Osborne Fire Finder
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The Osborne Fire Finder is a type of alidade used by fire lookouts to find a directional bearing to smoke in order to alert fire crews to a wildland fire.
An Osborne Fire Finder device used in fire lookout towers.
Osborne Fire Finder at Sand Mountain Lookout, Oregon
A USFS Fire Lookout using an Osborne Firefinder while on duty at Vetter Mountain, California.
Fire lookout
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A fire lookout is a person assigned the duty to look for fire from atop a building known as a fire lookout tower. These towers are used in remote areas, normally on mountain tops with high elevation a
Osborne Fire Finder
…The Osborne Fire Finder is a type of alidade used by fire lookouts to find a directional bearing (azimuth) to smoke in order to alert fire crews to a wildland fire. The forerunner to the device was invented around 1840…
Reporting smoke is a fire lookout's primary duty in the wilderness.
SPRR fire lookout station built in 1909 on Red Mountain above Cisco, CA (abandoned 1934)