Radio Broadcast - 1923, August - 86 Pages, 8.5 ... - VacuumTubeEra

286 Radio BroadcastHiram Percy Maxim, President of the AmericanRadio Relay League, was appealed to, andhis aid was readily enlisted. Mr. Maxim sentout a call for volunteers. Hundreds responded.From this group, five were picked as candidates,the final choice being made by Captain Mac-Millan.WILL RADIOPENETRATE THE AURORAL BAND?WITH a single powerful radio station sendingmessages from Farthest North,opportunity will be afforded for studying certainphases of radio transmission in a way thathas never before been possible. For example,there is a period of 141 days during which amessage sent at midnight must traverse hundredsof miles of sunlight before it reachesdarkness. How will this unusual conditionaffect the reception of the message?Again, a request will be issued to all membersof the American Radio Relay League to standby on a certain evening of each week and tunein for Station WNP. What portions of theAmerican continent will receive these messages?Where will they come through clearest? If aline be drawn on the map through the stationsthat succeed in picking them up, what sortof an arc : if it be an arc will that line describe?Of especial significance is this latterquestion, for the reason that never before hasTHE BOWDOIN FROZEN IN FOR THE WINTERNote the snow igloos built on the deck of theship, covering the hatches to retain the warmtha scientific attempt been made to transmitwireless messages through the "auroral band"which encircles the North Pole, and which, it isbelieved, will act as a powerfuldeterrent. Inthis connection it ishoped that these experimentswill shed new light of a purely scientificnature upon that great mystery of the heavens,the Aurora Borealis.Of the nature of the news that will be flashedwe may gain someto us from out the Arctic,inkling from the talks which Captain Mac-Millan has given in recent months. He tells,for example, of the marvelous Arctic summer,when the weather is mild and emerald fieldsare agleam with myriads of little twinklingflowers. He tells, also of vast mineral depositsa twenty-foot vein of coal, for instance, utterly,exposed and waiting only for the greatairships of the future. Doubtless, too, he willhave interesting reports to make of the glaciersof the Far North, now known to be advancingrather than receding, and believed by manyto foreshadow for this thriving continent ofours, a return engagement for the Age of Ice.AN APPRECIATION OF THE ESKIMOMOST interesting of all, however, will behis studies of the Eskimoin many waysthe only remaining specimen to whom humanitycan point with pride Devoted to his wife or!_wives, kind to his children,reverent always toward hiselders, ready always tobring up the orphan as hisown, the Eskimo is so freefrom guile that he maywell thank his lucky starsthat he has no money, forthe white man would surelygo after it.Very naive is the Eskimo.Shown a telephoneset by Captain MacMillan,one of them jabbered intoone end of it, just as he hadseen the white man do andthen ran as fast as he couldto the other end, to see ifhe could hear his own voicecoming through. Failing inthat, he cut the wire, puzzledover it for a while, andthen averred that the wholebusiness was impossible asthe wire had no hole in it!