? 



Testing an Air-Fighter's Nerve 



Is your pulse right ? Would you start at the 

 crack of a pistol? How do you breathe? The 

 answer spells your fitness to be an aviator 



Above, the ergograph, 

 which ascertains the 

 exact amount of fatigue 

 in the arms and fingers 

 after certain exercises 



At left, an indicator 

 strapped to the fin- 

 gers to determine 

 sHght variations in 

 the pulse-beats 



THE war -aviator 

 must be so consti- 

 tuted that the sudden menace of 

 danger, of shells bursting about him, of 

 machiiu--gun bullets raining upon him 

 will find him calm and collected. He 

 must face a crisis not only with deliberate 

 calm, but with the ability to escape with 

 a whole skin. 



Polo-players, lion-tamers, big-game 

 hunters proved to be the best aviators 

 in the early days of the llying-machine, 

 simply because they were so constituted 

 that they were not appalled by danger. 

 Indeed, they courted perils. Men of 

 this rare type are hard to tnul. Besides, 

 every man obsessed with the daredevil 

 spirit does not necessarily constitute the 

 ideal aviator. Even timid business 

 men have their moments of reckless 

 daring. What is wanted is the stuff of 

 which Danii-I iioones and Shackletons 

 are made. 



Hut in ad<lilii>n to the daredc\il 

 spirit, has the prospective aviator mus- 

 cular anfl nervous endurance? After 

 clutching for an hour the control-levers 

 of a speedy monoplane, is his han<l 

 firm, or does it ircnililc!' After witness- 

 ing a terrible aici<lent, is Iiis lu-.irl-bcit. 



his "cardiac rhythm" 

 undisturbed? Is his 

 respiration still normal? Moreover, are 

 his nervous and nuiscular systems so 

 well balanced and so nicely correlated 

 that his hands promptly obey every 

 external command? 



These important questions must be 

 answered in his favor if he hopes to get 

 a job as a war-llier with the French army. 

 The French do not want daretlevils to 

 drive their air-machines if they are 

 daredevils and nothing more. 



For the purpose of finding out just 

 how favoral)ly every applicant can an- 

 swer these difficult questions — and he 

 can not answer them with his lips — the 

 French war department employs an 

 ingem'ous testing machine. Psx'chol- 

 ogists ha\-e known and emjiKniHl what 

 is called the d'Arsonval chronometer for 

 many years. Hut it is unlikeK' that the 

 (U'licate mechanism has ever been put 

 to such an inliTesting task. 



One part of it tests the pulse-beat. 

 Another determines the tremor of the 

 nerves. Still another registers the respi- 

 ration. AnothiT ajjparatus discovers the 

 ability, or the in.ibilits', of the .ipplicant 

 lo wilhslaiid fatigue. .After he has 



.".HO 



