The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-12-28
PUZZLE OF THE AIR.
Changing Currents Shown by the A

Changing Currents Shown by the Ae-
tion of Birds In Flight.
The average person regards air much
as he regards water-as much lighter,
OF course. but like it otherwise. Calm
air Is precisely to him as calm water
in a pool. If there Is wind he pic
lures the air as a flowing river. And
Just 30 long as all men looked at it so.
just 30 long the birds kept their mo-
nopoly, for the only state In which
water approaches the condition of air
f. when water forms a maelstrom.
Even then water In it's widest turbu-
lence falls far short of the unstable, in
cessant agitation Of the atmosphere.
Air 10 never still. 1t is filed with
warm waves ascending. cold waves
descending, and through 1t race cross
shoots and diagonal shoots, with cork
screw whirlwinds wandering hither
and yon as they list The warm air
or a cornfeld creates one kind of a
disturbance; of plowed land it Gre
ates another. A layer Of cold air may
hold down a layer Of warmer air.
Consider what happens when the
warm air breaks through it's envelope
an q millpond bursts its dam. A flow
ing stream churned to and fro and
round and round and up and down
would give a feeble idea Of the airs
inconstancy.
Now. bird, circling with fixed
wings, floats on a rising column Of
air. It maintains its altitude as to the
earth, but 1t is constantly coasting
down through the airs ascending vol
ume Once the bird loses the air col
umn 1t has to Zap its wings, and it
flaps till it finds another column. when
It goes on wheeling again with fixed
wings. Moreover, when 1t flies the
wind comes toward 1t In waves, rising
and falling like the pillows Of the sea.
It meets them, and then it does pre-
cisely what a boat does-goes over
them or goes through them. The
Wrights learned all this. and when
they'd learned they were about as
near to flying as you and would be
to writing Chinese philosophy when
we'd just learned the English alphabet
Furthermore. there were no teachers,
living or dead, that could help them
more than a few steps along the way
-Everybody's MAGAZINE
The Edge of Night.
! There are only twenty-four hours 70
the day-to the day and the night. And
how few are left to that quiet time be-
tween the light and the dark Ours is
q hurried twilight We quit work to
sleep; we wake up to work again. We
measure the day by the clock; we
measure the night by an alarm clock.
Life Is all licked on We are murdered
by the second. What we need is day
and a night with wider margins,
dawn that comes more slowly and
longer lingering twilight. Life has too
little sewage; 1t is too often raw and
raveled Room and quiet and verge
are what we want, not more dials for
time nor more figures for the dials
We have things enough, too-more
than enough. 1t is space for the things.
perspective and the right measure for
the things that we lack-a measure not
one foot short of the distance between
us and the stars.
II we get anything out of the fields
worth while It will be this measure,
this largeness and quiet. 1t may be
only an owl or a tree toad that we go
forth to see. but how much more we
ind in things we cannot hear by day
things long, long forgotten, things we
never thought or dreamed before
The day is none too short. the night
none too long, but all too narrow is the
edge between.-Dallas Lore Sharp in
A fla Ufic