The Radio Boys with the Forest Rangers

"A new series for boys giving full details of radio work, both in sending and receiving-telling how small and large amateur sets can be made and operated, and how some boys got a lot of fun and adventure out of what they did. Each volume from first to last is so thoroughly fascinating so strictly un-to-date and accurate we feel sure all lads will peruse them with great delight. Each volume has a Foreword by Jack Binns the well-known radio expert."--- Grosset & Dunlap advertisement The "well-known radio expert" who wrote the foreword to each volume actually had a life straight out of the pages of a turn-of-the-century boys' adventure book himself. The young wireless operator of the SS Republic, a large passenger ship, Jack Binns became a popular hero in 1909 when on a foggy night the Republic collided with another ship, the SS Florida, off the coast of Nantucket. Jack Binns, manning the radio in the partially wrecked communications room, sent distress signals which were picked up on shore and relayed to other ships in the area. One of these was the SS Baltic, which -- guided through the fog by Binns' relayed instructions -- was able to rescue every last soul of the 2400 plus people on board the crippled ships; not a single life was lost. This was apparently the first time that radio had been used to summon assistance in this manner. As a strange footnote, Binns was offered the position of wireless operator aboard the ill-starred Titanic; he turned down the job because he was going to get married. Songs were written about him, a tickertape parade was held in his honor, and the directors of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company presented him with a gold watch.