The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

ground plane, and\to plot so HiaIy polhtS of the spiral both in ascent and descent as to form an interesting and useful rec ord all the details of the flight. It may here be remarked that the use of the last described method of observing seems preferable to any that requires the aviator to attain his maximum height in a given point of line. If thus restricted the Bleriot monoplane espe- cally Is at a disadvantage, as the con struction renders it extremely difficult for the operator to see the ground at points anywhere near directly beneath him. The discussion of his ascending spiral checked by observations of his de- scent fix his highest point quite accurate
 y without placing any burden upon the aviator himself. At the central station
 in the field, with head piece carrying at one ear the telephone of the sextant circuit, and at the other side, in front o. him, the chief operator, Prof. G. w. Pierce, to whose skill much of our whole success is due, held command of the whole system, and with this complete control 1t was found possible to accom- plish more than we had considered 1t nec- essary to provide for. It was not intend ed, for instance, to observe more than one fiier at time, btu on one occasion, at the request of the committee, the at- tempt was made A biplane was assigned to the sextants while the distant base for time observed a monoplane, the choice being determined by the fact that the biplane was crossing the field base at pretty regular intervals according to schedule, while the monoplane was de- scribing a spiral of great extent far from the center of the field.
 "The great interest of the spectators in such double flight leads me to sug- gest that in a repetition of this method It might be well to have two complete stations at each end of the distant base, each measuring its own object. To avoid the difficulty of Identification at times when the machines apparently approached or even crossed, 1t is enough to have numbers or leters attached; each should carry a mark which may be distin- guished by it's shape sphere, cube or cone" Tables included in the report show in detail the observations of the flight of Brookins on September 12 The sextants gave a maximum altitude of 1864 feet by chart, 1858 feet by computa- tion. The Quincy station showed a max mum altitude of 1949 feet and the Milton station a maximum of 1855 feet.
 Horoscopes were used at Belmont Park last week to determine the attitudes reached by the various contestants, a SedleQ lDblTu1IleHl DSlIlk altacnc4 to eacn aeroplane starting in the altitude flights They were also used at Squantum, and Professor Wilson, in his recent report, says of them there and in various bal loon ascensions: ''As 1t seemed desira- ble to experiment on various lines it was planned to send up with each aviator bulb which should be closed by stop cock, to be turned by him at the mo- ment when he supposed himself to be at his gretest altitude Such bulb was kindly taken by J. B. Benton on his as- cent in the Boston from Lowell on Au- gust 30. The stop-cock was closed when his barograph read 72o0 feet and his ther- mometer 5S degrees Fahrenheit. On Sep tember 1 the pressure in the bulb was measured at the Jefferson physical labor atory in the usual way by weighing the fhercury drawn up under the reduced pressure. and the height of the balloon computed from this pressure and the temperature 5S degrees; the value thus obtained was 6600 feet.
 Tt was evident that the successful ap- plcation of this method would require more time for study than could be given, and on consultation with Prof. H. N. Davis it was agreed that it was unwise to require of the operator any attention whatever at his highest point. The fur ther investigation of this problem was undertaken by Professor Davis, who will report his conclusions later. One form of apparatus, while not to be trusted for all accurate value of the absolute height. served useful purpose during the double flight of Brookins and Graham White on September 8. The observation of the for mer was assigned to the sextant base, and he reached the height of at least 1885 feet Both machines carried baro- scopes of the same form, and compar- ison of the two. immediately after the descent, showed the height reached by Ora ham White was about $50 feet less. He was therefore. credited with $500 feet. The transits were fully occupied with the flight of Brookins, and without the baro scope observation 1t would have been difficult or impossible to determine the relative heights, as the Bleriot was so far off the course that 1t could not he observed with the sextants'