Evening Star Newspaper, March 10, 1935, Page 54

F—4 THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 10, 1935—PART FOUR. HOW HIGH CAN A MAN SOAR ABOVE?—AND WHY? By Thomas R. Henry. NOTHER stratosphere expedi- | tion this Summer. | Man's most ambitious ef-| fort to date to penetrate the| mysterious region where the | stars shine at noonday will be made in a few months under the joint auspices of the National Geographic Society and the United States Army Air Corps. In a sense it will be a second voyage of the sort. Tne flight made from, the Black Hills last July ended nearly ' 12 miles above the earth’s surface| when the bag of the balloon Explorer | started to rip and forced a descent which ended in a smash. But a great | deal has been learned about strato- sphere exploring since then. Some of the country’s foremost physicists have been at work on the problem and have determined just where the mistakes were made last year. This year Capt. Albert W. Stevens and Capt. Orvil A. Anderson will start out for the stratosphere with a bigger balloon, more substantially construct- ed and with the defects which caused | the crash of the Explorer eliminated. The ascent will again be made from the vicinity of Rapid City, S. Dak.| Capt. Stevens will be in command of | the largest balloon ever constructed— a bag which exceeds by 23 per cent the capacity of the 3,000,000-cubic-foot Explorer. This, in turn, was more than three times the size of any bal- loon previously built. The new bag will have a diameter, when filled, of 192 feet and a gas capacity of 3,700,000 cubic fees. OR the first time, helium gas will be used for a stratosphere flight. ‘This will make it possible to eliminate all danger of torn fabric and explo- sion, such as was suffered by the hydrogen-filled Explorer. Helium is non-explosive, either alone or when mixed with air. It will not be neces- sary, therefore, that the fabric of the bag be folded to exclude air when the balloon leaves the ground. The bag will have helium at its top and air in its lower portion, and will be loosely extended. When it reaches high alti- tudes the expansion of the helium in the top will force out the air through an opening in the bottom and the bag then will be completely filled with | helium. This procedure has been fol- lowed successfully even with hydro- gen in the three flights made by the Piccards, but there is always danger of an explosion from a mixture of hydrogen and air. With helium an explosion is impossible. The new bag will have a top of 33 per cent stronger fabric and a bot- tom of 50 per cent stronger fabric than that used in last year's balloon. 1t is because of the increased weight of the stronger fabrics, and the fact that helium has only about nine- tenths of the lifting power of hydro- gen, that the new balloon is being made larger. The increase of about 23 per cent in gas capacity will give | the helium-filled bag about the same | theoretical ceiling as that of the hydrogen bag last July. This is about | 175,000 feet above sea level, or between 14 and 15 miles. The ascent should reach the grentesc‘w altitude yet attained by man. Since the Belgian physicist, August Piccard, | made his first stratosphere trip in May, 1931, the record has been as| follows: Piccard and Cosyns, Belgium, Au- gust 18, 1932; volume of balloon, 500,000 cubic feet; altitude attained, 63,153 feet. Prokovieff and Godounoff, Russia, | September 30, 1933; volume of balloon, | The take-off of the Explorer last Summer in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Photograph snap- ped from an airplane. | 860,000 cubic feet; feet. Settle and Fordney, United States, | November 20, 1933: volume, 600,000 | cubic feet; altitude, 61,237 feet Fedossenko, Vasenko and Usiskin, Russia, January 30, 1934; volume, 882,- 250 cubic feet; altitude, 72,178 feet. altitude, 62,300 | | | | | APTS. STEVENS AND ANDER-| SON do not expect to go much above 75,000 feet. That is about the | limit of any balloon which it is practi- | cal to build at present. It by no | means represents the extreme distance | away from the earth man may hope ! | to_attain with future mechanical de- velopments. The bigger the balloon | the greater the height possible, but there is a definite limit, according to | calculations of Bureau of Standards scientists, who have been engaged as | scientific advisors for the stratosphere | flight, beyond which it will be im- | possible to go except with some altogether new type of transportation. We are still a long way from flights to the moon, which would be possible theoretically only with the perfection of some form of rocket motor. The higher one proposes to go the | larger the balloon required. To get down from greater and greater helghts| safely more and more ballast is re- quired. The amounts go up slowly at | first. They are computed as follows by Dr. L. B. Tuckerman of the Bu- reau of Standards for distances which | actually have been reached. Fifty-four thousand feet, 2,100 pounds for balloon and equipment and | 1,040 pounds for ballast. Sixty-six thousand 2,800 feet, National Geographic Society Already Planning. Another Stratosphere Flight This Summer— W hat the Scientists Expect to Discover— Why Balloon Trips Are Limited. Lessons of Other Sky Expeditions. | perature equilibrium may be a great ;hlghway for warm and cold fronts. Then again comes radiation—per= haps the most fundamental of all phenomena, upon which depends the very existence of life on earth. In the stratosphere direct observations can be | made on the incoming radiation of the | sun. Exterpolations must be made in observations made on the earth’s sur- face to allow for the effect of the at- mospheric blanket. Among the specific projects to be carried out are: Temperature and barometric meas- urements from the earth to the “ceil- hardly would add more than & mile| or two, at the most, to the possibilities. One proposal is that the ballast be carried in the form of liquid hydrogen, and if this should prove feasible some further progress might be expected. It might be possible some day to reach the ultimate height of 30 miles in a balloon, but for the present, 15 miles is all that can conservatively be planned for. All sorts of fanciful | | “space flights” have been portrayed | in fiction, but they all are based upon | the future development of “rocket” motors, for which the decreasing density of the atmosphere would be | immaterial since they would be sus- tained by the kick-backs of their own | explosions, in much the same fashion that a gun kicks back against the | shoulder of the hunter. | Some pioneer work has been done with rocket motors, but the efforts | have been confined to the surface of the earth. Theoretically it is not im- possible to conceive of a rocket ship the earth’s gravity altogether, after which it would tend to proceed in a straight line in whatever direction it | was going without any expenditure | of energy until it came within the‘ gravitational pull of some other planetary body. But rocket transportation, even to | the stratosphere, is a matter of the distant future. At present mm's‘ limit away from the earth depends | | upon the properties of gas-filled bal- | which might get out of the range of | loons. EJUST what is the stratosphere? It is that strata of the at- | mosphere wherein temperature no ‘Workmen completing the gondola which will hang from the balloon to be used this Summer in the strato- sphere flight. The air-tight ball is n! ine feet in diameter. All photographs copyright by National Geographic Society. pounds for balloon and 1,200 for | pounds; 150.000 feet, 393700 and Dr. Tuckerman points out, made the ballast. Seventy thousand feet, 4,300 pounds for balloon and 1,500 for ballast. | 128,200 pounds. | il | US for an ascent of approximately 30 miles, about twice the distance mistake of throwing away ballast to add a few thousand feet to their alti-| tude. They reached the greatest| heights yet attained by human beings, | Seventy-three thousand feet, 4,900 'contemplated at present, the combined | but when they came down they had| pounds for balloon and 1,900 for ballast. Beyond this, Dr. Tuckerman points out, everything is theoretical, but the increase of necessary balloon weight and ballast goes up very rapidly. Thus at 90,000 feet a balloon weighing a minimum of 11,900 pounds and carry- ing 4,200 pounds of ballast would be required. For 100,000 feet the re- quirement would be a balloon weigh- ing 22,300 pounds and carrying 7,600 pounds of ballast. It requires a stretch of imagination to conceive of going through the clouds with an apparatus | ‘weighing close to 15 tons. Beyond this, the figures as calcu- | lated by Dr. Tuckerman are: One hundred and ten thousand feet, 39,200 pounds and 13,100 pounds; 120,000 feet, 69,400 and 22,900 pounds; 130,000 feet, 123,900 and 40,600 pounds. 140,000 feet, 220,220 and 71,900 Many Local Art Exhibitions (Continued From Third Page.) amanged in honor of Washineton's 203d birthday anniversary and has been hung in the ball room taken from Gadsby’s Tavern, in Alexandria, in which were held. it will be remem- bered, Washington’s birthday balls. The duplicates of these prints now on view were either hanging on the walls of Mount Vernon or contained in a portfolio there at the time of Washington’s death. Included in the collection are an engraving of the painting by West of “The Death of | Wolfe,” and other military subjects such as Trumbull's “Death of Mont- | gomery” and “Battle of Bunker Hill.” ‘There were also engraved portraits of Lafayette, Franklin, Gens. Greene and Wayne and of David Rittenhouse, director of the mint. familiar ‘Washington and Mrs. Washington, the Custis children and “Billy Lee,” his| black boy. Nor was this all. There are classical landscapes by Claude Lorrain, allegorical subjects and my- | thological ones—“Diana Deceived by Venus,” “Adonis Carried Off by ‘Venus,” fox hunting and sporting sub- | Jects more in the French than Eng- lish manner and far from fact, but perhaps for this reason no less dear to the lover of horses and dogs and the hunt. What pleasure Washing- | ton must have found in assembling these prints, purchased no doubt from | print sellers in Aunapolis, Willilams-' burg and Charleston, who probably | sent out agents to solicit trade. The prints were identified through the in- ventory taken of Mount Vernon at the time of Washington's death. How in- teresting ‘his is, and that the dupli- | cate collection is now shown in the! old, transplanted ball room so closely assoclated with Washington's life! { | vation in art museums is a matter for JOHN KANE, an exhibition of whose | work marked the recent opening| of the new Department of Labor Building, was a working man, a labor- er, and he painted his first picture | when he was 50 years of age. Born in Scotland of Irish parents, he was brought to this country as a boy of 9 and went right to work in the Penn- sylvania coal fields. He was at various times employed in mines in West Vir- gainia and Alabama, and also at times worked in the steel mills. He began his artistic career by coloring photographs for his fellow mine workers, thereby adding to his revenues, and not until 1910 did he paint his first picture. The loss of a leg in an effort to save & friend from being run over by a railroad train brought about change of occupation, and he became, first, = sign painter and then a painter of box cars. All the while he continued to paint pictures of what he saw around him, and great must have been his surprise when, in 1926, one of his paintings was accepted by the | Carnegie International Exhibition Jury and given special distinction. Pierre Bonnard, so well represented in the Phillips Memorial Gallery, was a member of the jury that year and he thought so highly of Kane's work that he bought one of his pictures. Since Kane's death several have been purchased by art museums and a memorial exhibition of his work has lately been held in New York. Kane was entirely self-taught. It is said that he always wanted to go to an art school but was unable to for lack of money. Also that he was frequently heard to say that a man must look for beauty around him. Kane's paintings are not beautiful, but they are extremely simple and . There is the| family group comprising | | sincere, and it is these qualities that | give them worth. For the most part | they are scenes in or about Pittsburgh, | views of the river valleys crossed by | bridges, with green hillsides dotted | by little dwelling houses. Such scenes | must have seemed beautiful to Kane and he tried to paint them just as| he saw them. Bonnard is quoted as having said that Kane was an American prim-| | itive, and there is a certain enalogy | | between the paintings by Kane and | those of the primitives in other coun- | tries. But behind Kane was a-great tradition which the primitives of Europe, before the days of the Re- naissance, helped to make. Unavoid- ably there is an element of sophis- tication in Kane's paintings which does not completely accord with their‘ childish simplicity. However, he did the best he could and with great con- scientiousness of effort. His pictures | of Pittsburgh now on exhibition in the Labor Department have a little the appearance of topographical stud- ies or of models set up for display. They have no atmosphere, no painter quality. He did not know how to/ handle his medium. His ambition was ! to accurately record what he saw, and this he did with amazing fidelity. In one instance, when he painted a full-length portrait of his brother Patrick playing on bagpipes and wear- ing the uniform of the Black Watch, a famous Scotch regiment, he seems to have laid aside his meticulous method and employed a broader style. Not very good in color or completely harmonious in tone, this portrait is really a very remarkable achievement for one self-taught and so little ex- perienced. Whether or not Kane’s paintings are of a standard worthy of preser- the museums to decide. Seen with a knowledge of his story, they are certainly full of interest and inspira- | tion. That artistic talent outerops in | this extraordinary way in the most | ditions, persists, thrives, produces, is | one of the miracles of life, evidencing its divine origin. Augustus Saint-Gau- | dens was, it will be remembered, the son of a poor shoemaker; Rembrandt the son of a miller. Between these | men’s echievements and Kane's there is a wide difference, but the spirit, the urge, was the same. 5 | | TWO very interesting portrait busts have been lent to the Department of Labor for the opening of its new building. One is of “Mother Jones,” who played so dramatic a part in the fight of the United Mine Workers some years ago, and the other is of Andrew Fureseth, the 80-year-old president of lhe International Sea- men’s Union of America. Both are the work of Jo Davidson of New York, who has probably modeled more por- | trait busts of celebrities than any | other living American sculptor, and | has done them well. Davidson studied | under George de Forest Brush, painter, | and Herman MacNeil, sculptor, which “perlupa explains the colorful quality of his work. His bust of Marshal Foch | has been given permanent placement on the Palace of Versailles. His half- length portrait in stone of Gertrude Stein is an amazingly clever achieve- ment. He is tremendously interested in people and in his work, which, with talent taken for granted, explains his success. The portrait of “Mother Jones” was !lent by the Governor of Oklahoma, E. W. Marland, who once was & gen: » barren soil and, despite adverse con-| I erous patron of art. It was he who instituted some years ago a competi- tion for a statue of “The Pioneer Woman" and had the winning design executed and erected in Ponca City entirely at his own expense. The sculptor of this group (the woman is seen leading a little girl by the hand) was Bryant Baker, who at one time had a studio in this city and whose statues of Rodne and Clayton of Dela- ware were placed in the Capitol here last Summer. The bust of Andrew Furuseth was lent by Fremont Older of the San Francisco Call Bulletin. All this gives indication of a growing interest of art throughout the country. A COLLECTION of 16 oil paintings by Rowland Lyon has been placed on view for the month of March by the Public Library in its North- eastern Branch. These paintings hang in the large reading room above the mantel, and cases are high-keyed, simple and in these surroundings very effective. Quite a2 number were done in Provincetown and of these one of & street typical of New England and one of “Summer Rain” are especially notable. There are two railroad sub- jects, not beautiful by any means but interesting as indicative of a reaching out for reality and a desire to contact elements in contemporary life. is a portrait study of a well-known model, & bearded man, and, of very different character, of a boy, steeped in sunlight in the midst of common- place surroundings. There is also a painting of zinnias, but not the paint- ings of pots and jars which won a | prize in the Society of Washington Artists exhibition. It is truly said that Mr. Lyon has a flare for clear color, and he certainly has an appreciation of the potentialities of his medium. He has in the last year or two seemed to make long strides forward. He may still go far. N THE Public Library's main build- ing the exhibition space is given this month to Robert Franklin Gates of Studio House, who exhibits 14 of his water colors of Charleston, S. C., and other subjects, rendered in his individualistic and engaging style. Some of these paintings have been previously shown in other exhibitions, but they stand seeing more than once. AT THE Mount Pleasant hganch, by Tequest, the Public Library has placed on view a group of five color reproductions of masterpieces in the Mellon collection. In this connection note may be made of the excellent service the art department of the Public Library rendered recently in supplying the press with reproduc- tions of these famous paintings when announcement was made of the pro- posed gift of the collection to the Na- tion and the call for illustrations came. PRINTS from the noted Rosenwald collection, circulated under the auspices of the College Art Associa- tion, are now on view in the art gal- lery at Howard University, together with a considerable group of paint- ings by Emil Jacques, the Flemish painter, an exhibition of whose work was recently held in the National Museum. The Rosenwald collection comprises etchings by the great mas- ters of all time—Rembrandt, Whistler, Haden, Meryon and others. Print lovers should take aetice. ! weights would be close to 2,500 tons, a | veritable aerial Leviathan. Without | the balloon size, ascent to the higher | levels would be impossible. Without | the ballast it would be impossible to get down alive. The unfortunate Rus- | | sian balloonists, Vasenko and Usiskin, Wise-Cracking nowadays is that the world| was just one big yap settle-| ment during “the gay nine-| ties.” The word “gay” is re- | | garded as a flip sarcasm. In books | no “brakes” to soften their impact| with the earth. Both were killed. The computations are based on pres- ent materials used in balloon making | and present knowledge of conditions| within the stratosphere. But any de-| ing” of the flight. Only one set of such measurements from the surface to the stratosphere ever has been made in America. A check on barometer measure- ments of altitude, by optical methods. A camera of accurately determined focal length, mounted in the bottom of the gondola, will photograph the earth. By subsequent map studies and comparisons with barometer and ther- mometer readings at the times the photographs were made, much more accurate altitude tables can be com- piled than those now in use. Bottling of air samples at several This photograph shows the torn fabric of the Explorer, last year's stratosphere balloon. as it de- scended near Holdredge, Nebr. measurements of radiation are among the primary objectives. A strange and somewhat paradoxical region is this stratosphere. In the first place, one weighs less than at the surface. The weight of a man, or any other object. depends upon the pull of gravity and the further it is from the center of the earth the less it weighs. A 160-pound man would high altitudes. The samples will be | brought to earth and analyzed for gas | composition and relative humidity. Recording cosmic ray frequency, penetration and direction of move- ment at various levels. The rays are | more numerous and more powerful | high above the earth | Wind direction and velocity studies. | Measurement of solar radiation. A much truer picture of the heat sent out by the sun can be obtained above the lower atmosphere. Photography of the solar spectrum. | From such photographs still higher | atmospheric conditions can be in- ferred. Record of sky brightness and sun | brightness. The sky is less bright the higher one rises from the earth. Thirty or forty miles up it would be almost black. The sun becomes brighter as the altitude increases. Oblique photography for distance, and test of the actinic value of light, and secondary absorption by the at- mosphere. Effects of altitude on radio trans- mission. Balloon navigation problems, par- velopments which can be foreseen | in the Nineties By George Ade NE of the common delusions to a hop an’ made the hit o' the show. A gink that used to be her steady was there, rubber-neckin’ around an’ tryin’ to keep cases on her. He thought he was 50 tough you couldn't dent him with an ax. That pelter's got a hor- and on the screen our relatives of 40 | rible rind—figurin’ he can double- years ago have been depicted as|cross me. He tried to ring in, but I | primitive boobs. Men favored whiskers, | told him people would be walkin’ slow tight trousers and pancake derbies. | behind him. He got cold feet. I wish ‘Women made themselves hideous with | you could 'a’ piped the pelican he had | great gobs of hair, puff sleeves and | with him. She was a battle-ax. She cartwheel hats. Their long, trailing | was beefin’ becuz he walked out on skirts were dust-catchers. The fa- | her an’ tried to work my side o' the | vorite song was “She May Have Seen | street. She put up a holler. My Capt. Orvil A. Anderson. Maj. William E. Kepner and Capt. Albert W. . Stevens standing before the gondola There | Better Days.” | 1t is taken for granted that the | poor simps of that distant period were | | not acquainted with our fly and up-to- | | date vernacular. All of our picturesque slang words and phrases are supposed | to be recent inventions. Oh, fiddle! Would it surprise you to learn that just 100 years ago Plerce Egan wrote | a book of enormous popularity called | “Life in London, or the Adventures of Tom, Dick and Harry and the Cor- | inthian,” and that the volume was | packed with the same kind of frivolous | and sporty talk that is used by the | juvenile high-rollers of today? Would | it surprise you further to know that | not much slang of the kind used by | sophisticated smarties has been in- | vented since the nineties? | I am going to set down an imaginary, impossible and idiotic conversation be- | tween two versatile slickers of about the year 1896. Every word or phrase | | found in the wise-cracking not only | | had been used, but had found its way | | into print back yonder in the nineties. | | If necessary I can name the publica- | tion and give the exact page to prove | that each gem is a genuine antique. | Here is the enlightening talk: | | “An, greetings to my old college | | chum! You look like the breakin’ up | |of a bad Winter. Been out among | 'em?” “I've got bats in my belfry an’ bees | in my bonnet. My coppers are hot.| I have to reach way out to scratch | my head. My mouth tastes like a | Chinese family had just moved out. This guy following me is old R. E. Morse. I started on hop juice. After a few scuttles o’ suds I shifted to the hard stuff, got a half-Nelson on a| brannigan an’ finished in the discard.” | e ELL, I don't want to kid or jolly a boob that cant carry his| cargo. but you sure look like 30 cents. | You'd better smoke up or you'll burn low and go out.” “I got in with a sporty push an’| when I frisked myself this G. M. I} didn't have a sou markee. I went| out to roll the bones. I thought I was | Johnny-on-the-spot an’ Willie-at-the- rat-hole. I was IT, the whole thing, a four-time winner, a hot number, a pace-maker, a Stayer from Stayers- ville. As a sport, I am very much to the sandpaper. On the qt., I'm a big Stiff, a slob, a punk, a him, an easy | mark, & bloke, a gillie, a rummy, a; skate, a mug, a chump, a dirty deuce, a pin-head. Them gazaboes took all my dough to the last buck. They separated me from all my kopecks, louies an’ samoleons. They threw the boots into me. They took all the coin T'd put in the sock to buy myself & new benny, a swell lid, a keester an’ a swell lay-out o dizzy togs.” “Why didn’t you string along with me? I was hittin’ the high spots. Have you sized up my new strip o’ calico? | Little bright-eyes is a peach, a cute rag, a lallypaloozer, a honey-cooler, a jim-dandy, a scorchalorum. I hot- footed up to her hangout, got the glad hand. With her I'm the main squeeze, aces and eights, the stroke oar. With- out tossin’ any bouquets at myself, I'll put you hep to the fact that all the yaps, jays, greenies, rubes an’ yokels are also-rans. She’s nuts about me. When I wrap my fin around her an’ take the old lunch-hook in mine, she can’'t see nobody else with a tele- scope. Yes, sir, I've copped out a queen an’ she’s for me from sody to hock, from soup to nuts.” “Did you do the heavy?" “We put on plenty of side. We went 1 | carry a coating of gravel over the soil | gal slipped him the marble heart an’ I handed him the ha-ha! He got the gafl plenty. I ought to took a crack | at him—just a wallop for good luck. That false alarm wouldn't dare to| put up his mitts against me. He'd be don’t think!” i “NWELL, I guess I'll tuck a couple‘ under my belt an’ if I can get my lamps open I'll try to get a side- [ hold on a couple o' sinkers an’ draw | one. Will I ever dally with the old | Demon Rum again? Not on your tin- type! Not on your golden wedding! | 1 make no bones of the fact that I'm | on the wagon. From now on, me rm-} the stuff they put under bridges. I'll fly to the pad in the shank of the eve- ning. The Moody and Sankey stuff for me!” : We will now go back to the English language. Is the American speech of | the 90s, as quoted above, too new | and enigmatic for you? Then it is! possible, dear reader, that you still be- long in the sedate 80s. Many of us continue to be Victorian without sus- | pecting the fact. Or, possibly, you | are one of the lucky ones who never had their vocabularies corrupted. (Oopyright. 1935.) Tips on Lily Pools A PROPERLY constructed lily pool takes into account the points of the compass. The deep end—for one end should be deeper than the other— is always to the south, in order that | the rays of light may travel from the | depths to the shallow end as the day progresses. The bed of the pool should always to prevent the water becoming cloudy | from dirt when the fish placed in the pool root around on the bottom. The lilies to be planted must be se- lected with attention paid to their normal length of stalk. Some lilies grow at much greater depths than others and these naturally are placed in the deep end of the pool, and as the water becomes more shallow shorter-stemmed types are used. If care is taken in the selection of the plants and they are properly tended, a fairly long blooming season will make the pool one of the attrac- tive features of a garden. May Regain Markets THE fear that American crop cur- tailment programs and general lack of interest on the part of foreign buyers of American agricultural prod- ucts might indicate the eventual loss of foreign markets for all times is not justified, according to Nils A. Olsen, chief of ‘the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. ‘The European nations have not been able to make themselves self- sufficient, Mr. Olsen believes, after a survey of the situation. ‘There is a decided shortage of fats, which means that the American hog raiser can look forward to a return of the European demand, particularly in German and British markets. With world wheat prices tending higher the demand for hard Winter wheat of the type grown in this country is expected to return. Cotton also is expected to be in better demand, as efforts to produce supplies in Egypt and Brazil have not been sufficiently successful to| of last year's balloon, the Explorer. offer very much competition to the American grower. longer decreases with increasing dis- tance from the earth. There may even be a slight increase. The level | a cinch. He's a nice little fellow—I | at which the thermometer stops fall- ing is the beginning of the strato- sphere. It also marks the point above which no clouds can form, for there | is practically no water vapor. The altitude at which the strato- sphere begins is about 7 miles above sea level in the latitudc of the United States and Europe, about 10!2 about 6 miles at the poles. The zone is believed to extend to an altitude of about 30 miles above ses. level. Although the stratosphere has ap- | proximately an even temperature, it is very cold—somewhere between 58 and 76 below zero in the Summer. The temperature differs at different seasons and at different times of the day. Curiously enough, it attains its lowest temperature directly above the equator. It is considerably warmer at_the poles. To human eyes this stratosphere is bright and seemingly serene. But in it tremendous invisible forces play. Into it pour the whole family of the sun’s rays, many of which never reach the earth's surface, for they are cut off by the screen of clouds and water vapor. In this region also the mys- terious cosmic rays are much more numerous than at the surface. This terrific barrage of rays collides with the atoms of the thin stratosphere air, plows through them, and tears many of them to pieces. The various rays that stream in from the sun and from outer space are most powerful where the air is thinnest. It is for this reason to the highest possible level, (Continued From Seconc familiarizes himself with the carly conditions existing here he wonders how anybody ever managed to survive for any considerable time. i Up to the beginning of the Civil| War, and in some sections even later, every stream was lined with slaughter houses, and frequently horse stables and cow sheds were maintained but a few feet from the family water sup- ply. Indeed, we may be getting “no better fast” morally, but no one can | deny that our sanitary conditions have i improved wonderfully. “54 South Street, “Concord, N. H., “February 19, 1935. “Mr. John Clagett Proctor, “Washington, D. C. “Dear sir—For many years I have been reading your interesting articles about old times in Washington, D. C.,| and for several years before that I read articles of the same kind by your predecessor, all in The Star, and be- fore his time I read articles by his predecessor. So you see that I am not young. I lived, as man and boy, in Washington 42 years, and am 75 years old, born in Vermont. I re- tired from the Government service four and one-half years ago, but go to Washington every Winter. “With this long preamble I'will explain the cause of this interruption to your busy life, for you must be busy | blue heavens. lmlles in the tropics, and probably | only weigh ebout 159 pounds if he stepped on the scales in the strato- sphere. Above one the sun shines far more brilliantly than any man ever saw it shine on earth before. It is a great flaming disk set in a sky of dark purple. There would be only the faintest tinge of blue to soften the darkness above, for one would be above the light-scattering blanket of gas responsible for the familiar A short distance away from the glare of the sun the planets and brightest stars would shine at noonday as brightly as at dusk on earth. LOOKING downward, one could sur- vey en area of approximately 125,000 square miles. Rivers like the Mississippi would appear like small rills. The Great Lakes would look like fairly large ponds. The horizon would drop away to the right and left in a definite curve. That is, the stratosphere observer would actually see the curvature of the earth. What is the practical purpose of such as ascent? many ask. Pirst, it makes possible scientific observations which cannot be made at the earth’s surface. Some of these, it might seem, are only of theoretical interest at present. but it has become an accepted doctrine that no extension of human knowledge is without value. And some of these observations deal with the funda- mentals, new information concerning | which can be applied in many fields. Take, for example, the matter of weather forecasting. It is becoming increasingly recognized that what that | happens in the stratosphere is one the forthcoming flight seeks to rise jof the most important factors for | weather changes. This region of tem- in ticularly the effects of “superheat” ac- quired by the balloon. In addition, a number of scientific observations are planned which the National Geographic Society will an- nounce as the instruments can be as- sembled. Chinese Air Corps Grous T HANGCHOW, China, located in cne of the real beauty spots of the ancient country, China is developing an air corps—a youthful air corps— but one, nevertheless, which numbers in its ranks some of the real cream of the nation. Several hundred planes have been purchased for the use of the students who are being trained in all the rudi- ments not only of flying but of plane construction. A West Pointer. former commander of Langley and Brooks Fields, is in charge of the work. He is Col. John H. Jouett and assisting him is a staff of West Point and other college gradu- ates from this country. Already an efficient group of fiyers has been developed. By the time the contract of the American instructors runs out it is possible that the Chinese will have developed sufficient instruc- tors to carry on by themselves. Should this not be the case, undoubtedly American instructors will be retained, although Italian interests have shown a desire to aid not only through a sup- ply of instructors but also through the sale of aircraft to the Chinese. | Springs and Pumps Furnished 1V ater age.) to get out an interesting article for| changed the spelling to Oldys), his publication every Sunday. I have often | brother, Edson B. recently dead; thought I would call on you, and| Frank Stailey, George Lukens, Percy should have done so, but for the rea- | (Cat) Clark, etc., and there were some son in the last sentence. girls there, too. “In reading your last article (Wash- “At the Spencerian Business Col- ington Monument) I was surprised to | lege, Seventh and L streets, I went to note that Daniel Webster did not db‘ school with Ed. Pettengill, Rudolph liver the oration on that date, July | Giesler, Sam Rosenbaum, Orlando A. 4, 1848. I have heard that many| Jones and Gus Eberly and brother. times and have always thought he “There are other parts of Washing= had that honor. Can you tell me how | ton where I knew some young people, this error originated® Don't put your- | such as Sixth street southeast, where self to any trouble to find out, but if | I knew the Repetti boys, Wilson you have it in the back of your head | McKee (not related to ‘Dutch,’ who I should like to know. | was the son of Ridick R., superin- “I know or knew many, many boys | tendent of schools), ‘Haj' Peake, John whom you have mentioned in your | Ingram, —— Briggs, whose mother articles—Bob Barr, ‘Dutch’ McKee, | was a writer, etc. You must be tired ‘Butch’ Miller, Johnny Viehmyer, Will | by this time, so I will desist. B. Robison (a schoolmate), Sam and ~ “Duhamel is another who comes to Will Wise, all fellow ball players on | mind, and Will Garner, Arthur Tou- the old circus grounds, Ninth and R|lon, Wililam Haines, Jessie Gaddis, and S streets. We lived all over| George Wood, etc. I suppose I could Washington (15 houses) and so I had | write several hundred more, but I opportunity to become acquainted with | guess I have imposed on you enough, the youpg people. At the Franklin | especially for the first time. School I went the only year I ever went to public school. At that school were George Judd, Washington Top- ham, Dick Topham, George Rawlings (my chum), Fred Benjamin, Charles or Will Butler, Clay Barclay, etc. I often thought I would hunt up Wash- ington Topham, but never did. “On Capitol Hill, where the Con-| gressional Library is, I went to school with Ed. Hillyer, Henry Olds (he 2 “Myron Parker, who officiated as \p.nd master when the Monument was finished, was a very intimate friend of my father, the late Dr. W. P, Corey, who practiced medicine many years on R street between Thirteenth and Fourteenth: They were old sol- diers together from Vermont, etc. “Hoping to hear’from you wheneves it is convenient for you to write, I am, | “Very truly, C. R. COREY.”