Evening star., 1934-11-02

roof Of the National Geographic
Society headquarters on Sixteenth
i street sits Albert H. Bumstead.
chief photographer. He is an eld-
erly gentleman, with graying hair and
mustache, both q bit unruly, and speaks
in an odd, low MONOTONE voice
which was recognized recently over
the phone by an old classmate who
had seen him but once before in
"a years.
In q basement at 2940 Carlton ave
nue. northeast, scurrying about some
what nervously, you may meet almost
any night, one al" He has the
same graying hair and mustache, still
unruly-perhaps more unruly-but
the voice Is different. 1t is less even;
it is more animated There Is a diff
ference Of about 20 years in the ages
of Albert H. Bumstead and Al, in
favor Of the latter.
Yet they are the same man.
AL, in the cellar, is a magician: Al
bert. in the pent house, is chief car
tographer, surrounded by maps Of
every charted corner of the world.
Full Of New Interests.
DR.. J. Showalter, chief of the re-
search division of the society. who
has been associated for 20 years with
the photographer says: "Bumstead is
a genius. In all the years I have
known him. have yet to meet him
that he does not uncover a new side
of himself. some new interest he had
never spoken of before"
That magic cellar Is the keystone
Of the whole story. 1t is Bumsteads
magic hat. Out Of its maze Of ma
chinery-lathes, polishing stones, mo-
tors, prisms, dental instruments, pots
and bottles-he may pull a sun COM
pass, a speedometer. q polished agate,
or . brilliant bas-relief in marble, or
q telescope Each Of them will have
been conceived in the mind Of, built
on the machinery of, and put to-
gether by the hands of Al Bumstead
The simple answer to it all that
Mr.. Bumstead will give, II have al
ways been handy with my hands,"
Is not enough.
A handy man" could not have
turned out the internationally known
Bumstead sun compass, for example.
Byrd Praised Inventor.
Comdr. Richard E. Byrd, after he
returned from and written about his
North Pole expeditions in 1925. said
quite frankly, Il do not hesitate to
say that without it We could not
have reached the Pole"
There hangs on the dining room
wall Of Bumstead's home a framed
letter with . tiny silk American nag
below 1t. Part of the letter reads as
follows: without the Bumstead sun
compass the complete success Of my
three undertakings in the polar
regions would have been doubtful. I
the magnetic compass was useless in
flight; the North Pole flight, and all
flights Of exploration made during
our Antarctic expedition"
The flag was carried to the South
Pole for Bumstead by Byrd. and the
letter Is to the inventor of the sun
compass in partial appreciation.
If you will look closely on the most
recent maps of the Antarctic regions.
just west of the Gilbert Grosvenor
Range OF mountains. you will see
Mount Bumstead 1t is seven degrees
south Of Little America, toward the
South Pole.
A supply Of those same sun COM
passes are with Admiral Byrd now.
Alarm Clock Purchased.
In his magic basement, Bumstead
brought an alarm clock he purchased
at local department store. He had
an idea, one that was the reverse Of
the idea embodied in a sun dial. In
the latter, the direction of north is
known. and the shadows Of the sun
give the time of day. With the sun
compass, the time of day is known.
after consulting chronometers, and the
shadow of the sun, when 1t bisects the
hand of the 24-hour clock on the
Bumstead compass, indicates the di-
rection Of north Cor any other desired).
An alarm clock, some changes in
Its dial, the addition Of q hand FASH
ioned to cast q thin shadow, . brass
base fitted with some two simple
dials-and the cellar brought forth a
sun compass, which would work where
no magnetic or gyroscopic compass
would. Thousands of square miles Of
polar territory were added to mans
known lands.
There was the matter Of the chal-
lenge from his superior at the society
which resulted in the birth of q
method for reproducing more rapidly
the lettering on original maps.
Six Weeks Got Results.
The ofiicial said 1t couldn't be done
in the time allotted them for the
printing of the complete map Of the
United States. Bumstead's pride took