Vote for a Ropes and Poles badge design

I've been contemplating having badges made, which would be available for sale here on the blog. Some designs are shown above, featuring various projects from the blog archives, and I'd like your help choosing the first one to have embroidered. Please scroll down and vote below, or click on this link to go to the poll. Thanks!


 

Bamboo Scaffolding- government guidelines for pioneered structures in Hong Kong

Photo courtesy David Boté Estrada

Bamboo has been used for centuries to build scaffolding in East Asia, and is still in use today- everyday pioneering visible in every city. Where there are industries, there are standards, and the Hong Kong government publishes the document Guidelines on the Design and Construction of Bamboo Scaffolds, which regulates every details of how bamboo should be used in scaffolding there.

Figure 1 from Guidelines on the Design and Construction of Bamboo Scaffolds

Amongst other things, this regulation controls:
The type of bamboo-

The commonly used bamboo types are Kao Jue and Mao Jue. They should be 3 to 5 years old and air-dried in vertical positions under indoor condition for at least 3 months before use. The nominal length of both Kao Jue and Mao Jue is 6 m. 

Shear lashings for joining poles-

the distance between two knottings on the overlapping portion of the bamboo members should not be greater than 300 mm, and the tail of one bamboo member should be connected to the head of the other. Diagram 9 illustrates the proper connection of bamboo members for bracings/rakers, ledgers, posts/standards used in a bamboo scaffold.

And even inspection for quality control- 

Bamboo is a natural material and it expands and contracts as the moisture content changes. Proper workmanship, close supervision and frequent inspection are required to ensure the structural integrity of the bamboo scaffolds.

 While these regulations might not apply in your country (and might even allow for structures that are illegal/not suitable for Scouts in your country) they are an interesting read if you are looking at building large pioneered structures. 

WASP - West Australia Scout Pioneering

West Australia Scout Pioneering is part of Scouts Australia's West Australia Adventurous Activities team. The team runs a pioneering course aimed at Venturers, Rovers and Scouters, and also offers their services putting structures up at community events. I have featured the pioneering course before, with some photographs of an hourglass tower built by them, but the video below of the Perth Royal Show shows the bridge they have built here for the last few years (around 2:50)

WASP are active in Western Australia, Ploeg Technieken teach pioneering in Belgium- are there any specialist pioneering training teams active in your part of the world? Tell us about them in the comments

Pioneering from Mosta Venture Crew, Malta

Sean from Mosta Venture Scout Unit in Malta shared these photographs of various projects, including a raft, a ferris wheel, a carousel and a suspended platform in a valley.The suspended camping platform was made using abseiling ropes and a small hiking tent.

Sean says:

Our group, the Mosta Scout group is currently the largest one and we always shown a lot of interest in pioneering. All the above structures were of the first sort here in malta. The suspended camp was built by the rover crew, and the others by my section, the venture unit. For the suspended camp we used abseiling ropes, constructed a platform and then we pitched a hike tent on it. Recently I became a council member in the national scout youth council, and one of my ideas is that All the scout groups around Malta build a luna park, all with pioneering.

Mosta Venture Unit also has a Youtube channel, including the following rotating abseiling tower:

All photographs courtesy Mosta Scout Group.

Early 20th Century pioneering - Manual of Military Engineering

In Scouting For Boys, B-P refers to the Imperial War Office's 1905 Manual of Military Engineering for more information on Pioneering. 106 years later, that same manual is freely available online, and while some chapters are not really relevant to pioneering (eg. table of charges for hasty demolition of walls), there are some great resources, including some camp cooking techniques.

From knots, to lashings, anchorages, bridges and rafts, this book covers a wide range of pioneering projects, and shows how B-P's military experience influenced the sort of activities he chose for Scouting.

The Marshmallow Challenge

drawn on iPad Mini using Paper app and Just-Mobile AluPen

The Marshmallow Challenge is an indoor, patrol-based, teamwork and creativity challenge that can be run with minimal equipment and twenty minutes of time.

Developed by Tom Wujec of AutoDesk (Producers of the FormIt app and AutoCAD amongst many,many others), this challenge has been used by large and small companies, schools and kindergartens, as well as scout groups around the world.
The rules are simple: each team has 18 minutes to build the tallest possible freestanding tower (i.e. Not supported by anything other than the floor) with the marshmallow at the top. My Rover Crew recently ran this challenge with every Scout patrol in our district. Here are the results as an idea of the heights that are possible:

Here is a video of Tom discussing the challenge and what it teaches about teamwork:

Scoutpioneering.com website

Larry Green's Scoutpioneering.com is a new pioneering website, and is laready full of great resources, with extensive information on BSA Pioneering badge requirements, new projects, and technical advice. Larry is constantly adding new information, but my favourite part of the site is set of projects suitable for a troop night meeting. The website has email subscriptions, and an RSS feed you can follow, so head over and subscribe.

Why pioneering?

Pioneering has always been part of Baden-Powell's vision of Scout training, from the first edition of Scouting for Boys (Chapter IV- Camp life- deals with huts, bridges, towers and lashings). BP would have been exposed to pioneering as a military discipline in the army- pioneers were engineers who moved in front of the main column of the army and pioneered a route- building bridges and roads where needed. I think pioneering attracted BP for the following reasons:

• It is an adventurous, outdoor activity, supporting Scouting's ideal of learning in the outdoors
• it requires teamwork, so is suited to the Patrol system
• it is practical and concrete - at the end of the work, there is a visible, physical THING that has been made.

 Having said all of these things, I think it's possible to be a Scout, to really learn the important things we are trying to teach, without building bridges or trebuchets or any of the other hundreds of things I've blogged about. Of course, pioneering is something I'm passionate about, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this blog, but I'd like to hear from all of you:

What do YOU think pioneering has to offer to Scouts?
Where does pioneering not serve us well? What would you (or do you) do instead of pioneering?

(please remember your Scout law in your comments and discussions)

Finding the length of rope needed for a square lashing

Knoopenzo.nl (Knots etc.) is a Dutch website run by Theo Slijkerman, a member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. The website has a number of very interesting knotting resources, including calculators for working out the amount of rope needed for a rope mat, a turks head and a braided ring.

For pioneering, his square lashing calculator is pretty handy. Given the diameter of both poles (Dp and Db), and the thickness of the lashing rope (Dt), it will calculate the length of rope needed. The full calculator is available here, and a simplified table showing the lengths for a 10mm rope is here, in English and Dutch.

Show me the Ropes - Knotting instruction videos

'Show me the Ropes' is a series of Youtube videos covering basic knots and lashings, and is being updated all the time. The videos are made by First Walmer, a Scout group in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. From the thumb knot to the Carrick bend, the videos cover a lot of ground.

Football Friday: 2010 Stadia in 3d

(2010 World Cup Stadia: Clockwise from top left: Soccer City, Johannesburg; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban; Cape Town Stadium)

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup around the corner here in South Africa, I'll be posting links and projects to get into the spirit of things in the next few weeks.

(Soccer City in Johannesburg, the biggest stadium in Africa- click image for a rotatable 3d view)

First up, some 3d models for SketchUp and Google Earth. All 10 of the stadia that are hosting matches have been modelled and are available on the 3d warehouse for download. Here is the official collection.

In the Wild: photographs of Ropes and Poles projects

Most of the projects posted on Ropes and Poles have been tested in working conditions, mainly by my troop. Here are some photographs of projects that have featured here in the past.

The large image above show the camp 'couch' designed by Scouts in our troop. In the photograph, Rovers from our District Crew are 'examining' the couch at a local competition camp.








The pontoon ferry is modelled on a project I built as my final Springbok construction project, way back in 1997. In this (pre-digital) photograph, my Scouts and I are ferrying the examiner across the lake.












Before entering the lightweight racing raft into a competition, we held a test weekend where we built the raft, and also attempted to sail with it. Without a centreboard, however, we didn't have much success.















Finally, the portcullis gateway is pictured, as it was used on an inter-patrol competition camp in 2005.

Pioneered Millenium Dome

This beautifully drawn and well explained project is modelled after the Millenium Dome in London. The instructions explain the whole process of construction, including the procedure to make the net which supports the plastic sheeting forming the dome. The net alone requires some 1700 feet (625m) of rope, so this is not a small project, but looks well worth the effort.

This project comes from the UK-based Pioneering Made Easy website, which has many original and unusual projects (I'd be particularly impressed to see a troop build one of these)

Pioneering around the world

Scouting is a worldwide movement - it is thought that there are only six countries on Earth that have no Scout troops. I've been lucky enough to speak to Scouts all over the world while I've been running this blog. I realised the other day that I've spoken to Scouts on every continent on earth, except Antarctica (yes, there are Scout troops in Antarctica).

Here are a few projects from around the world that have been featured on Ropes and Poles:

In Uruguay, the Juan de Cordoba troop built a trebuchet based on the one on Ropes and Poles. A video can be viewed here.

Various Scouts from Israel have shared there amazing sculptural projects with me: flaming night-time artworks, giant dinosaurs and enormous hedgehogs.

This 13 metre radio tower is from the Netherlands.

Scoutmaster blog in the United States has shared many projects, including these impossible projects and many pioneering resources.

If you're a reader of this blog and your country is missing from the map, leave a comment and I'll add it on.
(and you can make your own visited countries map by visiting this link.)

5 Bamboo pioneering projects from Flickr.com

Bamboo is a lightweight, fast growing material for pioneering, that is available relatively cheaply in most tropical regions of the world. Flickr.com has some incredible photos of projects built with bamboo.

First, Duncan Hodges' photo of a bamboo tower in Oxford:


Hoffa534 has a great photo of the bamboo scaffolding that is common in China and much of the Far East:


Michaelbrandon has a photo of a bamboo raft in Thailand:

...and Kandyjaxx has these details of the lashings holding a bamboo raft together

Finally, Ed Fladung has this photo of a bamboo bridge in Vietnam:


There are (literally) thousands of other photographs of bamboo structures on Flickr, and the Bamboo (bambu) photo pool is a good place to start if you want to see some of them. There's also a great book called Build Your Own House which is available on Amazon.com, that has great photographs and drawings of buildings constructed from bamboo.

New Scouting SketchUp models uploaded to 3d Warehouse

I've uploaded a few new models to the SketchUp 3d Warehouse (to add to those I uploaded earlier):

• The hypar shelter in the picture above can be downloaded here.
• The tensegrity tower model can be downloaded here.
• The camp chairs and coffee table (part of the camping gadgets collection) can be downloaded here.

Download a free copy of SketchUp and then head over to the warehouse and download some of these models (check out my SketchUp tutorials for help with building pioneered models in SketchUp).

Photo Group: Pioneering photos from around the world

Flickr is an internet photo sharing service owned by Yahoo. One of the nicer features that Flickr has is that you can combine photos taken by different people into groups. Michael Beat from Switzerland has established a Scout Pioneering group - currently there are around 330 photographs in this group, and it's growing rapidly.

There are some incredible ideas from all over the world, so head over and take a look - among other things, there are double storey tents, gateways made with PVC pipes, pioneered soapbox cars and construction cranes used to build pioneering structures.

'New' lashings

John Thurman's book 'Pioneering Principles' (which I wrote about earlier and you can get here) describes 5 types of lashing for the first time.

2 of these have become widely known 'alternative' lashings- the Japanese lashing and the Filipino lashing.

He describes 3 others that have remained fairly obscure, but are nonetheless pretty useful. Here are excerpts from the book describing these new lashings:

• Scaffold lashing - a square lashing variant for use when poles need to be supported while they are being lashed


• Tourniquet lashing - a FAST lashing for lightweight structures.


• Sailmaker's lashing - an alternative to the figure of eight lashing.

Sailmaker's Lashing from John Thurman's Pioneering Principles

This excerpt from John Thurman's 'Pioneering Principles' describes an alternative to the figure of eight lashing for making tripods. I have come across this lashing before, it was in use in the late 90s in troops around Johannesburg. So, the Sailmaker's lashing:



Anyone concerned with rope work knows that the Sailmaker’s Whipping is a very good whipping for the end of a rope. It is simple to do, is a solid and secure job, and it looks attractive. Now, if it can be used for a three-stranded rope, why should it not be used for lashing together three spars? Through that process of reasoning we have been able to create the Sailmaker’s Lashing.
I am not going to describe it in detail because the Sailmaker’s Lashing is simply the whipping done on the end of three spars instead of the end of a three-stranded rope; there is no difference in method or result except perhaps to say that if you are putting on the lashing in order to make a tripod it must not be put on as tightly as would be done for a whipping. This is the same effect as in a sheer lashing: the tightening process occurs when you open out the spars and if you have made it too tight the only answer to the problem is to take it off and start again.
A further set of photographs shows you the Sailmaker’s Whipping as used on a four-stranded rope, and the same principle can be used for lashing four poles together, You may not want to do this very often, but it is as well to know that it can be done.


This item is reproduced here in compliance with the Creative Commons license held on the book.

Tourniquet Lashing from John Thurman's Pioneering Principles

This excerpt from John Thurman's 'Pioneering Principles' describes a FAST alternative lashing for lightweight structures:


This will shock the purists, but I am unrepentant.

Imagine a big Scout Rally with the main attraction publicised all over the town; “Pioneering Display”. If the publicity has been good along comes the public, the Mayor and Corporation, and the mums and dads. The order is given; the Scouts rush on carrying a tremendous assortment of ropes and spars. Expectation is very great. The Scouts start work with a will and they try very hard, but the minutes and the half-hours pass and all over the arena Scouts of various sizes are putting on square lashings, diagonal lashings, and possibly other lashings as well – and they are probably enjoying doing it. But the audience cannot really see what is happening and the expectation of the crowd subsides gradually into the boredom associated with any English summer afternoon when much has been promised and little is being achieved. The spectators remember pressing engagements, the Mayor begins to look at his watch, the District Commissioner becomes increasingly harassed and runs out of small talk. The Scoutmaster in charge knows that Lashing should not be hurried and yet wants to hurry it. Eventually the project or projects appear, but too late; no one is really interested now but thinking of tea and gardens. They have been kept waiting too long. Not an imaginary picture I assure you – I’ve seen it – I expect you have too.
How can we overcome a situation like this? The thing that is taking the time is the lashing, the most important and the least spectacular part of any enterprise in Pioneering. Well, there can be a certain amount of pre-lashing so that for the final erection of the bridge or the tower a very small number of lashings have to be put on (remember the bridge in “Boy Scout” at the Albert Hall), but even this can take a long time. That is why I commend to you for display work the Tourniquet Lashing. It is my own idea and I don’t think you will find it in any other book. As I said earlier, I am sure it will shock many people, but I hope it may shock some of you into trying it. It is illustrated above, and it does work!
Take a simple strop and then with a mallet handle or the butt of a stave you can fix two spars together by using the process of a tourniquet. Unless you are going to have a Scout holding the strainer of the tourniquet (an unpopular assignment) you must have a loop of rope or a piece of sisal, as shewn in the drawing, to fix it in place after tightening. Use this method for display purposes and I promise you that with a little practice you can put on a Pioneering Display that really does come up to expectations.
This is the method advocated in “The Ten-Minute Tower” which you will find described later in this book.
This leads to the final lashing suggestion, which will bring us to the end of a long but very important chapter and one which I hope you have found useful.
A great many valuable commercial discoveries have emanated from the thought of how to use something for a purpose for which it was not intended. Something is invented for one purpose and then ingenuity finds a different use for it. In lashing I cannot offer anything very profound except the tourniquet lashing and now this.


This item is reproduced here in compliance with the Creative Commons license held on the book.