BYRD’S EXPEDITION

Hokitika Guardian, 29 January 1929, Page 8

BYRD’S EXPEDITION

(By Russell Owen—Copyrighted by the New York Times Company, ami St. Louts Post Dispatch. All rights Jor publication reserved throughout the world. to New York Times.) PLANK’S RADIO RECORD. United Press Association—By Electric Telegra pli—Copy n gut ). NEW YORK, Jan. 25. A record for radio and aviation was established early this (Friday) morning when Commander Byrd’s plane, flying at 3000 feet of an altitude, conducted two-way communication direct with the “New York Times” radio j))t;ati;on. The distune© between tiie plane and the receiver was 10,009 miles. It was the first time that an aeroplane in flight had both sent and received messages at such a- long distance. It was 10.30 p.m. in New York when the operator Carl Peterson, aboard the “City of New York” called up the “Times” and said that Malcolm Hanson, the Radio Chief of the Expedition, would make a test flight aboard the plane at 8.15 p.m. in the Bay of Whales. Reginald Inverson, radio engineer at the “Times” station, tuned the dial to the thirty-four channel, and found that the operator nearest to the South Pole kept his rendezvous. Inverson soon picked up the signal of the aeroplane Hying over the Antarctic. Co ahead!” Inverson flashed hack. The plane heard the dots and dashes from the “Times” transmitter at New York. Then followed an official message to Commander Hooper, ol the Navy Department, Washington. “Fine sunny night here,” said Flanson, in concluding. Transmission ended at 3.28 a.m.., New York time, just 12 minutes after the message came that the plane was ready to go aloft. THE PLANE’S SETS. FTnuson’s plane is equipped with what is termed a fixed doublet antenna, reaching from the tips of both wings to the tail and into the fuselage. t'lTiis is for short wave transmission, while a trailing wire is utilised for communication on the universal commercial wave of six hundred metres. The installation receives its power from, an electrical generator coupled direct to the aeroplane engine. This is an innovation in aeroplane radio. The pane’s receiver, which picked up the signals from the “Times” station, is a special four-table, super-regenerative circuit for short wave reception, designed by Malcolm Hanson, and Vii.ill by the National Electric- Supply Coy. of Washington. “So strong were the signals from the plane and so slight was the fading that the “Times” operators are hopeful that they will pick up the plane’s despatches as the Stars and Stripes flies over the South Pole.

ICE-BREAKING TASK

PROVES TOO SOLID

j HAY OF WHALES, January 20. A e sturdily (Thur.sda.v) ('(.•minandei ! Hyrd made a valiant attempt to reach j the ice bander in order to cut a passage j tlirou<ili the heavy-pressure ice, with : tlie “ City of New York ” to a place ' where the “ Eleanor Moiling ” could he j easily unloaded. The ice proved too , thick, however, and after a day’s rami ming and battering, lie was forced to | quit and await a little aid 'from the j weather, which, it appears, now might j he coming, as a storm is brewing which | may shift to the south and if it does. | this part of the Hay should go out. i " We left the berth where the ship I had been made fast to the edge of a • floe, because the ice in that spot was j getting soft. Several men went in up | to their waists during the morning. and finally Norman Vaughan! who has ; been carrying heavy loads in the last | ‘few days, went in up to bis shoulders 1 while be was standing alongside bis ; team preparing to start in with a load | of coal. j The load on the east side of the j Hay of Whales had opened up to within j a few hundred yards of the low part ol | the harrier. Commander Hyrd detcr- | mined on an attempt to smash his way j through there in the hope that In' j would make a passage for the Eleanor | Holing. Tim City of New York pulled | along the edge of the Hay ice under j steam, until out in the open lead. The ! ship then headed south parallel to the j harrier, and about 300 yards out I mm it, where there seemed to he a series | of openings, which led on a gradual curve inward towards the harrier. I ho ship hit ice with all its way through for some distance. The ice then became heavier, until it checked any Howard movement. Then we began to back up and ram ahead, making a few feet each time. Once the ship was caught amidships by a big cake of ice that was loidod under the other ice, and the how was jammed tight. .Men went over the side with liars, poles, axes, and shovels and finally they broke the.ice loose, so that the ship could move again. 'I he ship wont ahead with renewed speed for some distance, her how lifting up ami smashing down again through ice five or six loot thick, hut later "p found that we were working against ice that was ridged and heaved up wit a the pressure—so iimeli so tliaf tboie, wore m places cakes standing like pillars fifteen feet above tlm surface. It was also ice that was confined by pressure ice on two sides, and by the i a rider on the oilier, which makes'the j task much harder. •• Hyrd was sceptical as to how much | !( . could accomplish, hut he teli Unit the harrier could be reached, and liio ice broken up. so that if might move out more ouickb . it would help I greatly in unloading the Eleanor Holwhich is now the greatest nro- ! Idem facing the expedition. Accord-

inglv. the ship went ‘full speed ahead into this mass, which was at least ten feet thick below the water line. Tune and ‘again the boat would ride up on one of these huge Hues, forcing its way between the uplifted and jagged cakes of pressure ice, and then slide off again when engines were reversed, without apparently making any impression. Two or three times this would be done. Then the ice would crack and slowly he forced aside. A yard at. a time, the ship made its way towards the barrier in this way, reeling under the shocks, and .‘■praying when any stubborn cake deflected it as it charged 'forward until the harrier was only 100 yards away, but it might just as well have been a mile away, for the point was readied where V.c could not go any further, and Bvrd decided to hack out, and go hack to the last point where coal had been unloaded. Most of the day and a good part of the evening were spent in this attempt,.and it did some good, for the ice has split and broken so much that a good southerly wind might blow it out, and we hope that this will happen. The Eleanor Rolling is coming more slowly, so as to economise in coal and there will be two days for the ice to move before she arrives. BYRD’S NEXT FLIGHT. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, January 25. A cablegram received by Mr R. Brophv, second in command of the Byrd Expedition, states the Commander Byrd will make bis next flight in the Antarctic over King Edward Land. The dogs which came by the Niagara will be forwarded to Wellington on Monday by goods train, and will be transported from Wellington to Lyttelton on Wednesday night. They will be quarantined at Dunedin until placed on the steamer Eleanor Bolling.