Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School - Echoes Yearbook (Peterborough, Ontario Canada)

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THE WORLD OF SCIENCE Aviation Progress Man Achieves at Last His Greatest Dream by LEO CLANCY, IND. ARTS Ill Since the beginning of time, man dreamed of conquering the atmosphere above the earth on which he lived. Many times he stopped and looked up into the great void of space above him. No doubt he wondered and marvelled at the manoeuvres of birds in flights as they wheeled, circled, soared and glided in graceful fashion on the air currents. Perhaps some one man thought a little further than his fellows. What was the strange force which kept the birds aloft by their outstretched wings and tail? Why didn't they fall as a stone cast off a cliff? What rare ability did they possess that enabled them to stay aloft for hours with an almost effortless grace? And finally, why could not man master the theory of flight as he had mastered all things on sea and earth? This question was left unanswered for many generations of mankind, but always it kept reappearing before the mind of the dreamer as does a mirage. Many a genius sat at his work trying to conceive a device by which man might fly. His first idea might have been a pair of wings strapped to his outstretched arms. Perhaps some bolder and more confident individual tested these ideas. With the great wings of some bird he might leap off a cliff confident he could fly-only to crash to his death on the rocks below for the sake of making discoveries in the science of flight. The earliest known device which might really have flown was drawn on canvas by the great artist Leonardo da Vinci early in the sixteenth century. However it was not until almost three hundred years later that tests of flight were actually tried. At this time man interested himself in balloons and rigid or semi-rigid dirigibles, of lighter than air type usually filled with hot air or gas. It was not until the nineteenth century that man turned his attention to heavier than air machines. After the success of the balloons and of such men as Dumont, Santos and others, men became gradually interested in branches of aircraft. The earliest man known to achieve success with heavier than air machines was a German of surprising intelli- gence by the name of Lilienthal. He constructed several types of gliders in which he Went aloft by running down a slope until his momentum carried him into a graceful gliding flight. After this, aviation became more than just a dream. In America the Wright Brothers achieved success such as European adventurers were having abroad. In 1903 at Kitty Hawk Sand Hills in North Carolina the epoch making flight of the Wright Brothers set the world to excited comment. It was really true! Man had flown in a heavier than air machine! From this time a great haste to fly was manifested throughout the world. Aviation in its infancy saw many disappointments, many fatal disasters, many hopes dashed to pieces as man tried to grasp the theory of flight. Men such as Langley, the Wright Brothers, Curtis, Alexander Graham Bell, and countless others in distant countries must be remembered for the part each contributed to aviation. Then came the horrors of the world war. Im- mediately there was a feverish rush among the nations, each trying to build something more deadly, more destructive than its enemy. Aviation was lifted from its infancy when its value as a deadly defensive or offensive weapon of warfare was re- alized. The cleverest minds of the world were set to work in the designing and manufacture of aero- planes for war. During the four years of the war, aviation developed in one year as much as it would in ten years of peace. Motors were improved, planes were made speedier and easier to manoeuver until the end of the War. Then dawned the commercial period. For many years aviation as a commercial means was thought little of by mankind. Gradually aeroplanes came into use for carrying mail and passengers. A need for a new design, better engines, improved accom- modation, became apparent. As a result aircraft corporations sprang up all over the world. Planes of all designs, large and small, came into use. Pas- sengers who formerly sat in an open cockpit of a two passenger plane exposed to propeller blast, exhaust gas and other discomforts, now reclined in the luxurious comfort of modern transport planes. Great strides were taken until to-day commercial aviation is a huge industry in itself. It is an industry in itself. It is an industry which pays workers and owners well. To-day regular routes for airmail and passenger transportation are carried out to split-second time schedule. Engines, design and the flying of aircraft have developed into a fine science. Always the cry for something better, safer, and faster is heard, and always those behind the scenes are seeking to satisfy this demand. From something that was considered the dream of a lunatic, aviation has grown to its present status, and still it is striving for that peak of perfection it has not yet achieved. Pastor baculo stivave innixus aralor Vidit et abslupuit, quique aethera carpere possent Credidit esse deos. OVID 143 B.c.-17 A.D.J The shepherd leaning on his staff and the ploughman resting on the plough-handle saw and were amazed, and thought that those who could sail through the air must be gods. Page Thirty

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BOOK REVIEWS A Lantern in Her Hand by BessStreeterAl:lrich Reviewed by MARGARET LUNDY, Sp. Com. This is a story of a young couple who moved into the western part of the United States when it was first opening up. There they made their home of sod. The story tells of their joys and heartbreaks, of their successes and failures. The author shows how a few homes grew into a large community and then into a small city of which these people were the heart. The lives of the central characters are carried right down to our own day, and we see their children and grandchildren marry. The contrast between young people of to-day and young people of those days is striking. We sometimes think of our parents as old fashioned when they tell us how they acted when they were young. When you read this book you are more capable of understanding the bitter disappointment mothers and fathers of to-day face when their children grow up and fail to make good in the world. I can honestly say I did not find one dull page in the entire book. Every little detail is vividly told. There were times when I wanted to weep for the dear mother in her hardships and disappointments. The grasshopper plague is very real and especially interesting because we can compare it with what we have read of the plague in our own west. You do not need a dictionary by your side to read this book, for the diction is simple. It is not a long book, consisting of about three hundred pages. The print is fairly large, and not hard to read. I earnestly urge anyone who is at all interested in pioneer life to read this book. The FlUH'el' of an by Myron Brinig Reviewed by GARTH COWAN, IVA Ac. The story is told of a snake that began eating it- self, beginning at its tail. But when it came to its neck it had to stop for it could go no further. In much the same way Myron Brinig involves himself with his plot to The Flutter of An Eyelid, one of the best and also one of the maddest books written in recent years. In a brief forenote he quotes in part: She also said that Hamlet, being a little mad, feigned madnessf' This may be an explanation. It is certainly not an apology. The story begins with the arrival of Cason Roan- oke, an outstanding conservative writer of Boston to California. From there the story winds its weird, wild, mystic way to the closing pages, where Mr. Brinig, evidently finding the plot too much for even himself, obliterates his characters by turning them and the golden state into the Pacific Ocean. Cer- tainly a startling ending for a startling book, and one that fulfils its purpose much more satisfactorily than other famous endings as, for instance, The Mill on the Floss. The keen satire of a Swift, the sensitive beauty of a Vllilde, the revolting realism of a Zola and the dry humour of a Leacock are not often all found be- tween the covers of one book. Nor is murder often seen as an exquisite beauty, nor death as an answer to a cry for perfect beauty. Our superficial reaction- ary tendencies scream revolting and our inner- most souls say glorious All this is given us by Mr. Brinig in smooth, masterly literary style. This is a book that will be remembered long after read and that will change subtly the viewpoint and re- actions of the reader. the Post by Sir Leonard Woolley Reviewed by FRANK PAMMETT, Ill A Ac. Here is a very interesting little book on the romance of archaeology which is based on a series of six talks broadcast over the British Broad- casting Corporation by the author. We cannot divorce ourselves from our past: we are always conscious of precedents, not least so when we fiout them, and we let experience shape our views and actions: this is so much the case that when tradition is absent or crystallizes into un- reasoned convention, progress stops, But the past to which we appeal must be, in a sense, our own, precedents set by men conditioned much as we are, the experience of races or of individuals morally akin to us: its value is proportionate to the degree of continuity by which we are linked to it.'i Sir Leonard Woolley in his book tells in a very fascinating Way and with numerous illustrations the work of an archaeologist, and the story of the progress of this comparatively recent phase of scientific endeavour. He explains by actual proof the Value of field archaeology to mankind, and cites several instances where it has thrown light on the lives of our forefathers: Written history tells us nothing about Britain before 55 B.C., archaeology can tell us of British kings in the south and east civilized enough to mint their own coins with dies modelled after the famous gold-pieces of Macedonf' The book includes the following general topics and enlarges on each one in a most interesting and instructive manner: the scope of archaeology, the start of an excavation, work on a town site, what ruins tell, supplementing the written records, grave digging, tomb robbers, clay tablets, and the use of archaeological materials. Cicero sums up for us in a few words the chief reason why we should increase our knowledge of this important subject: Not to know what happened before you were born is to remain always but a child. For what is man's life if it is not linked with the life of earlier generations by the memory of the past? Page Twenty-nine

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, The Horseless Carriage Many and Amusing Were the Thrills and Spills of the First Automobiles by DONALD CARTER, III Ind. Arts On a day in October, 1892, the first American motor car was seen on the road. This pioneer con- trivance was the labored creation of the Duryea Brothers, proprietors of a bicycle shop at Spring- field, Massachusetts. The car's body was taken intact from a lady's phaeton, complete with whip- socket. Once its ear-splitting one-cylinder engine was started there was no way to control the car's speed: it ran seven miles an hour until it hit some- thing or stopped. Within a few years all sorts of motor vehicles were on the market, electric, steam and gasoline cars. Less orthodox ones were propelled by com- pressed air, kerosene, acetylene gas, ether, liquid air, and illuminating gas. A Chicagoan invented the multiple cylinder engine so designed that when driving on level ground, the driver could disconnect the cylinders not needed and give them a rest. A still more ec- conomical trans- the ever-present problem of animal psychology. How should the well-bred motorist approach the skittish horse that had heard his coming from afar? When they met, the chances were that someone was going to be pretty mad. There were even cases where motorists were shot at by enraged farmers. The mechanical perversity of the early motor car was almost beyond belief. A gas tank sometimes dropped oii. Occasionally, the whole engine fell out. A long journey of seventy-five miles was likely to be ended with stripped gears, burnt out bearings, and clogged valves. At any moment the driver might be forced to take his car to pieces on the road and practically rebuild it, with the usaul as- sistance of idlers and small boys. Failing in this, the car was towed by a horse to the nearest town for repairs. Most of the repair men were retired locksmiths, plumbers, or bicycle mechanics. With little know- ledge but vast curiosity, they usually had a most PQ1'tati0UWaSP,f0' unfortunate influence upon the machinery brought mlsed by a SPUUS GENERA to their attention. Many a motor came to grief at mlgtlfff V6h1ClC, X ,I X L STQ E the hands of a mechanic who found a few other W C W9-5 SUP' , fi Hx . things that need- posed to Wind if- - , ed adjuamemn- Sfflf UP first Ulu' , ' ., , EQ, Often the car's 21158. down ' ,Q , ' ailments baffled e inventor al- Mfr , - ,. .. the collective pid to expladin vilrlhat E -9 it A 'W'-Q W Q scientific genius of aPPe11C W CU ' I ,zip , X ' a community. there Was U0 hill T ff -EX J T Lf ' T hen it was neces- to 80 d0WU- If ,7 , .7 5' -f r fc! sary to telephone none of these en- A -.... ., ..- V ' j H V ' or telegraph the gines met the buy- ' ' 5 ' 9 ffj' , up manufacturer to ' hnd out what to er's fancy, there was a French veh- icle which actual- 14 N0 betler will be made. Time cannoi fmprmv fi. do. In those days the officers of a ly ran on mothballs, achieving three miles to the pound of moth repellent. Its chief trouble was that the exhaust emitted fumes as abhorrent to men as to moths, as bad, perhaps, as the fumes of the modern bus. Early in motor history a weakness for reckless superlatives developed. In 1899 one manufacturer assured potential purchasers that, No better will be made. Time cannot improve it. To visualize the vehicles thus hailed, imagine an ordinary buggy body mounted on bicycle wheels. Hang an oil lamp on the dashboard for a headlight g provide a curved steering tiller, a three gallon gas tank, and beneath the seat put a steam boiler, wrapped in piano wire to keep it from exploding. Learning to use the early car was a bewildering task. The driver of one popular car, for instance, had to contend with three handlevers, three foot- levers, two hand-Wheels and a bell. Then there was motor company might expect to be called out of bed at any hour of the night to aid a Stranded Client, What to call the new vehicle was a serious ques- tion. At first Hhorseless carriage was popular. Fearful and wonderful were some of the other verbal inventions which contended for favor. 'fPolycycle, petrocar, autoliacre, and self-propeller, all were in actual use not to mention Hmotocyclef' autogondola or road locomotive. Similarly there was the question of what to call the driver Chauffeur met with disfavour as too frenchified and because it was translated literally to mean Stroker instead motomeer, conductor and motorman were advocated. A Thus, amid praise and ridicule, our pioneer motorists made the first feeble assaults upon the barriers of space and time. They were hardy souls. Their's was a creed of noble simplicity that what one man had built, another man could keep in motion. Strong in this faith, they suffered, endured and conquered to give us the modern motor car. Page T hirty-cme