Evening star., 1914-12-31

k0 VI 4Vx@x1
| ness. He announced the discovery o.
a hitherto unknown river. which wa:
christened Rio Roosevelt by the mem
bers OF the expedition. and afterware
rechristened Rio Teodoro.
November 4, at the British embassy
in Rome, in the presence of large
gathering of public men and scientiht
experts. Prof. Domenico Argentieri
an Italian priest of the AbruZzi, maot
good his claim to have devised small
portable wireless telegraphy appa
ratus capable of receiving message'
from high-power stations at distance
| of 1880 miles. January 2, at Dayton
demonstration of the automatic sta
bilizer. his new aeronautical inven
tion. He made seven flights with his
hands Off the plane mechanism. FEB.
ruary Z, the German aviator. lngold
made a record of more than a thousand
half hours. thus breaking all previous
records. In this month. also. tive
United States Army aviators lost thell
lives In hazardous aerial flights. Lieut.
Henry b. Post. after making an Amer
lean altitude record of 1920 feet. was
dropped by the collapse of his machine
into San Diego bay, and Lieut.. ]. M
Murray of the United States nava
aviation corps was killed while Tying
over Pensacola bay. In April ne"
aeroplane height record was made @ ny
Linnekogel. at Johannisthal. He
reached an altitude of 20,564 feet. In
May. Zeppelin dirigible few for thir-
ty-six hours without stop over Ger
many, at an average of about flfty-two
miles an hour. July IA. a German
aviator at Berlin ascended in mono,
plane to a height of $4,000 feet, and
thus broke the record. The flight
from Norway to Scotland was made
by Gran. July 80, in four hours and
ten minutes.
Although the part played by aircraft
than was anticipated. it has been suf-
f1cient to modify warfare to an ap-
preciable extent Most of the aero
planes of the belligerent nations are
not fighting craft, but the dirigibles
of the Zeppelin type belonging to the
as battleships Of the air, and terrible
results have been expected when this
formidable sky squadron should get
into action. Thus far. most of these
military adjuncts have been used Tor
scouting purposes, and as such they
have proved to be especially effective.
The rapid advance of the German
forces into France at the beginning OF
hostilities was made possible by these
air scouts. which served to point out
the way with infallible accuracy. In
the attack on Louvain and other Bel
gian cities German aircraft rendered
effective service by directing artillery
fire by means Of searchlights and
burning material dropped among the
Belgian troops. That the Zeppelin air
ships are capable of doing great dam
age was made evident at the siege of
Antwerp.
Casualties on Land and Sea.
Early in January the second phenonl-
email storm of the season added largely
to the destruction of property along
the ocean front Of New Jersey and
Long Island. The oil carrier Oklahoma
was broken in two of Cape May. N. j..
and thirty-seven OF her crew were
cano on Sakura Island burst suddenly
into activity and destroyed three towns
and killed more than a thousand per-
sons. This volcano had been inactive
for more than hundred years. Dur
ing the British maneuvers off Ply
mouth. January 16, submarine failed
to come to the surface after diving and
her crew perished. During perform
ance at moving picture theater at
Surabaya. Java, seventy-flve women
The steamer Monroe. from Norfolk to
New York city. was rammed by the
Nantucket during night fog off Cape
Charles. January 80, and forty-one per-
thousand persons lost their lives dur
ing q storm which flooded several
towns in southern Russia. and about
the same time many persons were
killed by an earthquake at Akita, Ja-
pan.
The main building of Wellesley Col
lege was destroyed by fire March 27.
March 81. the sealing steamer New
foundland stranded on an ice foe in
the Strait of Belle Isle and seventy
The same day the steamer Southern
Cross and her crew disappeared. April
%. an explosion in a mine shaft at
Eccles. w: Va. caused the death of 1870
tied by series of shocks which did
great damage along the eastern coast.
The steamship Empress of Ireland
struck by the Norwegian collier Stor-
and sank almost Immediately, more
than a thousand passengers losing
their lives. This was the most appall-
ing marine disaster OF the year, up to
the breaking out of war.
May 80. Capt. Robert A. Bartlett OF
the Stefansson arctic expedition re-
turned to ST. Michael, Alaska. with the
news that the karluk sank, January
II. after having been crushed by ice
and that her crew was marooned on
Wrangel Island. September Z. eight
members of this crew were found by a
rescuing party. June 10. more than
200 miners were lost by an explosion
in coal mine near Alberta, Canada. A
fire at Salem. Mass. June 25, destroyed
half OF the city, including several thou.
sand homes and many large Industrial
establishments. In this month, also
American consuls in various Chinese
cities reported that foods in southern
China had destroyed the crops ant
made 100000 persons homeless Sep.
tember IS, the Francis H. Leggett col.
Oregon coast and seventy-two of heI
passengers and crew were lost In Oc.
tober, an earthquake in Turkey de.
stroyed more than 5000 persons in {
few minutes.
Edison's great electrical plant a
fire December 9.
Briefer Mention Of Notable Events
Early in January the firm of ]. P
Morgan & Co. announced the with.
drawal Of its members from director.
ships in twenty-oeven large corpora.
tions. thus complying with the govern.
ment's new regulation condemning in.
terlocktng directorates. January 9
Harvard University and the Massachu.
sette Institute of Technology arranged
to combine their engineering depart.
ments. February 10. Andrew Carnegie
gave s2.o0o.0o0 toward the propaganda
carried on by the Church Peace Union
April 13, the International Surgical con.
gress met at New York city and had
one of the most profitable sessions ir
its history, Water was let into <b.