Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-05
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

The prospect appears now to be
that Comdr. Richard E. Byrd will
spend next Christmas climbing the
South Pole. He Is impatient to re-
turn to America, from his ducking in
the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast Of
France, in order that he may push
his preparations for his exploration
of the Antarctic. where he may du-
plicate his last years feat of flying
to the North Pole.
The Summer months In the Ant
artic are December, January and Feb
ruary, while our Autumn is Spring in
the South In the heat IF Summer,
either in the Arctic or Antarctic re-
gion, the snow and ice melt so that
vast territories are absolutely impass-
able. either by sledges or boats. The
slush becomes many feet deep, yet
it is filled with ice and thick mush
making it impossible Of penetration
by any small boat, unnavigable by
any ship by reason Of shallowness and
impossible by dog teams. In such con-
ditions, the only practicable means of
travel is the airplane or dirigible bal
loon, which only Byrd is skillful
enough and brave enough to guide.
X ~
It Is not unbearably cold in the Ant
arctic nor in the Arctic during the
Summers. Otherwise, the ice would
not melt. Even near the Poles. where
probably little melting Is found, the
cold is not more extreme than it is
in our own Northwestern States in
late Fall. In fact, from Minnesota
to Montana, Winter often sends the
thermometer down to so or go degrees
below zero, Fahrenheit-which Is as
cold as even the upper air about the
Poles.
1t is a paradox of meteorology that
the upper air above the Equator is
twice as cold as is that above the
Poles-Equator air often registering
10 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
1t is as common for mountain peaks
in the tropics to be covered with
eternal snow and ice as it is to find
flowers blooming in the Arctic or
Antarctic. where their roots pene-
trate ice.
The air receives no warming from
the direct rays Of the sun. but only
from the reflected radiation from the
earth.
The earth is surrounded with at
mosphere of two distinct layers. The
first, called troposphere, extends up
to height of 6 to 10 miles, and it
grows colder as one ascendS. The
highest mountain-EvereSt- nearly
five and one-half miles high, and not
only water, but mercury. freezes at
it's summit. The airplane altitude
record is over 8 miles. which is
within the upper layer of air, called
the shakespeare. at the latitude of
Dayton, where the record was made,
and beyond that the cold does not
that Is the range of earth's radiation.
have sent small bal
looms GO inches in diameter) as high
as % miles, with automatic register
ing thermometers, proving that it is
no colder at % miles up than at or
Z miles, although the atmosphere ia
so thin" up there in the strato,
sphere that not even birds can breathe
1t and live. Flyers depend upon their
oxygen tanks to supply their breaths.
In fact, all life of the air lies in a
layer only about 3 miles high at
the Equator and almost no height at
all near the Poles, within which mar
row range the average temperature
Is above freezing.
The problems of cold do not differ
from those Comdr. Byrd faced in his |
North Pole flight, but his actual dis
lance from the taking-of points in |
New Zealand will be approximately |
: 500 miles to the Pole-about the |
distance from Washington to San |
Francisco-while the flight from Spitz- |
bergen to the North Pole and return !
amounted to only 1900 miles total for |
The round trip.
Just why he proposes to take off |
from New Zealand has not been ex-
planned, for the distance from the
Pole Is as great as 1t is from Cape |
Horn; the probabilities are that the /
better facilities for supplies constitute
lnder the leadership of an enthusi-
lstio poet--why. then, this book is
ust heavy" enough, not q grain
And after this Journey |
I'll round and about the Bible lands,
he Bible itself win take on a content
- al i