314 



NATURE 



[December 20, 191 7 



T' 



AERONAUTICS AND INVENTION. 

 HE names of the members of the Air Inventions 

 Committee appointed by Lord Cowdray, the late 

 President of the Air Board, were announced last week. 

 They are as follows :— Mr. Horace Darwin, F.R.S. 

 (chairman), Maj.-Gen. Luck, C.B., C.M.G. (vice-chair- 

 man). Sir Dugald Clerk, K.B.E., F.R.S., Sir Richard 

 Glazebrook, F.R.S. , Prof. H. L. Callendar, F.R.S., 

 Prof. C. H. Lees, F.R.S., Prof. J. E. Petavel, F.R.S., 

 Mr. L. Bairstow, C.B.E., F.R.S., Lt.-Com. Wim- 

 peris, R.N.V.R., Major G. Taylor, R.F.C., Capt. B. M. 

 ' Jones, R.F.C., Capt. A. V. Hill, Munitions Inventions 

 Department, Mr. J. P. Millington, and Mr. F. W, 

 Lanchester. The main function of the Committee is 

 to investigate inventions submitted to it. It will de- 

 velop and put into operation as soon as possible any 

 invention which promises to add to the efficiency of 

 aircraft. Communications regarding inventions or 

 ideas should be forwarded to the Air Inventions Com- 

 mittee, No. 2 Clement's Inn, W.C.2. There is no 

 doubt that under such an expert Committee any new 

 inventions that may be submitted will be adequately 

 considered and speedily put to practical use if they 

 are of value. 



The Geographical Review for November, published 

 by the American Geographical Society of New York, 

 contains an excellent article on "Aeronautical Maps 

 and Aerial Transportation," pointing out the great 

 necessity which has arisen for aeronautical maps. 

 Maps are of the utmost importance in naval and mili- 

 tary operations, and the recent progress of aviation has 

 made them equally important in aerial warfare. The 

 practicability of long flights was amply demonstrated 

 by the recent bombing expedition carried out by a 

 Handley-Page machine, which flew from England to 

 Constantinople in a series of eight flights, the total 

 distance covered being nearly 2000 miles. To carry 

 out such a flight with certainty the pilot must have 

 good maps of the country over which he is to fly, and 

 they should be special maps showing the country as 

 seen from above, and indicating those landmarks 

 which are most easily identified from a height. The 

 Geographical Review gives a brief account of the vari- 

 ous types of map in current use for aeronautical work, 

 and prophesies that the work of making an aero- 

 nautical map of the world will have to be undertaken 

 in the very near future. The accuracy of aerial photo- 

 graphy is mentioned, and it is pointed out that such 

 photography gives an excellent method of mapping a 

 country — a method which is much more rapid than 

 the older surveying processes, and is quite accurate 

 enough for all practical purposes. The question of 

 air routes and their regulation is dealt with at some 

 length, and extensive quotations are given from Lord 

 Montagu's recent lecture on this subject. The main 

 point of interest of the article, however, is that deal- 

 ing with the necessity of aeronautical maps, as there 

 seems little doubt that the coming of peace will in- 

 augurate a period in which flying will rank as one of 

 the primary means of rapid conveyance, both national 

 and international, and complete maps will then be 

 absolutely indispensable. 



Further details of the 2000-mile flight from London 

 to Constantinople have now been made known as a 

 result of a meeting held to celebrate this record flight. 

 Mr. Handley-Page said that the machine used was a 

 Handley-Page twin tractor biplane, fitted with two 

 275 h.p. Rolls-Royce engines. The weight of the 

 machine "light" was 8000 lb., and fully loaded for 

 flight 14,000 lb., so that the useful load carried — prob- 

 ably including fuel — was 6000 lb. The machine carried 

 a crew of five : the pilot, second pilot, engineer, and 

 two mechanics, together with their luggage and bed- 

 NO. 2512, VOL. 100] 



ding. A very comprehensive set of spare parts was 

 also carried to render the machine independent of local 

 supplies in the event of a breakdown. Amongst other 

 things, three spare radiators, three spare wheels, and 

 two spare propellers were included. This .flight to 

 Constantinople is a world's record for a long-distance 

 military flight, but there seems no reason why it 

 should not be repeated, as no very great difficulties 

 seem to have been experienced. The question of 

 vulnerability to attack from the enemy's lighter 

 machines will need careful attention if such flights are 

 to become common. Heavy machines are generally 

 under-powered as compared with light fighters, and 

 have consequently much less climbing speed and flexi- 

 bility of control. There will probably be a greater need 

 for such machines after the war, and the present 

 achievement leaves no doubt whatever that the em- 

 ployment of large machines for commercial purposes is 

 already within the limits of possibility. 



A very interesting article under the title " La Liaison 

 adrienne et la T^legraphie sans Fil en Avion chez les 

 AUemands "' appears in La Nature for December 8. 

 The importance of an effective liaison between the 

 aeroplanes and their bases in connection with the 

 regulation of artillery fire and the control of infantry 

 attacks is discussed, and the early attempts to attain 

 this end by visual signals is mentioned. Such signals 

 necessitate that the aeroplane should fly practically over 

 its base, and are therefore much limited in application. 

 The method of dropping messages in special tubes 

 suffers from the same disadvantage. For long-distance 

 raids carrier-pigeons have been successfully employed. 

 Wireless telegraphy has now solved the problem satis- 

 factorily for reasonable distances. The reception of 

 messages on the aeroplane has yet to be accomplished, 

 the noise of the engine making the ordinary methods 

 useless, and visual signals , are still relied upon as a 

 means of communication from the ground to the 

 machine. The wireless apparatus in use on German 

 machines is very compact and well designed. Current, 

 both continuous and alternating, is supplied by a small 

 generator, driven by an airscrew or " windmill," this 

 method of drivimj being preferred to direct coupling. to 

 the engine, in spite of its lower efficiency, because it 

 enables the set to be used while the machine is gliding 

 with the engine off. The total weight of the wireless 

 set is only 40 lb., and transmission is possible at two 

 different intensities and three different wave-lengths. 

 This provision is made in order that more than one 

 aeroplane may operate in a given area. The range 

 of the set is about twenty-five miles. It is impossible 

 to give full details of the apparatus in this brief notice, 

 but the original article in La Nature should be read 

 by all who are interested in the application of wireless 

 telegraphy to fire-control from aircraft. 



THE PEOPLING OF MELANESIA. 



TN a new work on the anthropogeography of the 

 -*■ Pacific,* Mr. Churchill returns to the problems 

 which he essayed to solve in his former' works on 

 "The Polynesian Wanderings " and "Easter Island " 

 (cf. Nature, August 10 and September 21, 191 1, and 

 August 14, 1913). In these he postulated a passage 

 of tiie Polynesians through the Pacific in two streams, 

 one passing to the north, the other to the south of 

 New Guinea, and meeting in the Samoa-Tonga region, 

 whence they dispersed to the far-eastern Pacific. The 

 present work discusses the migration within and 

 through the Melanesian region. 



Sissano is a place on the north of New Guinea, a 



1 "Sissano: Movemenfs of Migration within and through Melanesia." 

 By William Churchill. Pp. i8i-l-.\vii charts. (Washington: The Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington, igi6.) 



