red) will exhibit white beam inclined 45 degrees on approach of
Southerly Buster. Traffic flies high off this coast between April and
October.
TABLE BAY--Devil's Peak Glare removed to Simonsberg. Traffic making
Table Mountain coastwise keep all lights from Three Anchor Bay at least
five shipping hundred feet under, and do not round to till beyond E.
shoulder Devil's Peak.
SANDHEADS LIGHT--Green triple vertical marks new private landing-stage
for Bay and Burma traffic only.
SNAEFELL JOKUL--White occulting light withdrawn for winter.
PATAGONIA--No summer light south C. Pilar. This includes Staten Island
and Port Stanley.
C. NAVARIN--Quadruple fog flash (white), one minute intervals (new).
EAST CAPE--Fog flash--single white with single bomb, 30 sec. intervals
(new).
MALAYAN ARCHIPELAGO lights unreliable owing eruptions. Lay from Somerset
to Singapore direct, keeping highest levels.
_For the Board_:
CATTERTHUN }
ST. JUST } _Lights._
VAN HEDDER }
Casualties
Week ending Dec. 18th.
SABLE ISLAND LANDING TOWERS--Green freighter, number indistinguishable,
up-ended, and fore-tank pierced after collision, passed 300-ft. level 2
P.M. Dec. 15th. Watched to water and pithed by Mark Boat.
N. F. BANKS--Postal Packet 162 reports _Halma_ freighter (Fowey--St.
John's) abandoned, leaking after weather, 46 deg. 15' N. 50 deg. 15' W. Crew
rescued by Planet liner _Asteroid_. Watched to water and pithed by
postal packet, Dec. 14th.
KERGUELEN MARK BOAT reports last call from _Cymena_ freighter (Gayer
Tong-Huk & Co.) taking water and sinking in snow-storm South McDonald
Islands. No wreckage recovered. Addresses, etc., of crew at all A. B. C.
offices.
FEZZAN--T. A. D. freighter _Ulema_ taken ground during Harmattan on
Akakus Range. Under plates strained. Crew at Ghat where repairing Dec.
13th.
BISCAY, MARK BOAT reports _Carducci_ (Valandingham line) slightly spiked
in western gorge Point de Benasque. Passengers transferred _Andorra_
(same line). Barcelona Mark Boat salving cargo Dec. 12th.
ASCENSION, MARK BOAT--Wreck of unknown racing-plane, Parden rudder,
wire-stiffened xylonite vans, and Harliss engine-seating, sighted and
salved 7 deg. 20' S. 18 deg. 41' W. Dec. 15th. Photos at all A. B. C. offices.
Missing
No answer to General Call having been received during the last week from
following overdues, they are posted as missing.
_Atlantis_, W. 17630 Canton--Valparaiso
_Audhumla_, W. 809 Stockholm--Odessa
_Berenice_, W. 2206 Riga--Vladivostock
_Draco_, E. 446 Coventry--Puntas Arenas
_Tontine_, E. 3068 C. Wrath--Ungava
_Wu-Sung_, E. 41776 Hankow--Lobito Bay
General Call (all Mark Boats) out for:
_Jane Eyre_, W. 6990 Port Rupert--City of Mexico
_Santander_, W. 5514 Gobi-desert--Manila
_V. Edmundsun_, E. 9690 Kandahar--Fiume
Broke for Obstruction, and Quitting Levels
VALKYRIE (racing plane), A. J. Hartley owner, New York (twice warned).
GEISHA (racing plane), S. van Cott owner, Philadelphia (twice warned).
MARVEL OF PERU (racing plane), J. X. Peixoto owner, Rio de Janeiro
(twice warned).
_For the Board_:
LAZAREFF }
MCKEOUGH } _Traffic._
GOLDBLATT }
NOTES
Notes
High-Level Sleet
The Northern weather so far shows no sign of improvement. From all
quarters come complaints of the unusual prevalence of sleet at the
higher levels. Racing-planes and digs alike have suffered severely--the
former from unequal deposits of half-frozen slush on their vans (and
only those who have "held up" a badly balanced plane in a cross wind
know what that means), and the latter from loaded bows and snow-cased
bodies. As a consequence, the Northern and Northwestern upper levels
have been practically abandoned, and the high fliers have returned to
the ignoble security of the Three, Five, and Six hundred foot levels.
But there remain a few undaunted sun-hunters who, in spite of frozen
stays and ice-jammed connecting-rods, still haunt the blue empyrean.
Bat-Boat Racing
The scandals of the past few years have at last moved the yachting world
to concerted action in regard to "bat" boat racing.
We have been treated to the spectacle of what are practically keeled
racing-planes driven a clear five foot or more above the water, and only
eased down to touch their so-called "native element" as they near the
line. Judges and starters have been conveniently blind to this
absurdity, but the public demonstration off St. Catherine's Light at the
Autumn Regattas has borne ample, if tardy, fruit. In future the "bat"
is to be a boat, and the long-unheeded demand of the true sportsman for
"no daylight under mid-keel in smooth water" is in a fair way to be
conceded. The new rule severely restricts plane area and lift alike. The
gas compartments are permitted both fore and aft, as in the old type,
but the water-ballast central tank is rendered obligatory. These things
work, if not for perfection, at least for the evolution of a sane and
wholesome _waterborne_ cruiser. The type of rudder is unaffected by the
new rules, so we may expect to see the Long-Davidson make (the patent on
which has just expired) come largely into use henceforward, though the
strain on the sternpost in turning at speeds over forty miles an hour is
admittedly very severe. But bat-boat racing has a great future before
it.
CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence
Skylarking on the Equator
TO THE EDITOR--Only last week, while crossing the Equator (W. 26.15), I
became aware of a furious and irregular cannonading some fifteen or
twenty knots S. 4 E. Descending to the 500 ft. level, I found a party of
Transylvanian tourists engaged in exploding scores of the largest
pattern atmospheric bombs (A. B. C. standard) and, in the intervals of
their pleasing labours, firing bow and stern smoke-ring swivels. This
orgy--I can give it no other name--went on for at least two hours, and
naturally produced violent electric derangements. My compasses, of
course, were thrown out, my bow was struck twice, and I received two
brisk shocks from the lower platform-rail. On remonstrating, I was told
that these "professors" were engaged in scientific experiments. The
extent of their "scientific" knowledge may be judged by the fact that
they expected to produce (I give their own words) "a little blue sky" if
"they went on long enough." This in the heart of the Doldrums at 450
feet! I have no objection to any amount of blue sky in its proper place
(it can be found at the 2,000 level for practically twelve months out of
the year), but I submit, with all deference to the educational needs of
Transylvania, that "sky-larking" in the centre of a main-travelled road
where, at the best of times, electricity literally drips off one's
stanchions and screw blades, is unnecessary. When my friends had
finished, the road was seared, and blown, and pitted with unequal
pressure-layers, spirals, vortices, and readjustments for at least an
hour. I pitched badly twice in an upward rush--solely due to these
diabolical throw-downs--that came near to wrecking my propeller.
Equatorial work at low levels is trying enough in all conscience without
the added terrors of scientific hooliganism in the Doldrums.
Rhyl. J. VINCENT MATHEWS.
[We entirely sympathize with Professor Mathews's views, but unluckily
till the Board sees fit to further regulate the Southern areas in which
scientific experiments may be conducted, we shall always be exposed to
the risk which our correspondent describes. Unfortunately, a chimera
bombinating in a vacuum is, nowadays, only too capable of producing
secondary causes.--_Editor_.]
Answers to Correspondents
VIGILANS--The Laws of Auroral Derangements are still imperfectly
understood. Any overheated motor may of course "seize" without warning;
but so many complaints have reached us of accidents similar to yours
while shooting the Aurora that we are inclined to believe with Lavalle
that the upper strata of the Aurora Borealis are practically one big
electric "leak," and that the paralysis of your engines was due to
complete magnetization of all metallic parts. Low-flying planes often
"glue up" when near the Magnetic Pole, and there is no reason in science
why the same disability should not be experienced at higher levels when
the Auroras are "delivering" strongly.
INDIGNANT--On your own showing, you were not under control. That you
could not hoist the necessary N. U. C. lights on approaching a
traffic-lane because your electrics had short-circuited is a misfortune
which might befall any one. The A. B. C., being responsible for the
planet's traffic, cannot, however, make allowance for this kind of
misfortune. A reference to the Code will show that you were fined on the
lower scale.
PLANISTON--(1) The Five Thousand Kilometre (overland) was won last year
by L. V. Rautsch, R. M. Rautsch, his brother, in the same week pulling
off the Ten Thousand (oversea). R. M.'s average worked out at a fraction
over 500 kilometres per hour, thus constituting a record. (2)
Theoretically, there is no limit to the lift of a dirigible. For
commercial and practical purposes 15,000 tons is accepted as the most
manageable.
PATERFAMILIAS--None whatever. He is liable for direct damage both to
your chimneys and any collateral damage caused by fall of bricks into
garden, etc., etc. Bodily inconvenience and mental anguish may be
included, but the average jury are not, as a rule, men of sentiment. If
you can prove that his grapnel removed _any_ portion of your roof, you
had better rest your case on decoverture of domicile (See Parkins _v_.
Duboulay). We entirely sympathize with your position, but the night of
the 14th was stormy and confused, and--you may have to anchor on a
stranger's chimney yourself some night. _Verbum sap!_
ALDEBARAN--War, as a paying concern, ceased in 1967. (2) The Convention
of London expressly reserves to every nation the right of waging war so
long as it does not interfere with the world's traffic. (3) The A. B. C.
was constituted in 1949.
L. M. D.--Keep her dead head-on at half-power, taking advantage of the
lulls to speed up and creep into it. She will strain much less this way
than in quartering across a gale. (2) Nothing is to be gained by
reversing into a following gale, and there is always risk of a
turn-over. (3) The formulae for stun'sle brakes are uniformly unreliable,
and will continue to be so as long as air is compressible.
PEGAMOID--Personally we prefer glass or flux compounds to any other
material for winter work nose-caps as being absolutely non-hygroscopic.
(2) We cannot recommend any particular make.
PULMONAR--For the symptoms you describe, try the Gobi Desert Sanitaria.
The low levels of the Saharan Sanitaria are against them except at the
outset of the disease. (2) We do not recommend boarding-houses or hotels
in this column.
BEGINNER--On still days the air above a large inhabited city being
slightly warmer--i. e., thinner--than the atmosphere of the surrounding
country, a plane drops a little on entering the rarefied area, precisely
as a ship sinks a little in fresh water. Hence the phenomena of "jolt"
and your "inexplicable collisions" with factory chimneys. In air, as on
earth, it is safest to fly high.
EMERGENCY--There is only one rule of the road in air, earth, and water.
Do you want the firmament to yourself?
PICCIOLA--Both Poles have been overdone in Art and Literature. Leave
them to Science for the next twenty years. You did not send a stamp with
your verses.
NORTH NIGERIA--The Mark Boat was within her right in warning you up on
the Reserve. The shadow of a low-flying dirigible scares the game. You
can buy all the photos you need at Sokoto.
NEW ERA--It is not etiquette to overcross an A. B. C. official's boat
without asking permission. He is one of the body responsible for the
planet's traffic, and for that reason must not be interfered with. You,
presumably, are out on your own business or pleasure, and should leave
him alone. For humanity's sake don't try to be "democratic."
REVIEWS
Reviews
The Life of Xavier Lavalle
(_Reviewed by Rene Talland. Ecole Aeronautique, Paris_)
Ten years ago Lavalle, "that imperturbable dreamer of the heavens," as
Lazareff hailed him, gathered together the fruits of a lifetime's
labour, and gave it, with well-justified contempt, to a world bound hand
and foot to Barald's Theory of Vertices and "compensating electric
nodes." "They shall see," he wrote--in that immortal postscript to "The
Heart of the Cyclone"--"the Laws whose existence they derided written in
fire _beneath_ them."
"But even here," he continues, "there is no finality. Better a thousand
times my conclusions should be discredited than that my dead name should
lie across the threshold of the temple of Science--a bar to further
inquiry."
So died Lavalle--a prince of the Powers of the Air, and even at his
funeral Cellier jested at "him who had gone to discover the secrets of
the Aurora Borealis."
If I choose thus to be banal, it is only to remind you that Cellier's
theories are to-day as exploded as the ludicrous deductions of the
Spanish school. In the place of their fugitive and warring dreams we
have, definitely, Lavalle's Law of the Cyclone which he surprised in
darkness and cold at the foot of the overarching throne of the Aurora
Borealis. It is there that I, intent on my own investigations, have
passed and re-passed a hundred times the worn leonine face, white as the
snow beneath him, furrowed with wrinkles like the seams and gashes upon
the North Cape; the nervous hand, integrally a part of the mechanism of
his flighter; and above all, the wonderful lambent eyes turned to the
zenith.
"Master," I would cry as I moved respectfully beneath him, "what is it
you seek to-day?" and always the answer, clear and without doubt, from
above: "The old secret, my son!"
The immense egotism of youth forced me on my own path, but (cry of the
human always!) had I known--if I had known--I would many times have
bartered my poor laurels for the privilege, such as Tinsley and Herrera
possess, of having aided him in his monumental researches.
It is to the filial piety of Victor Lavalle that we owe the two volumes
consecrated to the ground-life of his father, so full of the holy
intimacies of the domestic hearth. Once returned from the abysms of the
utter North to that little house upon the outskirts of Meudon, it was
not the philosopher, the daring observer, the man of iron energy that
imposed himself on his family, but a fat and even plaintive jester, a
farceur incarnate and kindly, the co-equal of his children, and, it must
be written, not seldom the comic despair of Madame Lavalle, who, as she
writes five years after the marriage, to her venerable mother, found "in
this unequalled intellect whose name I bear the abandon of a large and
very untidy boy." Here is her letter:
"Xavier returned from I do not know where at midnight, absorbed in
calculations on the eternal question of his Aurora--_la belle Aurore_,
whom I begin to hate. Instead of anchoring--I had set out the
guide-light above our roof, so he had but to descend and fasten the
plane--he wandered, profoundly distracted, above the town with his
anchor down! Figure to yourself, dear mother, it is the roof of the
mayor's house that the grapnel first engages! That I do not regret, for
the mayor's wife and I are not sympathetic; but when Xavier uproots my
pet araucaria and bears it across the garden into the conservatory I
protest at the top of my voice. Little Victor in his night-clothes runs
to the window, enormously amused at the parabolic flight without reason,
for it is too dark to see the grapnel, of my prized tree. The Mayor of
Meudon thunders at our door in the name of the Law, demanding, I
suppose, my husband's head. Here is the conversation through the
megaphone--Xavier is two hundred feet above us.
"'Mons. Lavalle, descend and make reparation for outrage of domicile.
Descend, Mons. Lavalle!'
"No one answers.
"'Xavier Lavalle, in the name of the Law, descend and submit to process
for outrage of domicile.'
"Xavier, roused from his calculations, only comprehending the last
words: 'Outrage of domicile? My dear mayor, who is the man that has
corrupted thy Julie?'
"The mayor, furious, 'Xavier Lavalle----'
"Xavier, interrupting: 'I have not that felicity. I am only a dealer in
cyclones!'
"My faith, he raised one then! All Meudon attended in the streets, and
my Xavier, after a long time comprehending what he had done, excused
himself in a thousand apologies. At last the reconciliation was effected
in our house over a supper at two in the morning--Julie in a wonderful
costume of compromises, and I have her and the mayor pacified in beds in
the blue room."
And on the next day, while the mayor rebuilds his roof, her Xavier
departs anew for the Aurora Borealis, there to commence his life's
work. M. Victor Lavalle tells us of that historic collision (_en plane_)
on the flank of Hecla between Herrera, then a pillar of the Spanish
school, and the man destined to confute his theories and lead him
intellectually captive. Even through the years, the immense laugh of
Lavalle as he sustains the Spaniard's wrecked plane, and cries:
"Courage! _I_ shall not fall till I have found Truth, and I hold _you_
fast!" rings like the call of trumpets. This is that Lavalle whom the
world, immersed in speculations of immediate gain, did not know nor
suspect--the Lavalle whom they adjudged to the last a pedant and a
theorist.
The human, as apart from the scientific, side (developed in his own
volumes) of his epoch-making discoveries is marked with a simplicity,
clarity, and good sense beyond praise. I would specially refer such as
doubt the sustaining influence of ancestral faith upon character and
will to the eleventh and nineteenth chapters, in which are contained the
opening and consummation of the Tellurionical Records extending over
nine years. Of their tremendous significance be sure that the modest
house at Meudon knew as little as that the Records would one day be the
world's standard in all official meteorology. It was enough for them
that their Xavier--this son, this father, this husband--ascended
periodically to commune with powers, it might be angelic, beyond their
comprehension, and that they united daily in prayers for his safety.
"Pray for me," he says upon the eve of each of his excursions, and
returning, with an equal simplicity, he renders thanks "after supper in
the little room where he kept his barometers."
To the last Lavalle was a Catholic of the old school, accepting--he who
had looked into the very heart of the lightnings--the dogmas of papal
infallibility, of absolution, of confession--of relics great and small.
Marvellous--enviable contradiction!
The completion of the Tellurionical Records closed what Lavalle himself
was pleased to call the theoretical side of his labours--labours from
which the youngest and least impressionable planeur might well have
shrunk. He had traced through cold and heat, across the deeps of the
oceans, with instruments of his own invention, over the inhospitable
heart of the polar ice and the sterile visage of the deserts, league by
league, patiently, unweariedly, remorselessly, from their ever-shifting
cradle under the magnetic pole to their exalted death-bed in the utmost
ether of the upper atmosphere--each one of the Isoconical
Tellurions--Lavalle's Curves, as we call them to-day. He had
disentangled the nodes of their intersections, assigning to each its
regulated period of flux and reflux. Thus equipped, he summons Herrera
and Tinsley, his pupils, to the final demonstration as calmly as though
he were ordering his flighter for some midday journey to Marseilles.
"I have proved my thesis," he writes. "It remains now only that you
should witness the proof. We go to Manila to-morrow. A cyclone will form
off the Pescadores S. 17 E. in four days, and will reach its maximum
intensity in twenty-seven hours after inception. It is there I will show
you the Truth."
A letter heretofore unpublished from Herrera to Madame Lavalle tells us
how the Master's prophecy was verified.
(_To be continued_.)
ADVERTISING SECTION
MISCELLANEOUS
WANTS
Required immediately, for East Africa, a thoroughly competent Plane and
Dirigible Driver, acquainted with Petrol Radium and Helium motors and
generators. Low-level work only, but must understand heavy-weight digs.
MOSSAMEDES TRANSPORT ASSOC.
84 Palestine Buildings, E. C.
* * * * *
Man wanted--Dig driver for Southern Alps with Saharan summer trips. High
levels, high speed, high wages.
Apply M. SIDNEY
Hotel San Stefano. Monte Carlo
* * * * *
Family dirigible. A competent, steady man wanted for slow speed, low
level Tangye dirigible. No night work, no sea trips. Must be member of
the Church of England, and make himself useful in the garden.
M. R.,
The Rectory, Gray's Barton, Wilts.
* * * * *
Commercial dig, central and Southern Europe. A smart, active man for a
L. M. T. Dig. Night work only. Headquarters London and Cairo. A linguist
preferred.
BAGMAN
Charing Cross Hotel, W. C. (urgent.)
* * * * *
For sale--A bargain--Single Plane, narrow-gauge vans, Pinke motor.
Restayed this autumn. Hansen air-kit. 38 in. chest, 15-1/2 collar. Can
be seen by appointment.
N. 2650. This office.
=The Bee-Line Bookshop=
BELT'S WAY-BOOKS, giving town lights for all towns over 4,000 pop. as
laid down by A. B. C.
THE WORLD. Complete 2 vols. Thin Oxford, limp back. 12s. 6d.
BELT'S COASTAL ITINERARY. Shore Lights of the World. 7s. 6d.
THE TRANSATLANTIC AND MEDITERRANEAN TRAFFIC LINES. (By authority of the
A. B. C.) Paper, 1s. 6d.; cloth, 2s. 6d. Ready Jan. 15.
ARCTIC AEROPLANING. Siemens and Galt. Cloth, bds. 3s. 6d.
LAVALLE'S HEART OF THE CYCLONE, with supplementary charts. 4s. 6d.
RIMINGTON'S PITFALLS IN THE AIR, and Table of Comparative Densities. 3s.
6d.
ANGELO'S DESERT IN A DIRIGIBLE. New edition, revised. 5s. 9d.
VAUGHAN'S PLANE RACING IN CALM AND STORM. 2s. 6d.
VAUGHAN'S HINTS TO THE AIR-MATEUR. 1s.
HOFMAN'S LAWS OF LIFT AND VELOCITY. With diagrams, 3s. 6d.
DE VITRE'S THEORY OF SHIFTING BALLAST IN DIRIGIBLES. 2s. 6d.
SANGER'S WEATHERS OF THE WORLD. 4s.
SANGER'S TEMPERATURES AT HIGH ALTITUDES. 4s.
HAWKIN'S FOG AND HOW TO AVOID IT. 3s.
VAN ZUYLAN'S SECONDARY EFFECTS OF THUNDERSTORMS. 4s. 6d.
DAHLGREN'S AIR CURRENTS AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 5s. 6d.
REDMAYNE'S DISEASE AND THE BAROMETER. 7s. 6d.
WALTON'S HEALTH RESORTS OF THE GOBI AND SHAMO. 3s. 6d.
WALTON'S THE POLE AND PULMONARY COMPLAINTS. 7s. 6d.
MUTLOW'S HIGH LEVEL BACTERIOLOGY 7s. 6d.
HALLIWELL'S ILLUMINATED STAR MAP, with clockwork attachment, giving
apparent motion of heavens, boxed, complete with clamps for binnacle. 36
inch size, only L2. 2. 0. (Invaluable for night work.) With A. B. C.
certificate, L3. 10s. 0d.
Zalinski's Standard Works.
PASSES OF THE HIMALAYAS. 5s.
PASSES OF THE SIERRAS. 5s.
PASSES OF THE ROCKIES. 5s.
PASSES OF THE URALS. 5s.
The four boxed, limp cloth, with charts, 15s.
GRAY'S AIR CURRENTS IN MOUNTAIN GORGES. 7s. 6d.
=A. C. BELT & SON, READING=
SAFETY WEAR FOR AERONAUTS
Flickers! Flickers! Flickers!
=High Level Flickers=
"_He that is down need fear no fall_"
_Fear not! You will fall lightly as down!_
Hansen's air-kits are down in all respects. Tremendous reductions in
prices previous to winter stocking. Pure para kit with cellulose seat
and shoulder-pads, weighted to balance. Unequalled for all drop-work.
Our trebly resilient heavy kit is the _ne plus ultra_ of comfort and
safety.
Gas-buoyed, waterproof, hail-proof, non-conducting Flickers with pipe
and nozzle fitting all types of generator. Graduated tap on left hip.
=Hansen's Flickers Lead the Aerial Flight=
=197 Oxford Street=
The new weighted Flicker with tweed or cheviot surface cannot
be distinguished from the ordinary suit till inflated.
Flickers! Flickers! Flickers!
APPLIANCES FOR AIR PLANES
What
"SKID"
was to our forefathers on the ground,
"PITCH"
is to their sons in the air.