Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-01-13
Frederic Haskin's Letter
"A PACK OF BALD EAGLES"

airplane. But gold and silver are
usually reduced at the mine. The
procedure would presumably be to
carry to the mountain top all the
machinery for a stamp mill and q
reduction plant by airplane, piece
by piece. This would be expensive,
but 1t would only have to be done
once. Then the metal in bars
worth thousands Of dollars each
would be carried out by airplane,
and they would be far safer from
robbery than most gold in trans
port away from railroads is nova
days.
So much for gold mining by air.
plane. The idea is offered without
royalty charge to anyone who
wants to try it. NJ
Meantime, the bureau Of mines
has devised a use for the airplane
which promises to be Immediately
useful. 1t proposes to carry aid to
the scenes of mine disasters by
airplane. The idea is that of Mr.
Bailey, assistant chief of the bu-
reau. He wrote to the chief of the
air service, asking if that depart
ment was willing to cooperate in
the use of planes for the purpose
He proposed that in case OF dis
aster, a plane from the nearest air
service station should go to the
headquarters of the district engi-
neer of the bureau of mines, and
rush to the disaster with that indi-
vidual and with as many oxygen
tanks as it could carry. An oxy-
gen tank weighs only 40 pounds
and the average plane could carry
about eight of them. Often oxygen
tanks brought promptly to the
scene of a disaster will save many
lives. Often, too, geophones are
, needed. The geophone, you know
is listening device by which a
miner, tapping on the wall of a
mine. can be heard and located
through so or 80 feet of solid rock
and earth. The airplanes could
easily carry as many geophones as
might be needed. Also, in case OF
a FIRE, the plane could perform a
great service by carrying the engi-
neer to the scene of the trouble
ahead of the mine rescue car, with
its crew of trained men, which the
bureau sends to every mine disas-
ter. The engineer would make all
plans for his work of rescue and
fire-fighting before the car arrived
The chief of the air service has
agreed as to the important services
which an airplane might render in
case Of mine disaster. and he has
agreed to render them. provided
the fiiers are assured of certain
things. They must have landing
fields, at least $500 feet square, at
each end of the trip; they must
have gas and oil at both terminals
and they must have maps of the
route to be covered. 1t seems that
all of these conditions can be met
with regard to some of the mines
while others will probably be I'M
possible to reach by airplane until
the means and methods of landing
have been greatly improved. Mr.
Bailey plans to try out this air
plane stunt, probably next spring
in Illinois or Indiana, where the
country is fat and landing is not
difficult. II it works there. the use
Of the planes will be greatly ex-
tended.
In addition to this projected use
the bureau made actual use OF
an airplane in its work not lons
! ago in connection with the investi.
cation of the smoke nuisance a;
Salt Lake City, Utah.. That town
suffers rather severely from SCOT.
Investigation showed that over 81
tons Of SCOT to the square mile fall
every year on some parts of the
city. 1t had long been believed
by some scientists and many of
the people at large that this SCOT
was forced down into the city
which lies in valley, by the gases
given off by smelters in the sur
rounding hills. The idea may seem
fanciful to you, but it was believed
that the shelter gases got above
the SCOT and prevented it from,
blowing away, so that it had to
settle in the city.
To ascertain whether there was
anything in this theory. G. st. John
Perrot, a scientist of the bureau OF
mines who was an army aviator
during the war, few high up in the
air above the city with lot OF
vacuum. bottles, collected samples
of the upper air, brought them
down and analysed them. He found
that there was very little smelter
gas above the smoke cloud. and
his flight seems to have proved
that the Salt Lake City people were
on the wrong track when they
blamed the smelters. The bureau
of mines thinks they will never
breathe less SCOT until they learn
to burn coke instead of coal.