The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-04-22


the eve of a great fight around
the world, wrote for the National
Geographic Magazine the story Of
his epochal Londonto-Australia
air voyage-a story which already
has become the classic Of aerial
travel.
This story contained wealth of
geographic detail and technical in
formation, but those portions which
described the sensation of air trav
ei are, perhaps, the most unusual.
He wrote:
"a small machine is ideal for
short fights, JOY riding in the heav-
en-, or sightseeing among the
clouds, but there is something more
majestic about the big bombers
which a pilot begins to love. An
exquisite community grows up be-
tween machine and pilot; each, as
it were merges into the other: The
machine is rudimentary and the pi-
lot the Intellectual force. The lev
ers and controls are the nervous
system of the machine, through
which the will Of the pilot may be
expressed-and expressed to an inf
nitely fine degree. A fiying-nla-
chine is something entirely apart
from and above all other contriv-
ance's Of mans ingenuity.
Most Hu.ran-Like Machines
THE aeroplane is the nearest
thing to animate life that man has
created. In the air a machine ceas-
es indeed to be mere piece of me-
chanism: it becomes animate and is
capable not only OF primary guild
ance and control. but actually Of
expressing pilots temperament.
The lungs Of the machine, its en-
gines, are again the cruX Of mans
wisdom. Their marvellous reliabil-
ity and great intricacy are almost
as awesome as the hum% anatomy.
When both engines are going we'll
and synchron;sed to the same speed
the roar of the eXhausts develops
into one long-sustained rhythmical
boom. boom, boom. 1t is a song
Of pleasant harmony TO the pilot,
duet of contentment that sings
of a perfect firing in both engines
and says that all is we'll.
This melody of power doomed
pleasantly in my ears, and my
mind sought to probe the inscru-
table future, as we swept over the
coast Of England at 80 miles per
hour"
Skimming Tops of the Clouds
Of another phase of the trip,
when it was determined to climb
above the clouds he wrote:
so we climbed steadily in a wide
ascending spiral. until we reached
an altitude Of 5000 feet, and We're
then just above the clouds. Below
us the snowstorm ragged, but we had
entered another world. u strange
world, all our own, with bright,
dazzling sunshine.
1T might have been vision of
the polar regions: il undoubtedly
felt like it. The mighty cloud
resembled a polar landscape cov-
cred with snow. The rounded cloud
contours might have been the
domes Of snow-covered SUBMITS.
1t was hard to conceive that tha.
amorphous eNpanse was not actual,
solid Here and there tlocculent
towers and ramps heaved up. piled
like mighty snow dumps. topplins
and crushing into one another. Ev-
erything was so tremendous. 50
vast. that ones enSe of proper
tions swayed uncontrolled.
Eyes Stuns by Snow Blast
'The cold grew more intense.
Our hands and feet lost all feeling
and our bodies became weil-nish
frozen Goggles were useless. ow-
ing 20 the ice. and we suffered
much agony through being compell-
ed TO keep a lookout with unpro.
tectcd eyes-strainins into The 10
mile an hour snow-hlast.
The only really cheerful objects
OF the whole outfit We're our two
engines They roarod away and
sang Z deep -throated song. filled
With contentmcnt and :ladncsS: Ii
did not worry them that .heir r2di-
ator blinds. which We kept shut
were thicklv coated With frozen
SNOW
Ahead loomed up a beautiful
dome-Shaptd cloud lined With sill
Yer edges II was Synbollcal: and
when all seemed dark. this re-
llndlcd in me tie spark OF hope.
BY the side Of the ctouG with the
silver liniaE there eXtcndel! I Sulf
about two miles acr"SS y Ne
bnrsr ont over it loo 4 down
into It's ahy$nal depths.
"At lhc bottom lay thc world.