Thursday 31 October 2019

American Airship Disaster

CAPE TIMES - 1933, April 5

Disaster has befallen the Akron, greatest airship in the world and pride of the United States Navy. She is believed to have been struck by lightning during the night off the New Jersey coast. At any rate she crashed into the sea with 77 officers and men aboard and sank, after drifting for some hours, a hopeless wreck. So far, one officer and three men have been rescued, and one of these, the wireless operator, has since died.





THE STAR Johannesburg - 1933, April 4
The world’s largest airship, the United States naval dirigible AKRON, is reported to be a wreck off the New Jersey coast. Naval officials believe the airship was struck by lightning. Admiral WA Moffett, Rear-Admiral Berry and Rear-Admiral Cecil, the last 2 commanding officers of the Naval Air station, are among the complement of 19 officers and 57 men on board. Only the chief officer, Commander Wiley, and 3 of the crew are known to have been saved, and the Lakehurst Naval Station telephones that chances of saving the remainder are slight.
THE LAST RADIO MESSAGE
The last wireless communication with the Akron was at 10 o’clock last night, since when thunderstorms have interfered with messages. The Akron landed in the sea near the Barnegat lightship, and a German tanker, the Phoebus, was the first on the scene. The Phoebus rescued the chief officer and 3 of the crew, but the master thinks the remainder were lost. Four coastguard vessels, a cruiser, a destroyer and all craft in the vicinity are rushing to the scene of the disaster, where the wreck of the airship is reported to be afloat still. It is impossible to send an aeroplane owing to a “ceiling” of only 300ft and bad visibility.
Admiral WA Moffett has been the driving force behind America’s enthusiasm for lighter than air craft. From the day when the 2R3, given to America under the reparations agreement, made her historic trip across the Atlantic from Germany, Admiral Moffett has been an advocate of airships as the dreadnought of the skies.
The Akron expressed his ideal, for it had an armament of 16 guns and carried 5 aeroplanes inside the hull. These were equipped for screening the dirigible with smoke or for concerted attacks on enemy warships. The Akron, or ZRS4, was given into the charge of the United States Navy by its constructors, the Goodyear-Zeppelin Company, on August 8, 1931, and the occasion was one of great national rejoicing.
HUGE CAPACITY
The Akron was only a few feet longer than the German giant, the Graf Zeppelin, but it had a gas capacity of 6 500 000 cubic feet, or almost twice that of the Graf Zeppelin. It had a diameter of 133 feet and a lift capacity of 91 tons. The use of helium which is non-inflammable and non-explosive, permitted the incorporation of several new features. Former airships found it necessary to house their engines in gondolas suspended away from the hull itself to avoid the danger of explosion, but the Akron’s eight motors were housed inside the hull, which reduces parasite drag to a minimum. The Akron was 785 ft. in length and the frame of the vessel was made of duralumin to provide lightness and strength. There were 10 000 000 individual numbered parts, 54 000 tiny flat braces and 6 500 000 rivets. The deadweight of the airship empty was about 100 tons.
SEVENTH DISASTER
The crash of the Akron makes the seventh airship disaster since 1921, states the London correspondent of The Star. In February of that year the American dirigible, Roma, exploded at Hampton, Virginia, and 34 people died of injuries. On August 24, 1921, the ZR2 collapsed and exploded over Hull and 42 were killed. The French airship, Dixmude, German-built, was mysteriously lost in a gale with 30 men on board in 1923. The American airship, Shenandoah collapsed in a thunderstorm on September 3, 1925, and 14 were killed. On May 25, 1928, General Nobile’s airship, the Italia, crashed at North Spitzbergen and 14 were killed, and 3 would-be rescuers also lost their lives. 3 years ago, the British airship R101 exploded at Beauvais, France, and 46 were killed.
CAUGHT IN STORM
In May, 1932, the Akron fought a terrific battle with a storm over California, and when attempting to land afterwards broke 3 times from the moorings. 3 youths were hauled into the air clinging to the mooring ropes. 2 fell 200 feet and were killed. The other was rescued after dangling in the air for 3 hours.
REPORT BY MASTER OF THE PHOEBUS
Latest messages received from the German tanker Phoebus indicates that most of the crew of the Akron are lost. The Master of the Phoebus describes how he found mattresses and wreckage floating on the water. He rescued 3 men and saw 3 other men sink before his rescue party could reach them. He describes a thunderstorm and lightning, which might have struck the Akron. He suddenly caught a glimpse of the aircraft with her lights flashing on the water, and he heard men hailing him.
He turned on all the ship’s lights and put out lifeboats towards the dimly discernible lumps of the wreckage. Reuter, New York






More interesting facts about the USS Akron:
The USS Akron was commissioned in October 1931 and had its maiden voyage on November 2, 1931. During a full-blown thunderstorm during the night of April 3-4, 1933, the ship crashed into the stormy Atlantic. Sadly, of the 76 people on-board, most had died of exposure or drowning in the turbulent and freezing cold sea. Incredibly, the Akron had not been equipped with life jackets.
The role of the Akron was to scout for enemy ships and submarines.
It was 785 feet long - over 3 times longer than a Boeing 747 airliner.
Nearly seven and half million cubic feet of volume was displaced.
It had four starboard propellers and the engines’ water reclaiming devices appear as white strips above each propeller.
The emergency rear control cabin was visible in the lower fin.
It could carry up to five small fighter-reconnaissance aircraft.
The plane was launched and retrieved via a trapeze-style mechanism.
Bristled with 8 heavy machine guns, it had a crew of 60.
Range of nearly 7,000 miles. 
With a top speed of 79 miles per hour, it was twice as fast as the latest American Lexington-class aircraft carriers.

Tuesday 22 October 2019

Shangri-La in the Karoo


CAPE ARGUS – 1939, March 4
“When tigers roamed our valley, 
there were tigers roaming all over South Africa; when ‘voortrekker’ clothing was worn here, 
it was fashionable in the outside world, too. 
We live in isolation but not in the wilderness; 
we may be remote from the rest of the world 
but we are not uncivilized.”
So spoke an inhabitant of South Africa’s most isolated community, known to outsiders as “Hell,” to the dwellers merely as Gamka Valley. There seemed something of a rebuke in the words, a rebuke which perhaps we merited. We had heard strange tales of half-wild mountain folk living a life apart in this valley lost among the dark kloofs of the Swartberg mountains; so when, after hours of toiling over rocks and sand, crossing and recrossing a mountain torrent, we at last came upon the first of the dwellings, we were prepared for a meeting with real “Hill Billies.” We were forced to alter our opinions regarding the people; the tales had in no way exaggerated the isolation and inaccessibility of the valley.
WILD AND RUGGED RANGE
The Swartberg mountains contribute much to the beauty of the Cape scenery. It is a wild and rugged range, capped by such peaks as the seldom scaled Towerkop, and pierced by the tortuous rifts of Seven Weeks and Meiring’s Poort. Pink granite crags, densely wooded valleys and brawling streams; to the traveler from the dusty Karoo the shady mountain passes offer relief and contrast. And stories of a “forgotten valley,” deep in the heart of the range, cannot fail to fire the imagination of the most fantastic tales about this region seem plausible; the dim chasms, sun-lit for only a brief hour or two, the sharp peaks and pinnacles, piercing the blue Karoo sky, inspire the atmosphere of a Rider Haggard romance. Even the mountains of outer Mongolia could make no better or more romantic surroundings for a Shangri-La, that refuge from the world sought by so many.
Little is known about this valley. People living less than 40 miles from its narrow entrance are ignorant of its very existence. Even in the towns of Prince Albert, Ladismith and Calitzdorp, which surround it, information regarding it is scanty and inaccurate. And few, very few have visited it, for there is no road, not even a footpath.
“HELL DOES EXIST”
By devious means I had heard of this community. Vague bits of information that placed this almost fabulous valley somewhere in the neighbourhood of Prince Albert. These rumours were intriguing but nebulous. An inquiry addressed to the magistrate of that town produced more concrete data; a cordial letter containing detailed information. “Hell does actually exist…. A very isolated spot, and the access thereto is most difficult. Any vehicle could only be used to the entrance of the valley; from there one has to go on foot … for nine miles … The place is indeed unique and well worth a visit.”
So, the dawn of a summer day found us reluctantly abandoning our car 28 miles beyond Prince Albert on the Ladismith road. Despite the lack of a path, we were bound for “Hell.” Clad in shorts, we were prepared for the rough going about which we had been warned. The Gamka and the Dwika rivers unite before entering the mountains through a narrow gap; following the stony banks of the muddy stream, we were soon in the gloom of a narrow mountain defile. On either side of us rose sheer cliffs, unscalable, even to the most agile of mountain goats. Many hundreds of feet above us was a narrow ribbon of blue sky in which we caught an occasional glimpse of a hovering eagle. As we scrambled over the rough ground in single file, we found ourselves talking in subdued tones… if we raised our voices we were mocked by the echoes. To shout in that valley was to arouse a thousand devils. The atmosphere was eerie, almost frightening.
The kloof makes many turns. Often, we had to half wade, half swim across the shallow river, for the walls are sheer, sometimes 100 yards apart, sometimes less, never more. Always the going is heavy. Sometimes we were clambering over great rocks, sometimes toiling through sand and over round river stones. And constantly with us was the unpleasant feeling of being “hemmed in.” One of us had tactlessly remarked that Karoo rivers have a habit of coming down without warning… our position in that eventuality, we felt, would be much the same as rats caught in a server. 
A MOUNTAIN PARADISE
The sun had crossed our orbit of sky when we at last emerged at right angles to our narrow road; and as we came out of the gloom into the sunny vale we all agreed that only the approach was “Hellish.” Paradise would have been a better name for that mountain-encircled domain. The Gamka Valley is a sheltered mountain paradise. Many almost unknown varieties of indigenous trees grow on the slopes, little fields of lush Lucerne are hedged with fig trees. Clumps of banana palms add an exotic air and vouch for the temperateness of the climate. Few houses are to be seen. Most of them nestle in little side valleys, shaded by giant pear trees. Twenty families inhabit this fertile mountain valley. The Le Cordeurs, the Mosterts, the Marais’s, and one or two others; over a hundred simple, hard-working people make up this almost self-contained community. Most of them own their own farms; probably none of them have much money, yet their standard of living is high. Their houses are rough, but well built, their meals better than those of most town-dwellers – canned food forms no part of their diet. Sugar and coffee are the only real necessities for which they are dependent on the outer world. Yet these people are not the ignorant “Hill Billies” that we had been led to expect. They have a community school, once a month they are visited by the “Predikant” from Prins Albert. Occasionally they are visited by a police patrol, but this has developed into a mere social call. Crime of any sort is quite unknown. The communal spirit is well developed in the Gamka Valley. There is but one wagon there; it was carried in piecemeal. All helped to lug it over the stones; now all take turns in using it for harvesting. Even in Hell money is necessary; taxes have to be paid, clothes to be bought. Fruit, Lucerne, even grain, is loaded on to donkeys and sold in the outside world. But the path down the river is arduous; donkeys, sure-footed as they are, have to be helped over the rocks, so at “export” time neighbourly help is called in, and is given freely.
£12 a VISIT
The District Surgeon pays periodical visits to the valley; but like those of the policeman, his visits too are mere formality; the community has a singularly clean bill of health. Children there are brought into the world without medical aid; it is seldom thought necessary to pay a fee of twelve pounds – for that is what doctors charge per visit! There are two other ways of entering the valley, but both are more difficult than the route chosen by us, which is the only one that can be negotiated by pack animals. One way is by following the kloof which the river takes after it leaves the valley and flows towards Calitzdorp, the other by scaling the mountains on the Laingsburg side, by a route known as “The Ladders.” For the river route, one has to be a champion swimmer as well as an Alpine climber; the title of the other speaks for itself. It is a three-mile climb over crags.
The Mosterts and the Le Cordeurs are the pioneers of this valley; families of Marais and Botes, too, have been there for two or three generations. There has been no intermarriage; the young people of both sexes usually seek mates beyond the mountain barrier. Colonel Deneys Reitz describes, in his book “Commando” a visit to the valley while being harried by British troops. Cordeur and his family were then the only inhabitants. We met his son, winnowing his crop; he clearly remembers, as a boy of ten, leading the colonel to safety by a secret path. “They never caught him,” he told us, “although the whole world was “yellow with khakis.”
Simple, hospitable people, these dwellers of the valley. And lucky people, even if they themselves do not realise it. Life must be very peaceful and even in that forgotten valley there are no motorcars or radio sets. It seemed to us that here was an ideal escape from the turmoil and strife of modern life … almost reluctantly we entered the dim poort on our long homeward trek, carrying away with us memories and a suppressed desire to share this life of isolation in a valley protected from all outside influences by the grim cliffs of the Swartbergen.
With aching muscles, we came into the outer world, and as we emerged from the poort, we knew that we had been privileged to gain a glimpse of a real “Shangri-La.” Our visit was timely, too; soon a dam wall is to be built across the Gates of hell; an irrigation furrow, followed by a road, will invade the valley … then, well “The lonesome trail won’t be lonely anymore!”




Saturday 12 October 2019

Nuutste Mode Nuus - 1924

DE VOLKSTEM – 28 Oktober 1925
Lyfstrikke word so vas gestrik dat dit van agter ‘n bietjie laer hang om die middel dan van voor. Die nuutste mode-materiaal is ‘n pragtige fyne sy-crépe wat veel gebruik sal word vir agtermiddag rokkies. ‘n Nuwe idee is die heel klein sonsambreeltjies sonder stokke wat om die arm aan ‘n perdehaar koord hang. Skoene met leer streps oor die voet is weer hoog in die mode, en is soveel meer gemakliker om mee rond te stap. Hoed gemaak van strooi kant met breë rande sal veel gedra word. Ligte kleure sal veel die somer gedra word. Moue word op allerhande sonderlike manier gemaak waarvan die breë mouboordjies somtyds al by die elleboog begin. Die gladde agterpante van rokke begin so stadig aan te verdwyn en, terwyl die rompe wyer en voller rondom die heupe begin gemaak te word. Bont word nog baie vir garnering gebruik.


HOEDE
Fig. 3919 – Twee smaakvolle modelle wat onlangs op die resies in Parys te sien was.
Die eerste mooi klein hoedjie is op baie kunstige manier van uitgeknipte lint gemaak met ‘n pragtige groot aster vlak van voor.
Die tweede model is van donker blou ferweel met loshangende goue leer, ronde stukkies daarop vasgesit wat ‘n wonderlike mooi vertoning maak. 

HOEDE VERSIERSELS 

Deur fig. 4143 hieronder word aangetoon hoe om hoede op die mooiste en kunstigste wyse te versier.
1. ‘n Bos haanvere wat baie mooi op ‘n klein hoedjie sal vertoon.
2. Voëlkoppe met vlerke van vaal veertjies.
3. Smal gevlegte belegseltjies.
4. ‘n Tros druiwe waarvan die korrels met goud-draad steke vasgeset is.
5. ‘n Kunstige vlerk van materiaal gemaak, en goud uitgewerk, wat rondom met drie smal breidings afgemaak is.
6. ‘n Kokar van lint gemaak.
7. Rose en blare van lint op ‘n kunstige manier gemaak.
8. ‘n Pragtige gespe met leer lint daardeur gesteek wat van dieselfde kleur is as die randjies aan die leer lint.
9. ‘n Kunsvolle kokar van lint gemaak.
10.  Grys stukkie laken deftig met goud en rooi geverf. 
11. Nog ‘n kokar van lint gemaak, wat met   ‘n grote pêrel in die middel vasgeset is.








OORJAS / STOFJAS
Die dames oor- en stofjas sal nog veel gedra word, en daar is byna nou nie meer ‘n dame wat nie soiets besit nie, want dit hou haar klere netjies teen weer en wind.
Deur fig, 3466 word twee nuttige jasse geïllustreer waarvan die eerste een ‘n kunswerk van J. Patous is. Die mooi jas is van vaal kasha vervaardig en met belegsels of bande van dieselfde material opgemaak. Die ander een is van donker bruin satyn met vaal crêpe marocain opgemaak en met skilpaddopknope weerskante in die sye en op die moue versier.



Cape Wool Export


CAPE TIMES - 1924, April 8
On a business and pleasure trip, Mr. JM Gilfillan, of Gilfillan & Page Ltd., a big London firm of wool importers, arrived by the Armadale Castle yesterday. Interviewed by a representative of the “Cape Times” on the wool position in Europe, Mr. Gilfillan said that all grades of wool were in a strong future; while the financial position of the wool trade, about which fears were entertained in the latter part of last year, no longer gave rise for any uneasiness. In spite of the high prices now being paid for all classes of wool traders and manufacturers seemed well able to finance their obligations. “During the past season,” he continued, “a fair quantity of better class Cape wools have been catalogued at the London auction sales, and these have commanded high prices. The grading and breeding of your wools of late years, I must say, mark a noticeable advance; and it is quite evident that if the farmers continue to put back into bloodstock a proportion of the high prices they are getting, then the prestige of South African wool on the European markets will indeed rise to a very high point.”
CONDITIONS IN GERMANY
Asked with regard to the position of Germany as a buyer, Mr. Gilfillan replied that economic conditions in that country had become much more settled since the advent of the Renten mark; and although everything at present was excessively dear, the uncertainty brought about by the wild fluctuations of the old Reichsmark was disappearing; and trade was assuming more normal conditions.
Nevertheless, he added, the great bulk of German traders and manufacturers had not yet regained full confidence in the new currency, for Amsterdam and London still held in their respective currencies a vast proportion of Germany’s trading capital.
“For wool in particular,” continued Mr. Gilfillan, “the German demand is enormous, particularly in the classes produced by South Africa and Australia, which are the most suitable for their trade. For these wools, all through last season, they have been paying enormous prices, defying all competition from France and Bradford, paying cash down in English money, and wanting to keep their mills running. Nobody can stand up against them.”

At a Wool Sale in Cape Town in October 1939, 3 312 bales were offered. Mr. W. Young, chairman of the Cape Town Wool Exchange, stated that the market was firmer and the competition keener, especially from American and Japanese interests.
(CAPE ARGUS - 1939, October 30) 




Read more about the crisis Wool Producers had to face earlier this year, and how this problem has been solved.

Monday 7 October 2019

Indoor Vegetable Patches

CAPE ARGUS - 1951, November 3
Scientists, growing a variety of flowers, fruit and vegetables under artificial light in a Dutch laboratory, are convinced that the world food shortage can be ended by the general introduction of this indoor all-the-year-round cultivation.
The ‘Daily Herald’ reports that experiments are going on at Eindhoven on the rapid growth at all seasons of many plants. They are grown under a battery of fluorescent lamps with a small amount of ultra-violet light added to kill bacteria. The scientists have produced tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries at all seasons and have developed petunias – normally an annual plant – that flower continuously for six years.
These scientists believe that in 10 years this system could feed Holland’s 10 000 000 population. It has been established that many plants require not more than 9 to 10 hours of light in every 24 and that by controlling the amount of light they receive they can be brought to ripeness at any time of the year.

Interesting to see a modern view of this principle at https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-you-should-know-about-vertical-farming-4144786



Friday 4 October 2019

Scientists’ Camp on Drifting Ice-Floe


THE STAR Johannesburg - 1938, January 6
Since May 1937 a group of Russian scientists, led by Professor O. Schmidt, had been living on an ice-floe in the Arctic.
The scientists left Rudolf Island, Franz Josef Land, on May 21, and flew over the North Pole before landing on the floe, 12 miles from the Pole, and establishing their camp. The scientists’ dwelling was a tent of duraluminium and rubber lined with eiderdown, reindeer hide and canvas; and it had windows of unbreakable glass.

It was their intention to remain on the camp for a year, maintaining continuous records of meteorological and other conditions over a region that might one day become an airway between the Old and New Worlds, but since May their observation post on which they were, was 10 feet thick, and before long it would be entering waters affected by the Gulf Stream.
The authorities in Moscow had the original intention of bringing the scientists back in the spring of 1938, but the unexpected drift had made it necessary to dispatch a “rescue” expedition at that stage.

The path of the floe’s drift is shown on the sketch, the X marking its position at that time.

Thursday 3 October 2019

Vegetation on the Moon?


CAPE ARGUS - 1939, March 25


Much progress has been made recent years in the knowledge of lunar changes or happenings. It is now regarded as strongly probable that vegetation exists on the moon – in certain areas.
The most frequent question that all telescopic observers of moon and planets have to answer is: “Does life exist outside our earth?”
To this we can answer, “Most probably, yes,” and explain that life ranges from the lowliest form of vegetation to the sentient animal and any extra-terrestrial form my be entirely distinct from every known earthly species, adapted to its environment and its atmospheric and climatic conditions.
It is now generally accepted that vegetable life exists on Mars. The moon, though so near a neighbor (238 000 miles away) shows scant evidence of any atmosphere, and such vegetation as may exist, is rigorously confined to certain areas. The finest observers, especially Pickering, are unanimous in the opinion that changes on the lunar surface regularly occur which are not due to varying conditions of light and shadow as the sun rises and sets on the moon.
SNOW-CAPPED PEAKS
It is difficult to observe the moon with a large telescope without the conviction that it is snow which glitters on the peaks of the lunar Appenines (rising to 21 000 feet) and on the high, irregular, mountainous walls surrounding many of the larger craters. During a telescopic observation of mine on the region of Copernicus I noticed that the area west of the terminator (the sunrise and sunset line) was misty and ill-defined, although higher south the usual hard definition prevailed. After a while the mistiness cleared. The night was brilliant with no cloud or atmospheric veiling.
Recently I was observing the same longitude and again noticed a very distinct mistiness over the great lunar plains of Mare Nubium and Mare Imbrium, where day was just breaking. In an hour clear conditions ensued.
A COLOUR STREAK
This phenomenon of mist is not uncommon. A year ago, I saw an orange-brown streak on Plato’s west wall in strong contrast to the white-grey-black monotones of the lunar surface. Later observations saw this colour streak extending north to south on rampart and descending east to Plato’s floor. This was soon confirmed by the fine observer. Fox, who for some months followed this colour streak. This very distinct streak appeared exactly as vegetation should behave to complete its cycle of germination, growth and fructification in 14¾ days. It has now become very faint, but a return to the seeming expansion of December, 1937, may recur.
Aristarchus is the brightest lunar area; its east wall shines an unbroken white under a low rising sun. As the sun mounts five radial bands of brownish hue develop on the east wall, the two southernmost extending across the volcanic hillside towards Herodotus. Very careful investigations by Ball, Burrell, Fox, and myself prove that these bands are not due to shadow effects; they develop under the growing heat of lunar day. Their colour and soft, irregular outline hint plainly at some lichenous-like growth, which has developed quite recently.
BEAUTIFUL PLAIN
One of the favourite regions for telescopic examinations is Mare Crisium, a beautiful mountain-encircled plain towards the moon’s west edge. A few years ago, to my astonishment, I discovered a large oblong enclosure, bounded by mountainous hills, with well-defined craterlets at corners and on walls, also on the plain in immediate environment. With the assistance of Ball and Burrell, 20 craterlets were son plotted in this enclosure’s proximity. This “trapezium” and its neighbouring craterlets had never appeared on any lunar chart.
Dr. Robinson suggested to me that this area had been concealed by low-lying mists, an agreement with Pickering’s statement, founded on his own acute observations, that these local mists are not uncommon on the moon. This region is being carefully observed by trained members of the B.A.A., who all employ telescopes of large aperture.
The lately deceased Pickering, when at the Arequipa station of the Harvard Observatory, was able to obtain sequences of clear nights, which resulted in the very definite deductions embodied in his “Moon,” drawn from the critical changes he witnessed on the lunar surface, which could only be ascribed to a lunar vegetation, changes which he actually photographed. Our small contribution establishes the truth of the logical theories laid down by Pickering, and it is through the imp of the perverse who governs our climate that we are prevented from obtaining closer and fuller confirmations.
It must not be forgotten that the moon is a real world clearly open to intimate inspection; its magnificent mountain ranges and rocky ravines are almost appalling in their solitary grandeur; its surface is seamed by many clefts and pitted with craterlets. Vast open plains alternate with walled plains whose beetling precipices tower thousands of feet above the rugged floor of these formations, which dominate with chaotic majesty the wild lunar scenery, the very apotheosis of eternal solitude and desolation. – “Manchester Guardian” copyright.

Have a look at https://www.space.com/43025-china-moon-mission-plants-dead.html to read more about China's Moon Plants.

Cape Town’s new £22 000 Broadcasting Station at Milnerton

 CAPE TIMES - 1933, July 18 The Cape and Peninsula Broadcasting Association started Cape Town’s first Broadcasting Station on September 15, ...