Novel Stunts of Advertisers
IN these days of competition among advertisers it is the businessman using novel methods of attracting the attention of the buying public who is convinced that “it pays to advertise.”
ONCE a manufacturer has made the name of his product a household word, his success is assured. A billion dollars will be spent this year on direct mail advertising alone.
NEW SPACE-AGE Computer Scale SHOWS WEIGHT INSTANTLY IN NUMERALS 10 TIMES THE SIZE OF ORDINARY BATH SCALES!
Amazing new Computer tells you exactly what you weigh instantly, precisely. No waiting while the numbers bounce around to settle on your weight. No old-fashioned 5-lb. intervals. Computer operates with computer speed and accuracy, giving you instantaneous optical read-out of your weight.
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Computer is the first new idea in scales in decades. And magnificently styled, too, with 24-kt. gold plated trim, mylar mat platform. 10″ x 11-1/2″ x 1-3/4″.
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Science Sets Pace for 1932 Olympic Games
Athletic sports are no longer merely a purely physical matter, for science and inventive ingenuity each year bring forth new equipment which enables the trained athlete to clip seconds or add inches to the world’s records in all events, until now it is a rare athletic meet when one or more records fail to fall.
by FREDERICK W. RUBIEN
Secretary of American Olympic Committee – As told to ALFRED ALBELLI
WILL sport records ever stop falling? When will human speed, endurance, prowess and ingenuity reach the saturation point in athletic events?
In the past thirty or more years that I have been associated with amateur athletics, I have had those queries facing me constantly. Sport records will never stop falling as long as the spirit of rivalry burns in human hearts.The vanishing point of record performances will never be reached so long as there are mechanical and scientific minds to devise instruments whereby the -athlete’s energies and talents are more efficiently utilized.
The sport annals are replete with instances where the athlete’s every atom of muscle, skill and vitality have been exhausted, only to have science point the way to new records. The human make-up has not changed, perceptibly at any rate, but science has improved the athlete’s tools appreciably during the past twenty-five years.
Only last February we saw a record which we supposed might have remained permanent go flitting into oblivion and a new one set up by an obscure dark horse in the indoor high jump event at the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden.
George Spitz, 19 years old and just out of high school, to the amazement of 15,000 spectators, came out of nowhere and sailed gracefully over a thin and untrembling bar poised 6 feet 7 inches above the take-off. His feat became the world’s record, surpassing the mark of Harold Osborn, the college professor-athlete, who hung up a record of 6 feet 6-1/4 inches back in 1925.
The performance of Spitz is not an isolated one. Hardly a big athletic meet passes these days without some record being annihilated. I happen to know that the remarkable performance of Spitz resulted not only from the wonderful training he underwent, but also from his use of mechanical aids to strengthen his body and muscles.
George Spitz uses two forms of equipment for his training, aside from his major instrument which is composed of the poles and the bar over which he lifts himself. He uses a specially-made gymnasium bicycle with a clock in front of it to register the amount of energy expended. That is for his legs. For his arms he concentrates on a piece of rowing apparatus. It is like the section of a rowing shell, with two oars.
This youth flaring suddenly and spectacularly out of the athletic firmament, promises to be America’s best bet at the 1932 Olympics to be held at Los Angeles from July 30 to August 14. The outdoor high-jump mark is 6 feet 8-1/4 inches, held by Harold Osborn, and although I am not given to predictions, I would not hesitate to say that Spitz could look that one straight in the eye without flinching. Perhaps another dark horse will appear in this event at the Olympics. With science setting the pace these days, there is no telling where a brilliant dark horse is hiding.
In the 1912 Olympics at Stockholm, Sweden, Ted Meredith won his place toward posterity by his victory in the 800 meters run. I can still recall vividly how he was tossed into that race as a sort of “work horse” for Mel Sheppard and Ira Davenport, shining luminaries of the day. Meredith wasn’t considered a winner by anyone.
To the great astonishment of the multitude, it was noticed that his more illustrious team-mates were being hard pressed. Suddenly, like a flash out of the blue, Ted Meredith spurted ahead to make a record of 1:51 9-10, which remained unassailed until 1928 when D. G. A. Lowe of England clipped a tenth of a second off it.
Johnny Hayes was another famous dark horse. He fell into fame when he beat the celebrated Italian marathoner, Dorando, in the 1908 Olympics. There were at least twenty others in that noted marathon race who outshadowed Johnny Hayes. Some sporting gentleman even thought his entry was a foolhardy move. They said he didn’t have a ghost of a show.
But today I know of no more dazzling chapter in the annals of the revived Olympic Games. I cannot recall in all my years of affiliation with sports a more dramatic triumph than that scored by Hayes over Dorando. The Italian baker was the first to reach the stadium. But once on the track there, he collapsed. Several of his fiery countrymen helped him to his feet and hauled him across the finishing line.
In another second Hayes came dashing into the arena, fresh and peppery under his own steam. He finished strong, to the utter amazement of the bewildered spectators. Dorando was disqualified. Hayes was proclaimed the victor. Since that memorable triumph no other American has ever won that event. We are apt to be optimistic too easily in America, and yet I would not be totally surprised if a dark horse won the marathon for Uncle Sam.
The 26-mile marathons have lost favor with American runners since the days of Johnny Hayes. The gruelling grind does not appeal to our young athletes of the cinder path. Yet every now and then a runner steps out who promises to take the olive-branch in the marathon.
Clarence DeMar, the so-called grandpa of the marathon, whose native heath is Boston, will wind up two decades of foot-racing by taking part in the 1932 Olympic marathon event. Science cannot do much for the longdistance runner beyond the athlete’s natural attributes of speed and endurance. Mind and body work with faultless mechanical precision. Beyond the co-ordination of these two to their fullest capacity, mechanical aids or scientific treatment cannot go far in helping to set records. In the pole-vaulting event, science has come bountifully to the aid of the athlete. Not only is there an advantage in the use of a bamboo pole, but also in the matter of the take-off has the vaulter gained advantage through scientific progress.
The ingenuity of sporting guides has improved the hammer throwing event from the crude days when a blacksmith’s 12-pound sledge-hammer was used, making a 78-foot throw at the best then, to the present mark of over 180 feet. In the coming Olympics a 16-pound hammer will be used, with a head consisting of a lead or brass shell filled with lead or cast-gray iron and spherical in shape. The handle will be of spring steel wire, and the grip may be either of a single or double loop construction.
Frank Connor of the New York A. C. looks as if he might monopolize the honors in that event, although Matt McGrath, four times an American Olympic team member and now a deputy police inspector in New York, threatens to appear at Los Angeles next summer. His Olympic record hurl of 180 feet 2 inches still stands. Matt McGrath is 53. Using the modern hammer, he may set new records.
In the sprints and middle distance events I can confidently state that it will be science at the starter’s pistol in the Olympic Stadium at Los Angeles. We are planning to give the runners the best starts science has been able to devise in these events. The holes will be firm, the surface around them will be solid and substantial. A start may possess that split second which may mean a new record and victory. That goes for the hurdles as well.
He wants to get married
WHEN Smedley came East to take a big job as Sales Manager, he wanted to get married. Like his father and his grandfather he believed in early marriage; said it settled a man, kept him out of mischief, helped to make him successful in business. Besides, living alone in a New York apartment was a pretty forlorn kind of experience. Yes, it was time he was married.
So Smedley began wearing his heart on his sleeve, and looking at every new girl with a critical eye.
There was one from Boston—the sister of a business associate. She was vivacious, pretty, and capable. And when she first met Smedley, welcomed his attentions. Smedley was instantly attracted ; grew fond of her and was about to propose marriage when the girl suddenly made it plain that she was no longer interested in seeing him. It was a blow. He put her out of his mind.
After that there were several in whom Smedley got interested—three of them to whom he could have actually become devoted if given the chance. A young actress from Detroit; a successful New York business girl; and an older woman, the widow of an aviator. All of them were attractive enough. Any one of them would have made Smedley a good wife.
But Smedley never had a chance. They usually saw him once or twice and then made excuses for not seeing him again. One by one they dropped out of his life.
Yet, fundamentally, the man was attractive—good husband material. His buoyancy, his vigor, his charm, his success, were qualities not found in everyday men.
But he had one fault they simply couldn’t overlook.
He still has it. And he is still looking for a girl who will marry him.
* * * There is no greater barrier to pleasant personal and business relations than halitosis (unpleasant breath). It is the unforgivable social fault.
The insidious thing about it is that the victim never knows when he has it. And even a good friend won’t tell him. The matter is too delicate to discuss. No one can safely assume freedom from halitosis. Every day in even normal mouths, conditions capable of causing bad breath are likely to arise. Among its most common sources are defective or decaying teeth, unclean dentures, pyorrhea, catarrh, and infections of the oral cavity. Also, excesses of eating and drinking.
The one way of putting your breath beyond suspicion, so that you know it doesn’t offend others, is to use full strength Listerine as a mouth wash and gargle. Every morning and every night. And between times before meeting others. Listerine ends halitosis because it is a germicide* which allays fermentation and checks infection,—each a cause of odors. It is also a rapid deodorant and counteracts odors as soon as they arise. Keep Listerine handy in home and office. And carry it with you when you travel. It is as much a part of the fastidious person’s toilet as the tooth brush. Lambert Pharmacal Co., St. Louis, Mo.
*While safe to use full strength in any body cavity, Listerine is an active germicide which kills even the resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (pus) and Bacillus Typhosus (typhoid) germs in counts ranging to 200,000,000 in 15 seconds. (Fastest killing time accurately recorded by science.)
TALKING MOVIES BROADCAST POLITICAL SPEECHES
BRITISH politicians have seized on the talking movie as a novel means of waging their campaigns in the general elections soon to come before the public. The photograph shows a London crowd listening to an open-air movie speech on a street-corner. These exhibitions, of course, are free to the public, and the novel method always succeeds in attracting an audience. Politicians prefer this system to talking on a soap box, since it not only prevents them from being annoyed by hecklers, but also permits them to be in a number of places at the same time.
Each political party has its own “talkies” located at strategic spots. The one in the picture, as may be told by the sign, has been established by the Conservative party.
CARTOONISTS MAKE BIG MONEY
Every time Sid Smith makes a stroke of his pen, mil-ions of people laugh. Every laugh means money for the man who creates it. Andy and Min earn big money for Sid Smith every day.
Illustrating and cartooning are paying men like Briggs, Smith, Fontaine Fox and J. N. Darling from $10,000 to $100,000 a year. You may have ideas that are equally good. Let Federal training develop your talent and give you the skill to put your ideas on paper.GET THIS FREE BOOK Write today for a free copy of the book. “A Road to Bigger Things.” Send 6 cents in stamps to cover postage. It tells of opportunities in the art world and explains the Federal Course of instruction under 60 of America’s eading illustrators and cartoonists. Mention your age.
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334 Federal School Building Minneapolis, Minnesota
Whistling Beacons Mark Airfield for Blind Landings
HIGH pitched whistles to designate boundaries of an airport make it possible for a pilot to make a blind landing, recent experiments have shown.
The newly designed whistles, called sonic marker beacons, send out fan shaped beams of sound by means of which the aviator can determine definitely the length of the airfield. The pilot, guided to the airport by a radio beacon, selects an altitude of 2,000 feet and within 500 feet of the boundary line picks up the beacon sound with special listening equipment.
Sound dies away 500 feet inside each end of the field, indicating its length.
A new discovery in FEMININE HYGIENE
If you hope to stay young, sweet-natured, energetic and joyous, you must be well. A woman’s neglect of herself often leads to serious consequences. No woman can afford to be indifferent to the delicate matter of feminine hygiene—or ignorant of the means now offered by science for protection of health, youth and happiness.
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Every woman should know the facts about Personal Hygiene and what it means in comfort, happiness and freedom from worry. Our booklet. “Why Haven’t We Been Told This Thing Before?” sent free plain envelope, tells what feminine hygiene really is. You will find it frank, explicit and instructive. For FREE book—write your name and address on margin, tear out and mail this entire advertisement.
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Visual Defect Makes Boy See Upside Down
DUE to a peculiar visual defect, Frank Balek, 12, of Chicago, ill., sees all objects upside down, but he has managed to overcome obstacles which educators once classified as hopeless, attaining grades of 85-90 in such subjects as writing and free-hand drawing. He can also read books rapidly, although the pages must be held in an upside down position. In the photo at right, Frank has written a message which you can read by turning the page around. Note that he starts writing at lower right and works upward.
OUR GIRLS ARE FLYING NOW
By Louise Goddard
AVIATION chatter—it’s everywhere! Spot landings. Solo flights. Aerodynamics. Ground school. Taxiing. Gliders rapidly multiplying. And above it all trills the feminine voice.
If anyone doubts this, he has but to keep an ear open in places where young women gather: the luncheon halls of big office buildings, club verandas during the Saturday night dances, classrooms of high schools and colleges. It is not difficult to learn which way the thought goes. Up!
For everywhere women are becoming air-minded and they intend to fly!Hardly a daily newspaper rolls from the presses without head-lining some feat clocked off by women aviators. Amelia Earhart establishes a new speed record for women. Billie Brown sets a new mark for women parachute jumpers. Elinor Smith and Bobbie Trout make a thrilling contribution to aeronautics.
At the moment, there are two hundred and three licensed women pilots in the United States. Before this magazine is on the news stands, others will be added. Before another year is gone, there will be scores more.
Flying classes for women have been organized by the local women in such cities as Houston, Kansas City, and Minneapolis. A woman flyer on a tour of the South tells of landing in a stubblefield to find herself soon surrounded by farm girls and women who wanted to know how they might go about learning to fly.
Meanwhile, the new fever for “gliding” has struck the girls as well as the boys of the country. For years the Germans have been perfecting themselves in this wonderful art of motorless flying. Finally, the movement has struck America with a bang. It is more than a craze. It is an expression of the air-mindedness of our young people, feminine as well as masculine. From the day that Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh took up a glider successfully and was the first to win a woman’s glider license, girls the country over have recognized that here is both a desirable new sport for them and a means of preparation for the more ambitious occupation of flying a powered airplane.
And so the feminine youth of today answers the call to become an active part of the world’s most glamorous, romantic, and fastest-growing industry.
But while youth beats a path to the flying fields, the older generation, fearful for all activity outside the element it understands, is asking questions.
IS AVIATION safe for our girls? Is there any future in it for them? Are the women of today, who, after all, are not so many years removed from the creature of wasp waistline that swooned at the sight of a balloon ascension, physically fit to fly?
To learn the answer to some of the questions these level-headed elders are asking, I called on Roland H. Spaulding, Specialist in Aeronautical Education for New York University and the Daniel Guggenheim Fund Committee on Elementary and Secondary Aeronautical Education. Under his direction, an aviation ground school for women was opened at New York University, September 10, 1929.
This was the first of its kind in the world and he also has the distinction of organizing the first course in aviation ever placed in an exclusive girls’ school in this country. Twice a week he lectures to the sub-debs at Mason Junior College and School for Girls, at Tarrytown-on-Hudson, N. Y.
I found Mr. Spaulding in his office at the Washington Square Branch of the University a half hour before class time.
“Is flying safe? What types of women have joined your classes? Is there a future for women in aviation? Are the women who apply for admission to your classes as fit to fly as the men?”
He held up a protesting hand. Then good-naturedly: “One question at a time, please.”
“Is aviation safe? You ask that question, first, because anything new is under suspicion—bath tubs were, trains, automobiles. You ask it, second, because the hazards and fatalities in aviation have received emphasis in the blazing headlines of newspapers, while the thousands of uneventful hours in the air have gone unheralded. You read of some crack-up by a student pilot, but did you read of the twelve hundred actual flying hours flown in one month by students at a prominent field without a single accident?
“Here are a few figures furnished by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce that may interest you. Last year 52,934 Americans flew 10,472,024 miles over regular scheduled air lines and only twenty-two met death. And this mileage figure does not include the flying done by privately owned or chartered planes or in aerial service. Further, ninety per cent, of all accidents occurred during stunt flying, sightseeing, and independent flying by unlicensed pilots.
“Yes, flying is safe if one observes a few bits of sane advice. If one is to fly as a passenger, fly only in a licensed plane, with a licensed pilot, over established airways between two established airports. Short passenger hops away from first-class fields in a licensed plane controlled by a licensed pilot are also safe. If one is learning to fly—study only with schools recognized by the Department of Commerce. Beware of shyster schools that promise to teach you to fly quickly and cheaply. Lindbergh and other well-known flyers have issued warning against these quacks. Congress has recently passed the Bingham Bill which will force the shyster schools out, inasmuch as it gives the Department of Commerce the authority to rate civilian flying schools. Women are to be warned particularly against these shysters, because, usually knowing little about things mechanical, they are more easily ‘taken in’ than men.”
He hesitated, and I was about to remind him of my second question, when he interrupted me.
“You want to know what types of women have joined the aviation classes here. The same types who are going in for aviation everywhere: those who want jobs as commercial flyers; those who want positions in the business end of the industry; and, last, women of means and leisure who regard flying as wholesome sport and a real adventure.
“Personally, I believe the opportunities for women as commercial pilots are not numerous at present. However, the prospects in the business end of the industry are very bright. A woman may sell planes, accessories, or flying instructions; she may become an airport hostess, editor of an aviation magazine, publicity writer or photographer for a flying field, lecturer before women’s clubs, or secretary to aviation executives.
“I I AM particularly keen to see more women take up flying as a means of recreation, an outlet for energy, a builder of bodily and mental health.”
He stopped and smiled.
“And that brings me to your last question: Are women fit to fly?
“That query is put to me daily in connection with women in aviation. My answer is yes, a woman who can pass the physical examination required by the Department of Commerce has the same chance to become a good pilot as a man.
And women pass that examination every day.
“However, it has been my observation that it requires a little longer for a woman to learn to operate a plane than a man. I believe this is explained by the fact that she has played fewer athletic games and indulged in fewer sports as a child than boys. For this reason, her muscular coordination and her judgment of speed and distance are somewhat inferior to a man’s. If, on the other hand, a woman has had athletic training, played games, and gone in for sports, she shows the same aptitude as a man in handling a plane.
“Losing one*s head, becoming panicky in emergencies, is no more feminine than masculine, in spite of popular belief. I have seen women steady, stable, superb in emergencies. I have also seen them ‘go to pieces.’ Yet, for every case of stability or instability in women, I can recall the same number for both classifications in men.
AND right here, I might say that while aviation does not need ‘nervous people,’ neither does it need stolidity. Flying a plane calls for a high degree of sensibility. A good pilot is a person well sensitized, who registers acutely, responds quickly and accurately.
“When a woman enrolls for ground work here at the University, we encourage her to take the physical examination immediately, rather than wait until she is ready for flying instruction. We do this so she may be warned in advance of any physical deficiency. Often this deficiency may be overcome. If not—then the student should in all fairness know she is unfit to ‘take the air.’ “I believe that flying is a splendid builder both of health and constructive mental attitude.
“The check-up made in the course of the physical examination required by the Department of Commerce stresses in a student’s mind the desirability for physical fitness and health. If a woman fails to pass the examination and the deficiency is one she may conquer, she usually goes out and does so. As a result, health is benefited. Once accepted, once having experienced the incomparable thrill of soaring in the clouds, she keeps constantly alert about her health. She does not want to lose what she has gained.
“As for promoting splendid mental attitude, I believe flying has no rival. I have seen women of slight confidence, showing tendencies toward timidity and reluctance to meet situations, change almost miraculously after their first solo flight. They have proved to themselves that they can face and master situations. They have felt the thrill of about the only pioneering feat left for Americans today. A new confidence is born, timidity vanishes. I have often wished that poor Timid-Soul, that mouse-like creature of the comic strips, could take up aviation. It would change his whole outlook and add materially to his happiness.”
The recent achievement of Amy Johnson, twenty-seven-year-old English girl, is a complete vindication of woman’s place in aviation, and certainly justifies Mr. Spaulding’s faith in their courage and ability. It is doubly impressive coming, as it did, close upon the flight of the sixty-four-year-old Duchess of Bedford, who created a new record for elapsed flying time on her trip from London to Capetown and return in twenty days, and a new record for flying between London and Karachi, India.
About a month after receiving her license, Miss Johnson conceived the idea of flying to Australia, but could interest no one in the venture, with the exception of Sir Charles Wakefield, noted gasolene magnate, who supplied the gas for the trip.
For eleven days she broke the record, arriving at Rangoon two days ahead of the time made by Bert Hinkler in 1928. A slight mishap in landing caused a three days’ delay and spoiled her chance of setting a new record.
When she arrived at Timor, she landed twenty miles south of the regular airdome, and for a time it was feared that she was lost. From Timor she took up the most dangerous stretch of her trip—5000 miles over the shark-infested sea—and on the nineteenth day reached her objective—Port Darwin, Australia.
In recognition of this feat, the King, on the Birthday List of his 65th birthday, bestowed upon her the title of Commander of the British Empire, which virtually corresponds to knighthood for a man.
Miss Johnson used a de Haviland Gypsy Moth plane, which is the outstanding light sports plane of the British Empire.
Mr. Spaulding then invited me to visit the classroom used for ground school. It is a hall of huge dimensions accommodating several small planes, models, and devices used in instruction.
After the class, I chatted with several of the women students while they donned cover-alls preparatory to posing for a newspaper photographer. I learned that there were artists among them, secretaries, brokers’ clerks, saleswomen, women lawyers, and teachers. They were all of a high type, alert, trim, vital.
Some of them take flying lessons along with their ground work, they told me, as they find that the practise with the theory clarifies the whole subject for them.
One woman demonstrated for me a model which the University has installed to teach the theory of flight. Sitting in a full-size cockpit which is placed in front of a small wind tunnel, she operated the controls. A model airplane, fixed on a spindle, responded to the controls exactly as in real flying. She took the plane into ground loops, made it stall, spin. The model did not complete these revolutions but suggested them so vividly that the effect of a false move was sufficiently realistic to give the student a start.
My next call was at the office of Dr. Ermin L. Ray, official Medical Examiner, Aeronautics Branch, United States Department of Commerce, who has examined hundreds of men and many women to determine if they are fit to fly.
I was permitted to glance over the form supplied by the Department which covers a complete physical check-up. It included tests for eyes—color-blindness, diseases, acuity of vision, etc.; tests for diseased conditions of ears, nose and throat: for organic troubles with particular attention to the lungs, heart, and kidneys. Tests were included for reflexes, motor disturbances, and equilibrium, as well as the nervous system in general.
“Are the women you have examined on the whole as fit to fly as the men?” I asked him.
“Yes,” was his prompt answer. “I have found as high a degree of physical fitness in women as I have in men. There is probably no fundamental physical difference between men and women which should make one a better flyer than the other. The best pilots are always the motor types: those types who easily translate thought into action and perform finely coordinated acts with skill. But you find motor types among women as well as among men.
“Here is an observation that may be of interest. The best types of women I have examined have been athletic, keen about sports, who included physical culture in their daily lives.”
RECALLING a certain flying field manager’s remarks about women aviators, I put this question to Doctor Ray: “Why has it been said that a woman over thirty requires more time to learn to fly than a younger woman, or a man of thirty?”
“Perhaps it is because women mature more quickly than men. Habit formation after a certain age usually becomes a slower process. Unless women have formed habits in muscular coordination before thirty, they will be slow in attaining them later. Men have the advantage here. They have usually formed such habits young. Also, because their maturity comes about more slowly, they are more pliable material at thirty than a woman, more adjustable.”
I asked him next: “What percentage of your applicants for flying permits is women?”
“At present, less than five per cent., but I believe that figure will increase steadily. Women have been slow to take up aviation because it offers them just now less in a business way than it does men. By that I mean that their chances for jobs as pilots are not so numerous. Also, there has been the prejudice against a woman doing anything venturesome or new. But women are becoming more and more air-minded and I believe more of them will apply for permits as time goes on.”
When I mentioned the fact that one of the nation’s largest air transport companies has asked the Department of Commerce to have its pilots examined each month. Doctor Ray replied: “This is a splendid move. Imperfect pilots make imperfect planes. Flying requires more of a person than anything I know of. Controlling an airplane demands continued and concentrated effort and an ability to resist fatigue. A pilot must have mental alertness, keen eyesight, and good muscular control. He must be able to stand sudden changes in atmospheric pressure, recover quickly from loss of balance, and respond instantly to stimuli. Regular periodical physical inventories insure continued good health and efficiency among flyers. If all pilots would undergo more frequent examinations there might be fewer ’cause unknown’ accidents, and ‘crack-ups, pilot’s fault.’”
“What physical deficiency is most common in the women you have examined?” I asked him.
“Deficiency in vision,” he answered promptly. “I find it equally among men and women, although less than half normal vision is acceptable and is safe for flying.”
With my head full of these interesting generalizations, I next decided to call on a number of young feminine flyers who constitute what the elders term “our youth that is rushing into aviation.”
I purposely went to new flyers instead of to Amelia Earhart, Ruth Nichols, Phoebe Omlie, or other women who have established themselves in the field, for the “slant” of these recent recruits indicates the real attitude of American women toward aviation.
Frances Harrell, I chose first, because she represents that classification of women who go into aviation to make a living as a pilot.
Miss Harrell is a Texan. While working as credit manager for a large furniture store in Houston, she received a sufficiently ample legacy to cover the purchase-price of a ticket to New York and flight lessons at a recognized field. Having become an able pilot, she was one of the first women to be employed by a large flying organization to do jobs of ferrying— transporting planes from one part of the country to the other. She has her eye on the transport license, the coveted goal of all serious aviators, and will stand an examination soon.
“Is there a future in aviation for women?” I asked her.
“Certainly,” she answered spiritedly. “My first reason for taking up flying was because I loved it. But my second was a practical one: I believed there were splendid opportunities in it for women. If a girl is a quick thinker, well-balanced emotionally, and willing to work hard, aviation offers her a better future than anything I know of. In spite of much that is being said to the contrary, I believe women may qualify not only for jobs in the business end of the industry, but as pilots as well, both commercial and transport.”
“Is there any reason why a woman should make a less capable pilot than a man?” I asked her.
She seemed genuinely astonished at the question.
“Emphatically not. The important physical requirements for becoming a good pilot are a woman’s as well as a man’s. The eyesight is the same, the muscular control, and as for nerves being exclusively feminine, that is one of the myths that should exit along with Santa Claus and the storks.”
I HE following day I walked into the show room of a large flying company to chat with Fay Gill is. She was my representative in class Number Two: women who find flying a stepping-stone to positions in the business end of the industry.
Slim, bright-eyed, Miss Gillis is in her very early twenties. She flys like a veteran, I was told by a seasoned pilot, and also has keen business ability. This combination was responsible for her appointment as the first woman member in the sales department of the organization with which she learned to fly. Incidentally, she has designed a flying suit for women which was exhibited at the recent aviation show held at the Hotel Plaza, New York.
“There certainly is a future in aviation for women,” she told me. “My job here is a partial proof of it. Of course, there is now some prejudice against women as commercial and transport pilots. Many people have pointed out that women do not become locomotive engineers or deep sea navigators and seem to believe this is evidence that they will not pilot transport planes. I disagree with them and feel the comparison is in no sense parallel. Women undoubtedly have a future as pilots. But in the meantime, the business end of the industry offers fascinating opportunities. I wish I could reach every girl who is sunk in a routine job and tell her how she may increase her zest in living and create a great future for herself at the same time.”
I brought out my stock question: “Are women fit to fly?”
SHE laughed brightly at the inquiry— but then Fay Gillis would, for she is the physical culture girl gone into aviation. In fact, she planned to teach calisthenics in public schools when the lure of the clouds overcame her. She excels at many sports: soccer, volley and basket-ball, and baseball. She bowls, swims, and runs.
“A woman in condition makes as good a pilot as a man in condition. There is no difference. I find flying less of a strain than driving a car. I experience no tenseness in an airplane, no nervousness. I have no traffic to think of. The women I know who have gone into aviation are fine types and the question as to limitation because of their sex is never raised.”
While I chatted with Miss Gillis, my eyes inevitably picked out that tiny gold caterpillar pin crinkled on her blouse. She did not tell me but I learned later that she is the second woman to qualify for membership in the Caterpillar Club—to qualify meaning to save one’s life by emergency parachute jumps. While flying in an experimental plane, she and a test pilot ’schuted to safety when the machine was blown to pieces.
Fay Gillis was born in Minneapolis and attended Michigan State College.
As a representative in class Number Three—women of means, who, while not having to earn a living, go into aviation for sport—I sought the opinion of Betty Huyler Gillies, daughter of the late Frank De Klyn Huyler, president of the Huyler Candy Company.
Mrs. Gillies, I found, while belonging to the group usually described by the words “of wealth,” certainly does not go in for leisure. Like Amelia Earhart, she graduated from Ogontz’ School at Rydal, Pa., and has managed to keep interested and busy since. She thought she would like nursing, but gave up her starched bonnet after having read an article by Miss Earhart on women in aviation.
“Pint-size,” and barely voting age, Mrs. Gillies has already her limited commercial license. She flew to the Cleveland Air Races last August and then to Chicago. Recently she won a spot landing contest in competition with twenty men at Camden, N. J.
“I see no reason why a woman can’t become as good a pilot as a man if the doctor passes her. You often hear women say that you can fly a good airplane with your fingertips. Women seem to realize this truth keenly because they are highly sensitized, imaginative, and register sensation instantaneously.”
So—Miss New York, Miss Tulsa, or Miss Bisbee, with the questions of safety, future and fitness answered, if you really want to learn to fly, here is what you must undergo to reach your goal: Ground school such as the one described above at New York University.
Flight school. A typical schedule which leads to a private pilot’s license follows, though if you are very clever, you may progress even faster than it indicates.
FIRST Hour—Rear cockpit. Pilot instructor in front cockpit. Test flight. Control of elevator and ailerons. Level flight, teaching student how to hold ship on point on the horizon. Ground instruction in signals. Use of parachute. Demonstration of effect of controls.
Second Hour—Rear cockpit. Stick and rudder control. Straight and level flying. Straight and normal climb.
Third Hour—Rear cockpit (instructor in front cockpit). Observing instruments showing air speed, temperature, oil pressure, tachometer, banks and turns; glides to the landing field.
Fourth Hour—Rear cockpit. Gliding approaches. Landing and taking off, taxiing, etc.
Fifth Hour—Instructor in front cockpit.
Sixth Hour—Figure eight, spiral flight.
Seventh Hour—Practise on recovery from tail spins, loop, vertical banks, cutting throttle, steep turns.
Eighth Hour—Emergency landings. Routine of inspection of plane and engine.
Ninth Hour—General review and check for solo.
Tenth and Eleventh Hours—Solo flight.
Twelfth Hour—Inspection tests called check flights.
Thirteenth to Seventeenth Hours—Solo flight.
Eighteenth Hour—Air brakes, side slipping and check on technique, fishtail landings, spot landings.
Nineteenth Hour—Solo flight. Check on Department of Commerce requirements.
Twentieth Hour—Test private pilot’s license.
As I put the finishing touches on this story which tells what women may do and have done in aviation, a plane hums overhead.
I quit my typewriter. That droning calls me to the window more urgently than does the clang of fire engines, or the raucous jollity of a circus parade, or glittering demonstration for royalty.
That gray dot up there glides, soars, sings to me. It stands for adventure, opportunity, freedom, health.
I look. I listen. I thrill!
For I too am young, and I want to fly!
LOOK – Miss Nobody thinks she can play someone whispered
—but when she sat down at the piano . . .
Eileen had never expected to be asked to Grace Williams’ party. Grace Williams—the leader of the most exclusive set in town.
Eileen was thrilled—yet so frightened. Well, she had already accepted Bill Gordon’s invitation, and now she’d have to go through with it.
That night Bill called for her. “You look adorable,” he told her proudly. Eileen wondered how the others would feel about her. She soon found out.
It was while they were playing bridge. “Who is that girl with Bill?” she heard someone whisper.
“I never saw her before,” came the reply. “Seems nice enough but nobody of importance, I guess.”
Eileen blushed. She’d show that smart crowd a thing or two! Soon the bridge tables were pushed away.
“Where’s Jim Blake tonight?” someone asked. “If he were here we could have some music.”
“Jim had to go out of town on business,” came the answer. Here was Eileen’s chance. Summoning all her courage she said, “I can play a little.”
There was a moment of silence. Hesitatingly Eileen played a few chords—then broke into the strains of the “Cuban Love Song.” Her listeners sat spellbound—never had she played so well. It was almost an hour before she rose from the piano . . . later Eileen told Bill a surprising story.
I Taught Myself “You may laugh when I tell you,” Eileen began, “but I learned to play at home, without a teacher.
I laughed myself when I first saw the U. S. School of Music advertisement. However, I sent for the Free Demonstration Lesson. When it came and I saw how easy it all was, I sent for the complete course. Why, I was playing simple tunes by note from the start. No grinding practice sessions — no U. S. SCHOOL OF MUSIC.
1811 Brunswick Bldg., New York City Send me your amazing free book, “How You Can Master Music in Your Own Home,” with inspiring message by Dr. Frank Crane; also Free Demonstration Lesson. This does not put me under any obligation.
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Remember, if you want to be a pilot it’s required that you be in sympathy with the objectives of the United States.
ARE YOU FIT TO FLY?
1. Must I be 18 years old before I can get a private pilot’s license?
2. To get a license, must I pass a test in navigation and meteorology?
3. I’m over 80 years old but healthy, am I eligible for a private pilot’s license?
4. If the doc discovers I’m color blind, will I be refused a license?5. I’m totally deaf; can I get my “ticket” in spite of my affliction?
6. My eyes need corrective lenses; even if I wear eyeglasses, can I fly?
7. Can any licensed medical doctor give me my CAA medical examination?
8. I have a bad heart; does this disqualify me from a pilot’s license?
9. I never finished school; will this keep me from getting my license?
10. I’m not a United States citizen; can I get a license to fly here?
Answers to questions on page 59
1—NO: The rules were 18 years of age minimum, but have been changed to 17 years for power-plane pilots, 14 years for glider pilots.
2—NO: The test is simpler, containing no problems in navigation, meterology, plane servicing, engine operation, etc.—just the necessary contact flight rules.
3—YES: There is no age limit—only the rule that your health must assure you of no incapacitating breakdown during flight.
4—YES: Color becomes important only in commercial and military flight. Waivers may be obtained under such conditions.
5—NO: The whispered voice must be heard at three feet. Waiver for partial deafness is possible, however; many old time flyers are partially deaf.
6—YES: Glasses are quite permissible. If eyes are . too poor, waiver can be had to restrict your flying appropriately.
7—YES: Any licensed physician can now give you your flight phyiscal.
8—YES: Any disease or weakness that can suddenly incapacitate you while flying will disqualify you from eligibility.
9—NO: As long as you can read and speak English. If you cannot do this, you can still get a license with appropriate operation limitations.
10—YES: As long as you are in sympathy with the objectives of the U.S. and are a trustworthy citizen of a friendly nation which is not under domination of an enemy nation, you are eligible for a U.S. pilot’s license.
Umbrella-Vender for Showers
WHAT to do when caught in a shower without an umbrella—that is one of the world’s greatest problems that has just been solved by the recent invention of an automatic umbrella vending machine which delivers an umbrella by the insertion of a coin in a slot. Devised by a noted German inventor, Herr Kreuger, the machine is placed on street corners, where it will be easily accessible in case of a sudden shower and drops an umbrella in a slot when the lever on the side is pulled down.
While the umbrella delivered by the machine is not particularly elegant, yet it sheds rain satisfactorily in an emergency and that is the chief purpose of the scheme.
QUICK-FREEZE HUMAN LIFE?
By Morrison Colladay
EVEN though our universe has been criss-crossed and catalogued for hundreds of years, there still remains a country unknown to science. It’s a place where there’s an entire absence of heat—a spot called “Absolute Zero!”
Students of cryogenics, the science of low temperatures, constantly encounter startling phenomena which make them realize that they are getting closer and closer to a great discovery. For instance, scientists experimenting recently with cold as a possible cure for inoperable cancer found that when body temperature is lowered, vital processes slow down in proportion to the temperature reduction. How far they could continue the temperature reduction without killing the patients they couldn’t find out, of course, though German physicians during the last war are supposed to have carried the investigation to its ultimate conclusion.
The cancer experiments were made at Temple University by Drs. T. S. Fay and L. W. Smith. There were 38 patients, all incurable and inoperable cases. They were stripped, placed on beds and piled high with cracked ice.
“Soon, after the first numbing pain of the ice was obliterated by anesthetics,” says Dr. Fay, “they fell into a frozen slumber. For five days they remained in a coma. Their pulse beats almost stopped, kidneys and bowels ceased functioning and their general body temperature fell from 98.6 to 90 degrees, a record sustained low. The only sign of life was the silent rhythm of their beating hearts. After five days of lethargy, the patients were awakened and given hot coffee. As they opened their eyes, they all smiled, commented on their deep, dreamless sleep. Not one of them developed pneumonia or even a slight cold. The growth of the tumors was checked and some even shrank.”
However, the results of this short test were inconclusive as the patients all eventually died from cancer, though perhaps not as soon as they would have otherwise.
Several scientists have been experimenting with the effect of cold on squirrels and guinea pigs. Dr. T. Akiyama of the Manchurian Medical College inoculated squirrels with a disease that produces tumors of the lymph glands. “The animals were divided into three groups,” he reports. “The first group was held as a control. The second received a refrigeration treatment for ten days; the third for 20 days. The control group all died. So did the second group which had been refrigerated for ten days or less. The third group came out of their torpid state unharmed and showed no signs of the disease.”
Even more interesting than these experiments on living cells at moderate degrees of temperature are those with temperatures nearer absolute zero. Certain types of bacteria, spores and infusoria which contain little liquid go into a state of suspended animation at these low temperatures. When thawed out, they resume living in the ordinary way. Cells containing more water die when frozen because, as scientists express it, “their molecular structure is rearranged in a thermodynamically stable configuration.”
However, the death of these organisms can be avoided if they are frozen very rapidly. Dr. Alexander Goetz of California Institute of Technology explains, “Then the molecules are immobilized before they can change their pattern. They become vitreous like glass— that is, solid but with the molecular arrangement of a liquid.”
Dr. Goetz cools his specimens in a fraction of a second with liquid hydrogen which has a temperature of 252 degrees below zero Centigrade. He believes that a cell maintained at that temperature could be preserved for 10,000 years without aging biologically more than one minute!
“The death of human blood corpuscles,” he told a meeting of the American Chemical Society, “could be almost indefinitely postponed by extremely low temperatures because of retarded reaction rates of matter in the region of absolute zero. Between normal temperatures and the realms of extreme cold, stretches nature’s valley of ‘frozen death’ for living things.”
But most scientists—at least outside of Russia—believe that it is impossible at the present time with the present knowledge to freeze a warm-blooded animal and then bring it back to life. The Russians, however, have been making ambitious attempts to do this for a number of years. They began by trying to bring back to life animals frozen in prehistoric times. Many of these have been found perfectly preserved in the frozen marshes at the mouth of the River Lena. Before the war, considerable progress had been made in developing methods of thawing out frozen tissues without essentially altering them. Many smaller organisms frozen thousands of years ago were restored to life.
Very little scientific information has come out of Russia since the war. But rumors of spectacular successes in reviving larger mammals frozen during the ice ages have leaked out. However, no information that could be called scientific by any stretch of the imagination is available and we can only scoff at the stories that Russians have been able to restore to life stone-age men and frozen mammals.
If the dreams of fantasy writers about men being put to sleep and waking a few thousand years in the future ever become realities, the method used probably will be that of suddenly reducing the body temperature to the neighborhood of absolute zero.
Assuming that you could be brought back to life after your temperature had been suddenly reduced greatly, keeping your body at that temperature for a couple of thousand years and thawing it out at the appointed moment might not be too difficult. It would be necessary to devise a machine planned to do just that and operated by the energy of one of the radioactive elements.
You could choose to be awakened almost any time in the future, depending upon the element used to power the cold-producing machine. Carbon 14, for instance, has a radioactive half-life of 4000 years. This means that 4000 years is the period of time during which half the atoms of any quantity of carbon 14 would disintegrate. At the end of the 4000 years only half of the carbon 14 would be gone so there would be plenty of leeway if you want to wake up say 2000 years in the future..
All you would need is a tank of liquid hydrogen to start you off and the radioactivated machine adjusted to keep your temperature down to 252 degrees below zero Centigrade for 2000 years. When the planned amount of radioactivity of the element chosen had been expended, a device for thawing you out would automatically start to function.
If everything went according to plan, you’d awaken refreshed and ready to begin life again in a strange new world.
