The exploration of Tibesti, Erdi, Borkou, and Ennedi in 1912-1917 : $b a mission entrusted to the author by the French InstituteTilho, Jean
History
The exploration of Tibesti, Erdi, Borkou, and Ennedi in 1912-1917 : $b a mission entrusted to the author by the French Institute
Tilho, Jean
Chad -- Description and travel
of years, not only for the French and not only for the British, but for
all nations. Therefore we here in England, we in this Society, will send
forth a very hearty word of congratulation to the French, and especially
to Colonel Tilho, for the great work which they are doing in Central
Africa. He has made very important geographical discoveries, and has
referred to new methods of geographical observation. Wireless telegraphy
for the purpose of determining longitude is a comparatively new method,
but one which is vastly valuable, because, as we who have tried to
determine longitudes in far-away places know, in old days it was
impossible to get the longitude at all exactly. We could get the
latitude fairly accurately, within a few hundred yards, but longitude we
could never get to within a few miles. Now by means of wireless
telegraphy we are able to get longitude with almost complete exactitude,
even in the heart of the French Sudan. Colonel Tilho has also made a
slight allusion to another modern invention which I think in future will
prove of great service, and that is the aeroplane. We shall hear more of
that at our next meeting; but when you see those vast waterless regions,
when you hear from Colonel Tilho of the enormous difficulty in getting
across them with camels, then we see of what use the aeroplane might
have been made for preliminary geographical reconnaissance. Those two
inventions, I am certain, will be of enormous service to geography. I
now wish on your behalf to tender to Colonel Tilho a most hearty vote of
thanks for his lecture this evening, and also for his great kindness, at
considerable personal inconvenience, in coming across from Paris to give
us this paper.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: A sort of camp-followers whose business in life is warfare
in all its branches except that of fighting: experts in all manner of
desert craft, scouts, flank-guards, finders of strayed camels or sorely
needed wells. Swift to detect the incompetence or bad faith of local
guides, they form the necessary complement to the fighting strength of
any expedition in Central Africa.]
[Footnote 2: This account will be published in the next number of the
_Journal._—ED. _G.J._]
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