The New York herald., 1921-06-19


! first by engineer .officer and two engi-
neers i've will never be without a
good supply in the future
| One less comic and more persistent
difficulty lay in correctly estimating
the ships altitude Aerial naviga-
tion," says he, lis more complicated
than navigation on the surface of the
sea, owing to the existence of this
third dimension; but there Is no rea-
son why, when directional wireless
has been perfected and when we know
more about the air and its peculiari-
ties, it should not become very accu-
rate" Sometimes they were able to
work out their height in an ingenious
way. THE airship Is throwing very
dark shadow on the surface of the
sea on starboard side-almost immedi-
ately under the ship. By taking with
a sextant the angle subtended by
length of the shadow and knowing the
length of the shadow to be $40 feet,
J he gets the true height. In this case
lit works out at 2,100 feet, whilst. the
aneroid gives us only 1900 feet "a
variation of 900 feet" To correct the
aneroid reading otherwise it was
necessary tQ speak ship in the i'm
mediate vicinity and get her barometer
reading. And of course 1t is impos-
sible for the navigator to get his true
position unless he knows the exact
height above the sea. as well as other
factors Here is nice little problem
for the scientists and instrument
makers to solve.
There is an embarrassing wealth Of
quotable material, tempting one to cite
/, at length, but only a few can be
given Here are some bits, picked al
most at random:
'7:3O =. M.--Cup of hot cocoa Lay
down for half an hour before evening
meal and read 'Emersons Poems. :"
Zone would like to know which, J
Noticeable leakage from petrol tanks
when ship takes up big angle by bow
or stern, causing unpleasant smell cf
petrol vapor in keel. This must be
remedied in future"
IS p. M.--Ship very heavy-12 de-
grees down by stern-owing to change
OF temperature. Height 5000 feet. We
are just on top Of the clouds now
alternately in the sun and then
plunging through thick banks Of
cloud"
$40 p. NJ Specimens OF fioccu-
lent GIRO stratus rather resembling a
diamond tiara, high in the centre and
sloping away on both sides, also begin
to appear TO the south" (Cirrus clouds
had also been noted) 1.-THE appear
ance of these two types OF cloud are
hxr Har ar...ie
infallible indication of a depression
coming up from the south" The guess
proved correct.
1T is remarkable fact that nearly
every member of the crew owns a
mascot of some sort. The engineer
officer wears a pair of his wife's silk
stockings as a muffier"
standing out conspicuously in this
blue patch Of ocean we see an enor-
nous white iceberg. Looking down
we can clearly see treacherous green
Ice protruding under the water in all
directions. AS this underwater lc.
could under no circumstances be. seen
from surface ship. it brings home
one of the dangers that oceangoing
vessels are liable to meet" An OBJ
NiOuS duNdHtdSc LOT LHe dlTSnlp.
~ Midnight. Intercepted .on wire
less that Dempsey had knocked out
Jess Willard in third round. And so
to bed" Shades of Pepys,
1T is wonderful what detail we see
when flying at this low level" $500
feet above Nova Scotia) THE trees
each settler cut down last winter are
neatly stacked and look like little
bundles of asparagus. The character
of the soil is clearly visible to us, the
natural drainage of the country is re-
vealed. and we get an insight into the
rainfall. the types of trees which do
best. the bird life and the depth of the
lakes"
"1O:12>A. NJ Turned in for an hour,
hut unable to sleep. Became absorbed
in Kipling's story of The Night Mail
Every time / read it the more i'm
pressed l become with the reality of
its prophecies-that we are actually
experiencing during every moment OIL
this journey"
One Of the most interesting of the
appendices is the complete wireless
log. II is estimated that about 10000
words were sent and received during
the two voyages-a most important.
vital part of the mechanism OF such
travel. Naturally most of the mes
sages deal with weather conditions.
They indicate what must be the future
field Of development If air service is to
become y popular everyday affair, as
it probably must some day.
The book is amply illustrated.