Evening star., 1926-05-10
BYRD BEATS EIGHT
IN RACE FOR POLE
Did in 16 Hours What Took
Peary 8 Months-Sealed
instruments Aid Proof.
BY the Associated Press.

| NEW YORK, May 10. - Comdr.
Richard Evelyn Byrd in flying to the
! North Pole from Kings Bay and back
yesterday in - hours and 80 min
utes demonstrated that wings could
do in less than a day what Admiral
! Peary, discoverer of the North Pole,
consumed eight months in neGotiat-
| ing by dog sled This also made
Byrd's the first of nine expeditions
attempting the feat to reach the
/ North Pole this year.
| His giant three-inotored airplane
| carried him safely over wastes which
/ Amundsen last year pronounced un-
safe for airplane fights, and the dis.
! tance travelled roughly, 900 miles,
| was equal to more than a months s
mushing in the Arctic under the most
ideal conditions for dog teams.
| The flight and return of Comdr.
! Byrd, recounted by wireless We're far
! different, both in the act and the
transmission of news, from the de-
parture of Admiral Robert e Peary
| from Sydney, Nova Scotia, July :,
| 1908.
| Experts Are AstOnished.
! Peary hardly had cleared the har-
Dor and was just beginning to fight
| some of the worst OF the Atlantic
| Oceans storms in the little schooner
| Roosevelt in the time Byrd went 10
and returned from the Pole.
The report that Byrd who last
| year accompanied Macmillan into the
| north, actually had reached the Pole
| before returning to his base. was re-
| ceived with amaZement here. as the
announced plans for his first flight
| called only for negotiating the 400
| miles to Peary and return Il total
| Of 500 miles
| This in itself was considered a dar-
| ing feat because of the paucity of
| landing places on the jagged Arctic
| ice plains, but the fight Of at least
| l,60O miles involved in a round-trip
| hop to the Pole rivaled the most Op-
| timistic hopes of observers of this
| flight.
Reached Etah i'm Four Months.
In four months after setting out,
Peary had only reached Etah, Green
land, and there still remained dash
Of hundreds of miles to the Pole.
During the following months, until
June OF 1909. no word was received
concerning Peary except here and
there a multitude of rumors
1t seemed for a while that Peary
would be robbed of the honor. for on
January 9, 1909, DR.. Frederick A.
Cook descended from the snorthern
wastes with the claim that ne had
been the first. This later was re-
futed by scientific bodies, but not
until Peary had consumed months in
lecturing AMI showing his own
proofs.
Instruments Back Claims.
The sealed scientific instruments and
gauges carried by the plane of Comdr
Byrd are expected to eradicate much
of the detail heretofore necessary in
establishing the authenticity of travel
claims.
Capt. Roald Amundsen. who last
year failed to reach the Pole with two
airplanes. in 1918 made an unsuccess-
full attempt TO reach the Pole by
schooner and dog sled and negotiated
the northernmost shore of the Ameri
can continent.
When Amundsen dashed into the
North last year, however. he and Lin
coin Ellsworth. hacker and partner
in the expedition, ended by eXperienc
ing both the thrill of flight into the
North and the troubles Of ice travel
With their planes stuck fast in the
ice, they were out of touch with their
base for four weeks while they labo-
rously trekked back, finally encoun-
tering a fishing boat which returned
them to the same base as the one for
the successful hop yesterday.
First Sled ATTEMPT i'm 1918.
The first attempts to reach the Pole
were made exclusively with ships, ex-
plorers being afraid to venture from
this protection onto the snow. John
Ross. an Englishman. was the first
to adopt the sled, when, in 1918, he
made an attempt foredoomed to fail
ure, pulling his sled behind him.
McClintock in 1857 inaugurated the
use of dogs, and some years later the
light sled was developed.
Then, for more than half a century
the means of transportation in the