The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914Mawson, Douglas, Sir
History
The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
Mawson, Douglas, Sir
Antarctica -- Discovery and exploration; Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914)
Some details of the working of the "flying fox" will be of interest. The
distance between the lower and upper terminals was some eight hundred
feet. This was spanned by two steel-wire carrying cables, secured above
by "dead men" sunk in the soil, and below by a turn around a huge rock
which outcropped amongst the tussock-grass on the flat, some fifty yards
from the head of the boat harbour. For hauling up the loads, a thin wire
line, with a pulley-block at either extremity, rolling one on each of
the carrying wires, passed round a snatch-block at the upper station. It
was of such a length that when the loading end was at the lower station,
the counterpoise end was in position to descend at the other. Thus a
freight was dispatched to the top of the hill by filling a bag, acting
as counterpoise, with earth, until slightly in excess of the weight of
the top load; then off it would start gathering speed as it went.
Several devices were developed for arresting the pace as the freight
neared the end of its journey, but accidents were always liable to occur
if the counterpoise were unduly loaded. Wild was injured by one of these
brake-devices, which consisted of a bar of iron lying on the ground
about thirty yards in front of the terminus, and attached by a rope with
a loose-running noose to the down-carrying wire. On the arrival of the
counterpoise at that point on the wire, its speed would be checked owing
to the drag exerted. On the occasion referred to, the rope was struck
with such velocity that the iron bar was jerked into the air and struck
Wild a solid blow on the thigh. Though incapacitated for a few days, he
continued to supervise at the lower terminal.
The larger sections of the wireless masts gave the greatest trouble,
as they were not only heavy but awkward. A special arrangement was
necessary for all loads exceeding one hundredweight, as the single
wire carrier-cables were not sufficiently strong. In such cases both
carrier-cables were lashed together making a single support, the hauling
being done by a straight pull on the top of the hill. The hauling was
carried out to the accompaniment of chanties, and these helped to
relieve the strain of the Work. It was a familiar sight to see a string
of twenty men on the hauling-line scaring the skua-gulls with popular
choruses like "A' roving" and "Ho, boys, pull her along." In calm
weather the parties at either terminal could communicate by shouting but
were much assisted by megaphones improvised from a pair of leggings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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