Aeronautics -- Flights; Arctic regions; North Pole
The lenses in the periscope are constructed to give a radius of 10°;
that is to say, if the sun’s reflection appears in the disc’s outer
edge, one can allow 10° before it disappears in the other outer edge.
If one has set the solar-compass for a flight directly north, one will
continue in the right direction so long as the flying machine has no
deflection. In order to detect such deflections we had a combined
speedometer and deviation measure which was also given to us free
of charge by Goerz. Amundsen attended to these on the northward
journey--Dietrichson on the southward. They both speak of them with
high praise. Their uses are shortly as follows: Inside the instrument,
on a move-able ring, is fastened a diametrical wire. One looks through
the instrument down to the ground below or to the ice, and adjusts
the wire the longitudinal way of the ship, then pays attention to the
objects passing aftwards under the plane (icebergs, for example),
noting whether they follow the direct line of the wire or deviate to
the side. Should there be a deviation, one knows that they are not
following the direct course in which the nose is pointing, so it has to
be set at an angle allowing for the deviation. The wire must be drawn
to the side quite slowly until one finds that the objects which one
can notice now follow the line of the wire exactly. This points now in
the direction one comes from, and the wire’s angle, compared with the
boat’s nose, can be read directly in the instrument. That gives the
angle of deviation.
[Illustration: TAKING THE WINGS OUT OF THEIR BOXES]
[Illustration: SETTING UP THE WINGS]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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