Another Great Radio Achievement

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 37, 28 March 1930, Page 1

Another Great Radio Achievement

Rear Aamiral Bord

tells his adventures

to the Children

of New Zealand

|EHAR-ADMIRAL BYRD spoke in the Dunedin Town Hall, delivering two addresses to audiences of 3500 children in each instance. He thus personally spoke to and was seen by 7000 children, but -his_ total f audience ran into many times that figure. The educational authorities entered whole-heartedly into the matter and gu,- every facility for radio dealers to arrange for the children of the schools througout the Dominion to listen-in. Radio receiving sets were installed in schoolrooms, halls and parks, where crowds of juveniles listened intently. In many localities the schools adjourned to private residences, and many private sets were transported to6 schools. , The number of children who listened-in cannot be estimated, nor can the number of adults. ‘The audience in the Dunedin Town Hall was most appreciative from the time the Mayor, Mr. R. 8S, Black, introduced Rear: Admiral Byrd and his dog Igloo. [HE Admiral ‘said that he was very happy to meet the New Zealand children, to whom he brought greetings from the children of the United States. . The people of the United States

showed the greatest interest in this country and he would have much pleasure in conveying greetings from New Zealand back to America. He was particularly glad to know that Maori children were listening to him, for down at Little America the Maori broadcasts had been very much enjoyed. The special programme from 2YA had provided one of the most pleasant evenings they had ever had. The: speaker extended greetings to the members of the Navy League, a league to which he belonged in America. "TS the years to come, boys and girls," said Rear-Admiral Byrd, "a great yeany of you will be flying aeroplanes," and

* fie then went on to tell the children about the v.tious types of aeroplanes used, expressing the opinion that the aeroplanes of the future would be amphibians. He thought that, since there were so many good landing places in the Dominion, that type of machine would be largely used in New Zealand. Proceeding, he told about the aeroplanes he had used, going back to 1925, when he was at Etah, in the Arctic, on a Government mission, ‘ looking for land. He then used a biplane, but the one he used in the Antarctic was a monoplane, The biplane could land on water ‘or on ice. '. The Eskimos were most interesting people. When they first saw an aeroplane, brought’ up -by a steamer, they did not believe it would fly. When it did, they ran away and would not' come back till they saw the airmen get out of the machine. The Wskimos, in spite of their .

hard lives, were very friendly ; for if they were not greeted with a smile they took that to be a sign of anger. They lived in’ six months night and six months day. They wore the skins of seals and ate neither fruit nor vege‘tables. The aeroplane used in the North Pole flight was equipped with skis and had three engines of 200 h.p. each. It liad taken off with a load of 10,000 pounds. This flight disclosed that the Arctic Ocean was eternally frozen over,

and was corrugated on the surface, in some places to a height of fifty feet. This was very different from the conditions in the Antarctic, where there was more land. The Antarctic, said Rear-Admiral Byrd, was in the clutch of the Ice Age, such as there was in North America twenty-five thousand years ago, when ice covered the land and killed all the life. "THE expedition’s base at Little America was on a great ice barrier-a huge piece of ice and snow 400 miles long. Although extensive aeroplane flights had been made, the width of the barrier had not been determined. The barrier was a great mystery, nobod: knowing how it was formed. For 150 feet from.the water it was snow, while below the wate it was ice, so that really it should not be called a snow barrier. The barrier had been used,for the dogs had been housed in kennels dug in the snow during the winter.

Admiral Byrd then spoke of the penguins, the seals, skua gulls and petrels. The penguins were most remarkable, and living on fish, they were more at home in the water than on the ice. The Bay of Whales was full of whales in summer time and he had seen 100 of them at atime. In a large hole in the ice 15 to 20 whales came up so close that one could touch them with a stick. The very dangerous killer whales were worse than the sharks, said the lecturer. They had fins three feet high on their backs and could kill a 100-ton whale. Between the huts of the settlement, tunnels were dug in the snow, so that communication was quite easy, not necessitating visits out in the dark at nights. The members of the party eventually cut down through the snow, finding that there was water at a depth of 1500 feet. Thus the expedition had lived all the time over water, being, as it were, on a potential iceberg. To illustrate the action of the blizzards, the Rear-Admiral explained that the houses in which they lived were very soon covered by snow, with the result that the inhabitants had to dig themselves out. If a visit was paid to the base site in Little America the huts would be found to be entirely under the snow.

REVERTING to the aeroplanes, the admiral said the wing spread of the one uxed in the trans-Atlantic flight was 72 feet. The one he used to fly to the South Pole had a spread of 74 feet and was mide entirely of metal lighter than aluminium. The centre engine was of 525 h.p., while others'on either side were of 225 h.p. each, giving a total of about 1000 hp. There was another machine, the Virginia, which flew to the Rockefeller Mountains, a range discovered by the expedition. At these mountains some of the oldest rocks in the world had been discovered, while a great frozen lake had been dis-

covered at their foot. It was here that a disaster happened, for a 150-mile-an-hour wind came up and blew the machine from its moorings. It was thrown into the air for a mile, breaking one of the skis. . It was only after much trouble and worry that the marooned party had been rescued by the "Stars and Stripes." The "Stars and Stripes" and the "Floyd Bennett" were still down at the south, and were both secure so that at any time in the future they could be recovered. ‘ Down south, said Rear-Admiral Byrd, skis are used, but it is impossible to travel without accidents owing to the poor visibility. It is hard to see where the snow begins and the sky ends, and when one is walking on the snow he cannot see an opening right in front, with the result that falls into crevasses are quite possible. When visibility is like that a pres(Concluded on page 21.)

Another broadcast, remarkable in taht it involved the most extensive hook-up of relay lines yet attempted in New Zealand, was effected last week. From Dunedin, Rear-Admiral Byrd spoke to thousands of New Zealand school children. A length of 1274 miles of relay line was in use connecting Invercargill with Auckland, with a branch line to Wellington and New Plymouth. Thougb relay lines gave a certain amount of trouble, the broadcast was, in itself a great chievement.

Broadcast to Children

(Concluded from page 1.) sure ridge quite close looks like a huge mountain. _ Admiral Byrd said he would take New Zealand’s greetings back to America. He wished the people of the Dominion the hest of luck and happy days. Loup applause followed his speech, the barking of the explorer’s dog, Igloo, being heard above the noise of the clapping. ; The Mayor of Christchurch (the Rev. J. K. Archer) then spoke to Dunedin, saying that it was hoped to arrange for Rear-Admiral Byrd to spend a day in Christchurch, ~ The Admiral then spoke to the

mayors of the cities, saying that before. going back to the United States of America he would endeavour to spend a day in Christchurch, for he had thoroughly enjoyed his previous visit.