MEDF0HT3 MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDrORD, OREGON, FRIDAY. JTTXE 14, 1935.
PAGE FIVE
BYRD EXPEDITION
FOUND EACH TASK
CARR1EDDANGERS
Balloon Man's Long Vigil
Amid Icy Blasts Heads
Peril List Cameramen
Beset by Many Difficulties
By Leicester Wagner
Ulnted Press Hollywood
Correspondent
HOLLYWOOD (UP) Down a.t the
bottom of the world, where the winds
howl all winter long at a tempera
ture of 70 degrees below zero, mem
bers of the second Byrd Antarctic
Expedition spent. 18 long months.
And of all the difficult and dan
gerous jobs assigned to members of
the crew, the balloon man's long
vigil amid those Icy blasts, headed the
list.
Even the two Paramount camera
men who risked their lives to photo
graph exciting incidents agree that
their job did not compare with that
' of the meteorologist.
The story of George Grlminger, sent
with the expedition by the Weather
Bureau In Washington, was told by
John L- Herrmann and Carl O. Peter
son, who brought 130,000 feet of film
back from Little America.
Traced Wind Currents
Day after day, Grlminger mounted
the snow-covered roof of the science
building and Hept a telescope trained
on balloons soaring Into the atmos
phere. More than 400 balloons were
released by the meteorologist to de
termine wind velocity and direction
at various altitudes.
The neat little pile of record books
cost Grlminger many a frost-bitten
cheek and finger. For hours at a time,
exposed to the extreme cold, be kept
bis eye to the telscope. Because the
Sens must be adjusted constantly, he
could wear only silk gloves. These
kept his fingers from freezing to the
frigid metal, but they weren't much
protection from the cold.
Grlminger relayed his readings
through a telescope to fellow scien
tists in the warm building below.
Headings were made once a minute
until the balloon was lost from sight.
In daylight, their course could be
followed up to 30.000 feet. During the
long winter of endless night, little
paper bags containing lighted candles
were attached.
Grlminger wore a noseguard and
other special equipment but still he
suffered continually from frostbite,
the cameramen related. As a matter
of fact, all of the 55 men under Ad
miral Richard Byrd and the admiral
himself, were frostbitten at one time
or another.
Lost 18 Pounds
Frequently the cameramen and
others on trail trips would be caught
in & blizzard, and parts of their bod
lea frozen before they could erect a
shelter. Al Wade, of North Holly
wood, suffered the most severe case.
He was 18 pounds lighter when re
leased from the hospital. ,
Motion picture photography was
difficult at any temperature below
zero and almost Impossible from 40
degrees on down, the cameramen re
ported. Down to 40 degrees the film
becomes brittle, and beyond that It
continually breaks.
The camera itself freezes at low
temperatures and the hand crank
cannot be turned. This happened to
Peterson when he accompanied Ad
miral Byrd to the latter's advance
base, where the commander remained
alone for seven months. At 64 below
zero, Peterson's camera froze, and he
had to place it in an oven until It
thawed.
The photographers developed a
technique of their own to defeat the
weather. Placing their cameras in ov
ens, they would prepare a scene for
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SET FOR SYRATOSPHERE HOP
When tha Targest balloon ever built aoara away from Rapid City,
3. D,, on a flight to the- atratoaphere, Capt. OrvH A. Anderson (left)
and Capt. Albert W. Stevena (right) will bo In It the former a plld
ind tha latter as commander. Aociated Preaa Photos)
photographing, race for the cameras
and grind them until they froze.
Lighting a Problem
Lighting was another problem, es
pecially in winter. When working tn
the dark, magnesium flares were
lighted. These lasted from two to four
minutes.
Once Herrmann clambered up a
76-foot steel radio tower for a bird's
eye view of the camp. The scene over,
he tried to descend but discovered
his igs were frozen to a pair of steel
supports. Another man climbed up
and shook him loose.
Another time, on a tractor trip, he
fell backward into a 12-foot crevasse,
but escaped with brulsos. The cam
eramen and four others were bound
for the admiral's advance basa to
bring back supplies and equipment
left by Byrd when he returned to
Little America by plane. Shortly af
ter Herrmanns mishap, the tractor
fell into a 35-foot crevasse. By tre
mendous effort, it was extricated, but
two miles farther on the transmission
fell out, and the trip was abandoned.
Side Trips
In the 18 months in Little Ameri
ca, the expedition made two main
tractor and dogsled trips and five
major exploration flights.
A party of geologist went south
ward, toward the Pole, to the Queen
Maude range to study rock forma
tions and make maps and surveys.
Three men made this trip, using dog
sleds, and were gone three months.
They came within 200 miles of the
pole and crossed many sections never
before reached by man.
The eastern party of four men
traveled 300 miles from Little Ameri
ca to the Zdsel Ford mountains, Thay
also used dogs, although both par
ties had advance support from the
tractors. The big enclosed, caterpillars
went ahead with food and supplies,
depositing that at depots a day's
dogsled journey apart.
Petersen accompanied the first
tractor party and was one of the men
who discovered a plateau at an alti
tude of 4.000 feet. Previously the ge
ologists had thought the Rosa Sea,
barrier extended through this section.
The cameraman was the first to .et
foot on Mount Grace McKlnley In the
Edsel Ford range, proving that movie
work often has its complications and
compensations.
Little Life There
Paul Slple, the Eagle Scout who
was Admiral Byrd's protege on the
first Antartlca venture, and later be
came a talented biologist, led the
eastern expedition. He brought back
samples of microscopic life forms
dlsco'ered In water holes at the bot
tom of crevasses, as well as a quan
tity of lichen, a low form of vegeta
tion. Seals, certain fish and penguins
are practically the only life existing
in the Antarctic.
In addition to the exploration
flight, the planes made a number of
reconnaissance and photographic
trips. In summer, the planes were
THE
PRICE
i
I
equipped with pontoons and took nfl
from the Bay of Whales. Skis were
used In the fail and winter after the
bay froze over.
The outstanding event of the ex
pedition was Admiral Byrd's seven
month vigil at the advance base, 116
miles south of Little America, Origin
ally it was planned to have two or
three men stay with him, but winter
sets In so fast it was possible only to
bring in enough supplies for one.
The sun left for good within a
month of the admiral's arrival at his
one-room insulated shack. In the low
temperatures, which reached 80. he
was forced to keep his gasoline stove
burning continuously. Fumes lea&ed
and he became gravely ill. For sev
eral days he was so weak he could
barely operate the hand-cranked ra
dio generator, and It took all . his
strength to reach the cabin roof to
make daily instrument readings.
Foiled by Blizzard
Fully realizing Byrd's danger the
iLttle America base made a desperate
attempt to reach him. A tractor par
ty including Petersen, set out in the
dead of winter for the hazardous
journey over trackless ice.
The men were only a short distance
from camp when one of the frequent
blizzards sprang up. AH movement
stops when one of these icy blasts1
rages. Peterson stayed In the covered
tractor while the others put up a
wind-proof tent five feet away. So
quickly did the blizzard increase in
fury that Petersen- could not see the
tent and dared not risk an attempt
to reach it. He stayed in the tractor
and almost froze.
The blizzard halted this rescue ex
pedition, and by the time another
party succeeded in reaching the ad
vance base, Admiral Byrd had recov
ered sufficiently to remain the rest
of the winter. He was still a very sick
man when the plane reached: him In
early spring and returned him to Lit
tle America,
Despite this, he let the cameramen
film scenes of his dally routine in th
ten-by-fifteen cabin cooking, read
ing, sending radio messages, watching
the weather Instruments, playing his
portable phonograph.
He even made pancakes and oblJg
ingly burned one for that best of all
cinematic techniques comedy relief.
6-Day-Old Chick
Starts Crowing
PH1NCB RUPERT. B. C. (OT)
Here's a "hair-raiser" that should
hold "tall story" tellers, especially tf
they are chicken-raisers, for s
while:
Mrs. C. Hendricksen. wife of a fish
ing boat skipper, reports she has s.
rooster that started to crow when it
was six days old. It stood up in Its
basket and greeted the sun by crow
ing seven times, she said.
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THE RED
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SCIENTIFIC ARMY
10 WATCH HEIGHT
OF STRATO FLIGHT
Volunteers Will Measure
Course of Balloon in
Neighboring States
. Barographs inaccurate
WASHINGTON, IX C, (Spl.)
When the huge balloon of In Ka
tions.1 Geographic Society and the U.
S. Army Air Corps soars into the
stratosphere probably this month, the
height that It reaches above earth will
be measured with record-breaking
accuracy almost to the last Inch by
a small "army" of scientists stationed
on the ground below.
The exact height reached by the
balloon, not only at its hoped-to?
"celling" of more than 14 miles, but
at lS-mlnut Intervals at all stages
of the daylight hours of Its flight,
will be measured more accurately
than ever has been posisble before
for a stratosphere balloon.
Present plans call for enlisting as
many volunteers as possible among
surveyors and engineers of Nebraska,
Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri, to watch
the course of the balloon through
surveying instruments, and measure
angles between Jt and the earth.
From this data the height of the
balloon can be calculated mathemat
ically with high accuracy.
Engineers Asked is Volunteer
A call for volunteer observers to
take part in the project, which will
be one, of the most comprehensive
experiments of the sort evet under
taken, has been issued by Captain
Raymond 8. Patton, Director of the
U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and
a member of the scientific advisory
committee for the stratosphere flight.
It is desired to enlist the cooperation
of as many volunteers as possible in
order to have observers distributed
throughout the area over which the
balloon may drift. Each observer will
be asked to obtain use of an auto
mobile equipped with radio to re
ceive time signals so that alt obsei
vations will be made simultaneously.
This method of measuring the bal
loon's height, almost a accurate as
though a huge tape measure were
DRINK..
HQ "lOTUE-BOTHCft"
K DEPOSIT NO RETURNS
Take w of ibe Oiual hort pints'
of gifir ale, and youll have only
24 . But take two of Ciirqost
Ciab'i full pint and yon'II have
32 ounces! That 8 ounces extra
enough to make an extra drinkf
Here is a brilliant, eparklinft gin
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A rUU flNT 16 OUNCIS
AH ginger ale manufacturers must
print net bottle-contents on the
label. Look before yoa boy, and get
your money's worth!
PALI
DRY
wj&k f squeezing 1
stretched from balloon to earth. Is
expected, to be of gerat future value
to aviation in general as well as In
determining the altitude of Esploter
IX.
It will furnish a new check en the
accuracy of barographs, the instru
ments that measure the height of
aircraft by reacting to the changing
atmospheric pressure at various lev
els. Barographs are knows to be In
accurate aa height measurers at the
higher levels new reached by bal
loons and airplanes. If enough accur
ate measurements of the height of
the National Geographic-Army Air
Corps balloon can be obtained at In
tervals as it rises, these, considered
wit h barometer readings from the
gondola at the same times, trill be
useful in developing more accurate
height -measuring instruments,
. When weather renditions Indicate
that the stratosphere balloon can
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THRIFT JHAl illlJU
BELIEVING THAT THE PEOPLE OF SOUTHERN OBE0OH WERE ENTITLED TO A NEW PRICE DEAL
WESTERN THRIFT OPENED A COT RATE STORE FOR TOILETRIES, REMEDIES, SUNDRIES AND TOBAC
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Opening Saturday
JUNE 15th
FREE GIFTS!
Including 1000 Bouquets
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o Yo's, Balloons and Airpl Aires
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8 am. to 10 pra.
Sunilas and
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8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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Beef, Iron and
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TOBACCOS
16 oss. Prince Albert T3
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16 OE, Orangcr......,,,,.. 70
14 oz. Union Leader... 844
All 5o Tobaccos 4 for 15
Copenhagen Snnff 3 for 25 o
2 oz, P. A. and Velvet. 10
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RUBBING rV a
ALCOHOL
PEPSODENT
TOOTH PASTE
take off at the following dawn, the;
volunteer corps of scientists will be !
notified by radio the previous even-:
ing. Each man will have been ore-i
vlou&ly assigned to ana of the bench i
marks or bronze marker which are
spared at 30-mile intervals ever the
piafhs country above which the faai-j
loon tsrUI fly.
The exact position of each bench!
mark, part of a nation-wide govern-;
mtnt survey, la already known as ae-J
curately as the best instruments cast;
detemrtne, and from each bench mart
an azimuth or direction line to a!
nearby point has been Said out. Each;
observer will have an automobile
equipped with radio, and a turves -or's
transit. The small teiescope that
is part of each transit sill be trained
upon the r a35oon as soon as It comes
into sight.
ftadli Signal (a Observations
Then, every 15 minutes, the watch,
HEE) CESSBCDa3 GSaSSr
All SOo Froauett
Etc.
Visit OCR
hew nont
PREP
Beard Softener
55c lubes
10c
KOTEX
17C
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ALKALINE
SELTZER
Thirty
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A.P.C.
29
29'
5c
trs will hear a special coda signal
coming over thrir automobile radio
sets. When the slgual sounds. W the
observers who hsve the balloon in
sight at that moment will measure
two angles with their Instruments
the borisontsl angle, from the aii
muth line to he balloon, snn" the
vertical angle fro si the balloon to the
earth. This procedure will continue
all day until the balloon lands. The
observers will be asked to stay on
watch from . m. until 3 p. m. i
The observers will be stationed at
the bench marks because the dis
tances between them has been meas
ured with greatest possible accuracy,
thus providing base lines of known
length, which are necessary In calcu
lating the balloon s height fey trigonometry-
Altitude also will be calcu
lated with the aid of photossraph of
the earth taken straight downward
at intervals through the bo? rem ot
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Western Thrift Will How Operate Two Stores Featuring Freshest,
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SAKELITE PIPES . . 10c
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200 cup size 57
400 cap row f7c
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80o size
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hm Claire Bosfd Rontl VeUum
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Lime Rickey
Johnson's Talc 19c
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arid Monday Several Everyday Prices Included
TWO CONVENIENT LOCATIONS
128 EAST 6TH STREET
CORNER MAIN AND CENTRAL
"i.nnK roR the wv wvt ktobjm"
the pondola. as was oose last yrr
on the IMght of the fins KaUossS
Geographies Army Air Corp stratos
phere bsidoQiu Per this metiiod ta
be accurate, however IS is necessary
to knew the exact diM&nce between
oojects on the ground showing In the
phatogra.p'n.t, and tn many cases this
Im not possible because the estir
arfa over which the ballooa will Art! t
has not been accurately surveyed
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