SCIENCE SIFTINGS

New Zealand Tablet, 10 April 1919, Page 46

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

By “Volt.”

■ " Limit to Which Man Gan Ascend. A good deal ,of scientific interest has attached to the question of the limit to which, man can ascend into the heavens and live, and it has been assumed. that the recent flight -of two colonial airmen which register a worlds record for altitude "decides the point. Even when specially equipped with the latest devices provided by modern science these plucky airmen could not get quite to six miles above sea level. “It would seem,” remarks one commentator, “from the physical experiences of these two gallant airmen, that six miles is near the limit to which man will ever ascend, unless new devices are found for cold protection and oxygenisation.” Mount Everest, 29,000 feet, ■is the highest mountain peak in the world, and one which has never been climbed, nor does it seem likely that it ever will be; but the two airmen succeeded in reaching a greater altitude than this sky-piercing mountain, namely, 30,500 feet. They risked their lives in the feat, and narrowly escaped the losers’ chance. 'Both men (one was an Australian, .Captain Lang, and the other a Canadian, Lieutenant Blowes) were specially clad for the occasion, and carried special electric heating apparatus, and also oxygen cylinders. The need of these special precautions was shown by the fact that when the machine reached its maximum altitude there was a temperature of about 70 degrees of frost. Through a fault in the oxygen apparatus at 20,000 feet the Canadian collapsed, and at 30,500 feet the machine was brought to a stop through lack of petrol-pump pressure owing to rarefaction of the air. The trip was a rough one almost from start to finish, but through the dogged determination of the pilot ended as stated in the men beating the world’s altitude record, one of them being in a state of complete collapse when the engine stopped and the downward flight began. It is noteworthy that the achievement lies to the credit of two of the overseas members of the British Flying Forces and that it was accomplished in a British-built, British-engined De Haviland bombing biplane. The Helicopter. The helicopter, with which successful experiments are being made at Home in connection with a new type of aeroplane, belongs to the very early days of aviation, a little later, certainly, than those of Icarus, - but still quite ancient considering how modern a science aviation is (says an exchange). The original “helicoptere” was apparently the design of a Frenchman, Penaud, about 1872, but more than a century before that, in 1768, another Frenchman described a machine provided with two screws acting vertically upwards. In 1796 Sir George Cayley designed a toy, made of quillfeathers, corks, whalebone, and string, something after the style of a more recent toy, which could be wound up by twisting the string, and made to rise to the ceiling. For years afterwards inventors studied to perfect a machine which would rise in the air by vertical screws or fans, and one man in 1842 is sail to have made a'steam, model which, “according to his own account, flew across two fields after attaining a great altitude.” Penaud introduced twisted indiarubber as the motive force of his helicoptere, which was capable of reaching a height of 50ft and gyrating in large circles for from 15 'to 30 seconds. Other weird machines were produced at intervals/ until the helicopter principle was abandoned in favor of that of the power-driven, aeroplanes. . - ; •