San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-08

as registered by thermometers at INT
earths surface as through the direct
productions of heat within the gas
bag itself when the rays of the morn
ing sun strike it. Paint the bag sill
yer or any color you will, the amount
of heat locally generated by the sun
rays is very great. The hydrogen ex-
pands and you can, avoid a burst
ling of the bag only by allowing it te
escape. This is the chief factor which
! limits the length of balloon voyages. a
! certain amount of gas must be al
! lowed TO escape each day and recipro-
| cally a certain amount of ballast has
to be thrown out each night TO pre-
vent. the balloon or dirigible from set
| Ting 10 earth.
But this alienation of day and
night which seems a necessary evil TO
those habituated to southern ATTITUDES
is not a factor in the polar regions,
whether in mid-winter or midsummer.
We shall not, for the present, con-
slider winter voyages. With relation
to summer journeys, the speed of the
dirigible that has already crossed the
Atlantic was great enough so that
had it started north from Scotland
with full supply of hydrogen just
after a spring or summer sunrise, it
could have reached the area of per-
petual daylight near Iceland in fiji
teen or twenty hours. This means
that such a dirigible would not be
overtaken by darkness at all in the be-
ginning of its trip and would meet
| the darkness only after crossing the
polar area and penetrating well into
Asia. On the major portion of the
voyage from England to Japan there
would, accordingly, be no great ex-
pansion or contraction Of the hydro
gen, no considerable loss of buoyancy
or necessity for throwing out ballast,
giving not only an increased cruising
radius to the dirigible but also an
increased freight-carrying capacity.
No Terrifying Darkness.
Advantage 3-In air voyages no less
than sea voyages, things will doubtless
occasionally go wrong. This brings
us TO another great advantage of the
! northern route. If you get into trou-
Bile you would rather that it happened
in daylight than in darkness, and
whatever difficulties you might en-
counter you could more readily meet
| through this reason on the northern
route than on any other. In stories
of sea tragedies that have overtaken
passenger liners at night, the stop
| page of the engine, the failure of the
light plants and the plunging of the
whole ship into inky darkness, is often
the most terrifying feature. Just when
a crisis brings the need of swift and
| pertinent action, every effort is
thwarted because no man can see what
to do or what others are doing. Under
the perpetual sun of the polar sum-
mer we shall always be free from at
least this attribute of southern
| tragedy.
! Advantage Ali the accident that
befalls the dirigible in an explosion of
gas the case is well-nigh hopeless
whatever the location, as has recently
been only too clearly shown by the
dreadful wreck of the IRE over a
populous city in England. But where
the difficulty is minor one, s. o s.
signals can be sent out while the gas
bag is descending. On the polar
route, although the surface of the sea
may not be more than half covered by
substantial cakes of ice, there would
be a reasonable certainty of landing
on one of them. Were there a forced
landing in ocean water, it would pre-
sumably not be more than few miles
to the nearest ice floe which could be
reached by such life RATS or other de-
vices as a dirigible would naturally
carry on trans-oceanic voyages in all
latitudes.
Are No Heavy Seas.
1t may be said that it would not be
any fun to be forced to land on an
ice island. But it would be a great
deal more fun than having to "Iandn
among tumbling and breaking seas in
the mid-Atlantic. One effect of the
presence of ice upon the ocean in the
vicinity is that even in a gale there
are no heavy seas. Indeed. if the ice
is abundant no swell is noticeable in
the heaviest gale, and the waves on
the patches of open water are only
such as one may find on a pond or a
small lake.
If. s. o. S. calls, containing as they
always do position as to latitude and
longitude, are sent out while the di.
rigible is descending to the ice or i'm
medlately after the lancing, the party
should have days or weeks and even
months for opportunities of rescue. II
Is SAID by some of the enthusiastic
advocates of transatlantic air travel
that we shall eventually have in mid.
Atlantic huge RATS, floating islands in
effect, that will be rescue stations for
aircraft in distress. While that idea
may not be impractical, il will nj
least be difficult and expensive. On
the polar route Nature has ALREADY
provided a sprinkling of these RATS
tar greater in number and far more
stable than any such artificial RATS
can ever be expected to be.
Advantage 5-The last TO he enu-
merated OF the advantages of fhe
trans-polar summer air route NAV he
spoken of as the tourist value of the
perpetual daylight. The Midnigb,
Sun now draws people every sum.
mer to the north in ships. When mir
travel becomes popular the Mid
night Sun will still have its attrac.
non for that sort of person and will
be one of the talking points in selling
transportation over the northern
route. -
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