungle

THE accompanying photograph il- lustrates one of the many hazard- ous tasks which the engineers of the Coast and Geodetic Survey must un- dertake in order to overcome the ob- stacles of nature. Six towers, similar to the one illustrated, and ranging in height from 190 to 230 feet, were built to enable the surveyors to get long sights in the flat jungle country of southern Palawan, an island of the Philippines.

The feat is all the more remarkable when one considers the fact that the work was done by half wild Filipinos, many of whom were unable to under- stand English. Under the supervision of two American officers, the towers were built entirely of rough trees and saplings cut in the forest and carried to the station on the shoulders of the natives. Wire and nails brought from the Coast Survey vessel were used to fasten and secure the structures.

Some of the towers were located back several miles from the coast, so that the party had to camp on the spot. It was necessary to "pack" all of their outfit and provisions, even to drinking water, through the dense jungles and swamps where it was impossible to travel unless two or three natives went ahead with their bolos and cut trails. The natives were found to be excel- lent at tower building; they could climb up and around with almost as much agility as monkeys. In spite of the dangers naturally incurred in working on such crude structures and at so great a height, enough natives always volun- teered to "work topside." The risks they ran would make those of our better known steeplejacks and steel workers look tame by comparison.

The towers are composed of two separate structures, one inside the other. This is necessary in order that the theodolite (the instrument used to measure the angles to far distant stations) may be free from vibration. Mounted on top of the inner tower, it permits the observer to walk on the outer one without shaking the instru ment and disturbing its adjustment.

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