The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-24
Famous Explorer Will Deliver By Wireless News Of Jour- ney To Frozen North-Car- ries Both Movie And Radio Devices

Devices
 WISCASSET, Me-, June 2S.-An ss- foot schooner Is bobbing northward today off the coast of Maine. It Is
 no larger than Columbus caravel. But at its truck there are four
 threads of wire. This is radio. It
 is the first wireless equipment to be taken Into the Polar north. Through the long Arctic night and through the months of amending daylight that follow, eight men, stooping in the
 tiny forccastle, will bend over the
 equipment of the wireless plant.
 They will send messages to the great
 world far below them on the rondure of the earth-news of their discover ies and the day-by-d incidents of their lives; perhaps word of trage- dies. And in the white silence they will listen for the murmur of man.
 kind. brought to them by the miracle of wireless. They will strain over the tapping that brings word of great
 events in the affairs of the race; of
 little. but dearer, incidents in the
 affairs of those they love. Men swathed in the furs of Arctic ami mals will gather for the sound of cabaret jazz and will chuckle among themselves at joke in the bedtime story.
 The ss-foot vessel is the schooner Bowdoin. Her skipper is Dr. Donald
 B. MacMillan,- returning now to the Arctic, where he has spent l3 Of the last 15 years.
 He goes as special correspondent of the North American Newspaper
 Alliance and The Age-Herald.
 At The Pole In 1909.
 If MacMillan had had wireless with hi m n tbe earlier eXneditlOnS in which he participated, the world would have been spared one of it's
 most regrettable controversies. It
 was NIacMillan who was lieutenant to Peary in the discovery of the north pole in 1909.
 MacMillan is bound now on an ex- petition of tremendous scientific i'm port. The wireless experiment in it. self is no minor factor. Yet it is but one of scores of mat ters of scientific inquiry which draw the eXplo CT northward again, What are the effects of atmospheric cleo tricity and terrestrial magnetism? What secrets are locked in this un- | explored region of 50, 900 square miles? Is the race threatened with another ice age, which would drive the line 1 of human life once more to a narrow belt in the tropics? MacMillan Will study the glaciers which are advanc-
 ing after ages of retreat. Over the wireless he will send his findings. The Bowdoin goes prepared for fifteen months voyage. She may be
 trapped and held for years. She may | never return. It is possible, for all the skill put into her construction, that she will be crushed by the ice. Or she may remain sound as nut with no living man to care for her. The little schooner, navisated by
 MacMillan himself, will advance to within II degrees of the North Pole and there will be locked in the ice largest area of the earth's surface
 which Is yet to be explored by white men.
 Takes Movie Film. Too. In this winter station, as well as
 while on the way and during the period of exploration after the end
 of winter, MacMillan will use two of
 the most ingenious of inventions to
 record his work, the movie and the
 wireless. He has 30,000 feet of nov
 ing picture film with him.
 And the radio--will it work?
 "Yes," says MacMllan. There are experts who say no. They
 say the aurora borealis is to radio
 like a brick wall to an arrow. They
 point to sother difficulties. l But MacMillan replies that In 1921, | l.. up time signals through the aurora. With him is Donald Mix. lad of 20, as eager for the work as a young ster for a picnic. He was chosen for
 his special abilities as wireless opera
 tor for an Arctic explorer. And Mix says with his chief, we'll get the messages through" In the United States and in Canada an army of radio amateurs will listen for MiX's signal on a specified night each week.
 Headed For Capo Sabine.
 The Bowdoin Is now headed for
 winter quarters, just south of Cape Sabine, about II degrees from the
 North Pole, at 79 degrees north lati- tude. There at Camp Clay, Dr. Mac Milan will place on the cliff facing the camp a memorial tablet in honor
 of the IS men of the ill-fated Greeley expedition who died there in 1884. This tablet has been authorized by the trustees of the National Geo.
 graphic society.
 Dr. MacMillan hopes to reach
 Cape Sabine about the middle of Au- gust and will select the most ad
 vantageous spot to allow the ship to
 be frozen into the ice for the win ter. Should lee conditions as far
 north as Cape Sabine prohibit this course, he will winter at Jones Sound.
 To Get Own Meat Supply.
 The first necessity upon arrival l will be to lay In a goodly supply | of fresh meat, principally seal meat. , It has been found that it is essen 1 tial in the Far North to eat plenty
 of fresh meat to avoid scurvy. All | though the Bowdoin Is carrying a 1 large supply of food. past experi- | ences in his 15 years of Arctic work | have proved to Dr. MacMillan the 1 absolute necessity of conserving ev- | cry ounce of food. A polar expedi- l ton eXepected to last a year ire 1 quently has turned out to last from i two to four years instead and ap- 1 petites whetted by Arctic work have devastating effect on the ships | stores.
 Walrus hunting also will be in
 order, for the hide is excellent for the | soles of the Arctic boots, or kamiks, | as the Eskimos call them. Catching 1 walrus is not recommended as pas
 time of a nervous person. for the walrus do not hesitate to attack l dories or the Eskimo kayaks. With | their long, heavy tusks propelled by
 several tons of beef they are formi-
 dable battering rams and many are
 the boats they haYe staved in and | sunk.
 If possible, they are shot while ly- | ing on an ice pan or, if in or close to
 the water, they are harpooned before
 they are shot to prevent their sink
 ing.
 To Use Sails When He Can.