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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0187.PDF
Air Raids and 'Workmen's Compensation. A NOVEL legal point in connection with the Workmen's Com pensation Act was decided in a London County Court on Monday, when a 'bus conductor sued the London General Omnibus Company for compensation for injuries inflicted by a Zeppelin bomb, which, dropping near his 'bus, killed the driver and several passengers. For the company it was urged that the accident did not arise out of the applicant's employment; he could have taken cover. His Honour, on the question whether it was safer for a person to be under cover than in the open, said the answer must be " Yes." He was not sure that it would have been impossible for Hammond to have taken cover. It might have been that Hammond was doing his duty as a conductor in trying to appease the alarm of the passengers. He held that the man was exposed to no more risk than any of the passengers on whom the bomb fell. With every sympathy for Hammond he must find that the injury occurred in the course of his employment, but did not arise out of it, and that the applicant had failed to show that he was exposed to special risk. The application was refused with costs. Flying and Heart Experiments. AEROI'LANE sickness is, of course, a well-known condition, and a great deal has been written concerning it. It is probably to be classed with mountain sickness, though there are many points of difference. Thus, the airman reaches a great altitude much more quickly than does the climber and—except, perhaps, when the climber goes up by a funicular railway—with less physical exertion. Again, the descent of the airman is very rapid. The airman has therefore to adapt himself in an exceedingly short space of time to entirely different climatic conditions. The medical side of the problem is being worked out, says the Times, and the French are devoting considerable attention to it. They recognise that a great deal depends on the physical condition of the man sent up. If he is the wrong type the strain imposed on him by altitude alone may well defeat his utility. If he is the right type his value must needs be very much greater. The work is of a highly technical nature, but it is also highly interesting. Some of the most recent researches are described in La Presse AUdical for February 14th, and are well worth attention. The writer Dr. G. Ferry, Aide-Major de 2e classe au Pare d'Aviation, took careful records of his pulse and blood pressure during several flights, and his conclusions are as follows:— The pu se becomes more and more rapid from the ground up to a height of 750 metres. From this height to 1,250 metres it still augments, but less rapidly. Above this height it again accelerates more rapidly. The period of si >wer acceleration seems to be explained by the fact that between 750 metres and 1,250 metres the air is u.ually calmer than at lower altitudes and the wind more regular. Above this height the cold becomes a great factor in acceleration. Each time a gust strikes the aeroplane the pulse accelerates. During a flight at a particular altitude the pulse remains constant. When descent begins there is again for a very short period a quickening of the pulse, due, it is thought, to the thrill of excite ment experienced when the engine is shut off. After this the frequency falls in a regular manner during a slow descent. Each " event" in the descent causes an acceleration, short, but definite. The pulse at the end of the flight is always more rapid than at the beginning. Blood pressure is dealt with in the same way, and the author concludes that in the choice of pilot-pupils men with heart or blood vessel weakness should be rigorously excluded. Even the slightest weakness should, in his view, be sufficient ground for rejection, because of the great strain which will be put on these organs. The Pope's Protest. A LETTER written by Cardinal Gasparri, Papal Secretary of State, to the Archbishop of Ravenna, again expresses the bitter sorrow and profound regret of the Pope at the sufferings and loss of life of the innocent victims as the result of the Austrian air raids. The letter continues :— " His Holiness, as the vigilant custodian of the supreme interests of religion, history, and art, has not failed solicitously to repeat his paternal insistent injunctions to the Austro-Hungarian Government that the war should be conducted in conformity with recognised principles. With regard to open and undefended cities, and the safeguarding from misadventure of their precious treasure of monu ments and chu'ehes, his Holiness has expressed the wish that in the Italo Austrian war the use of aeroplane bombs might be entirely suppressed. If this noble intention has not been achieved, it is not from any want of warm interest on the part of the Common Father of the Faithful, but for reasons which he will explain personally when opportunity offers." I The Latest Zeppelins. IF a communicai ton which has been received from Friedrichs- hafen by the KSkrisckt VMszeitung may be credited, the new Zeppelin factories have Wen considerably enlarged and are making two Zeppelins weekly of a new type, built to carry six machine-guns and two small cannon, with special apparatus for throwing bombs and air torpedoes. The gondolas are steel plated. TnaH have been made by the Zeppelins to throw asphyxiating gas around the airship to ensure flight when pursued. The last Zeppelin built bore the number 95. According to the Times correspondent at the Hague, a "neutral lady of some distinction,'' who had just arrived from Berlin, asked as to Zeppelin activity, replied that "the new ' Spitzende' Zeppelin (pointed at each end) was swiftly mano'iivring over Berlin last week either for practice or for demonstration before the people. Every where is Zeppelin talk. There is unusual activity at Johannisthal, the aeronautical headquarters near Berlin, and aeroplanes are prac tising everywhere, especially in the Doberitt district. The poorer classes have unlimited faith in the air warfare, and believe that eventually the Germans will be able to land large bodies of troops in England by this means. Councillor Rudolf Martin issued some time ago some foolish notes on this project." The fire-eaters are not now so numerous as they were in circles of this kind a year ago. Then they were all talking of a chain of submarines which would throttle John Bull, and of Zeppelins that would set fire to the Bank of England and Buckingham Palace. To-day there are thousands who question whether the use of sub marines and Zeppelins may not cause England to tighten the blockade and thus deprive the soldiers of the necessities which are reaching them through the leakages. Last Words from "L10." WHAT appear to be the last messages from the wrecked Zeppelin " L19 " are reported to have been found by a Swedish trawler, off Smoegen, Sweden. According to the Morning J'ost correspondent at Stockholm, the trawler picked up a bottle contain ing four German field post-cards from Zeppelin " L19." Two of them were signed " Otto Uhle, Commander." One was addressed to his parents and one to his wife in Wilhelmshaven. On one he stated that the airship had been on a reconnoitring expedition to Norway, and that it was lost on the return voyage in the North Sea, where it was passed by the British trawler " St. Stephen." He added that while at an altitude of 100 metre* the motors failed, and that the crew had expected at any moment that the airship would fall. Another card stated that the crew were iri distress. The cards were dated February 1st. The Zeppelin Raid on Salonika. FROM Athens on February 16th the correspondent of the S/andai d sent the following regarding the damage done to Salonika by Zeppelins :— " I learn from diplomatic sources that the estimates of the damage to life and property at Salonika caused by the Zeppelin raid, which were presented by the Greek Government to the Allied Legations, meets with the latter's full approval. On a rough c-timate the damage to property is about s-ix million drachmas (,£240,000), but a detailed list will be supplied by the Prefect of Salonika, and sub mitted to the Legations for examination. A settlement will not yet lie made, but will be included in the general list, on the con clusion of the Macedonian operations, of damages to the bridge of Demirhissar and other destruction of property necessitated by strategical considerations. " Two more of those injured in the Zeppelin raid have died in hospital." Another German Apology to Denmark. As was anticipated, the German Government has expressed to the Dani h Government its regret that a German aeroplane on the 12th ult. flew over Danish territory near Copenhagen. It is added that the German military authorities have repealed in the most emphatic manner the order that aircraft shall not fly over neutral territory. But they will continue to do so just the same. Death of a German Pioneer. ONE of the staunchest advocates of the rigid type of airship in Germany, Major Soerling, who was at one time in command of the military airship fleet, has just died in a sanatorium near Berlin. One noteworthy incident of his career was the piloting of the first Zeppelin taken over by the German army, to Men in 1909, an achievement which aroused a good deal of enthusiasm in the country. Ramsgate Bomber Decorated. ACCORDING to the Foehrseitung, the hero of the hour on the island of Foehr, West Schleswig, is the naval airman Ftiedrich Christiansen, of Wyk, " whose deathless deed in bombing Ramsgate recently, in the company of another seaplane, astonished the whole of England." Christiansen has been promoted, and has received the inevitable Iron Cross.
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