In 1976 the Concorde established the standard for travel from North America to Europe at three hours and fifty minutes, although one record-setting flight twenty years later did it in two hours and 52 minutes. Today we see somewhat slower voyages: On this day in 1901 Captain Voss and a journalist left Victoria, British Columbia in a native dugout canoe, the journalist only went as far as Fiji, Voss got to London three years and three months later. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris after 33.5 hours, the frist solo transatlantic flight. Five years after that, Amelia Earheart hopped the Atlantic in under 14 hours on a shorter route. Aviation pioneer and motorcycle hotdog Glenn Curtiss was born on this day.
In the holiday section you will often see the phrase "according to pious tradition." This is a marvelous phrase that my wife picked up on a pilgrimage in Europe, and as a skeptical observer I find it valuable. Many events in religious history, particularly in the lives of the saints, could not survive scientific scrutiny. For one thing, the methodical collection of before and after tests simply doesn't exist for miracles. For another, these events often involve passions in the communities where they happen, and what evidence may have once existed has often been fought over and moved from place to place. But remembering these miraculous events and lives clearly helps the faithful believers, imparts truths about the human condition, and it certainly doesn't hurt me. So "according to pious tradition" in these pages means it's a good story, it's important to a faith community at least in one town or region, and I have made no attempt to prove it true or false.
Today is also the birthday of the inventor of the electrocardiograph or EKG. His specific system, the string galvanometer, has been replaced by more robust and portable tools, but his process is still acknowledged as the most accurate.
1901 - Captain John Claus Voss left Oak Bay harbor in Victoria, British Columbia in the "Tilikum," a Nootkan Indian ocean-going canoe. He sailed to England via Australia and New Zealand, arriving in London on September 2nd in 1904. He had a series of partners on the trip, one of whom was washed overboard with the only compass. The Tilikum was found on the banks of the Thames in 1929, crated and returned to Victoria, where it has been restored and is on display in the Maritime Museum.
1927 - American pilot Charles A. Lindburgh lands in Paris, 33 hours and 30 minutes after leaving Long Island, New York. Flying a single-engined Ryan NYP named the "Spirit of Saint Louis," it was the first solo transatlantic flight.
1932 - American pilot Amelia Earhart lands in Ireland, 2,026 miles and 14 hours and 56 minutes after taking off form Newfoundland. It was the first transatlantic solo flight since Lindbergh's 1927 trip and the first by a woman.
Battle of Iquique Day, Chile - In the War of the Pacific, Chile fought Bolivia and Peru over territory, mostly the nitrate beds then in Peru. The first sea battle involved small Chilean vessels and two larger Peruvian ironclads off the port city of Iquique in 1879, the Chileans fought bravely, lost badly, but won the war.
Anastenaria Firewalking Festival, According to pious tradition, in 1250 villagers rescued icons from a burning church when they heard the icons crying out. In a state of spiritual ecstasy the Anastenarides (fire walkers) carry icons of Saint Constantine and his mother Saint Helen over their heads, dance across a pit of glowing coals, and emerge without blisters or burns on their bare feet. The event starts in the evening of the feastday of Constantine and Helen in the greek village of Aghia Eleni in the district of Macedonia.
1860 - Willem Einthoven, Dutch physiologist - Born at Semarang on the island of Java, son of Dutch army doctor who died when Willem was ten, family moved to Utrecht, Holland. Entered medical school at University of Utrecht 1878, doctorate 1885. Fitness nut, he was president of the Gymnastics and Fencing Union and a founder of the Utrecht Student Rowing Club. Faculty of University of Leiden where he developed the string galvanometer for measuring small electrical signals. He attached it to A. D. Waller by placing both of subject's hands in jars of electrolyte to get good contact, creating the first electrocardiograph. Won 1924 Nobel prize in medicine, member of Dutch Royal Science Academy. After a long illness he died on 28 September 1927.
1878 - Glenn Hammond Curtiss, US bicycle, motorcycle, airplane builder - Born at Hammondsport, New York. "Fastest man on earth" at 136.6 mph in motorcycle race in 1904, ardent competition with Wright brothers involved litigation but led to 1929 merger to form Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Curtiss firsts (both as pilot and builder) include the first straight flight over a kilometer, invented the aileron, first takeoff from deck of Navy ship in 1910, first float plane, first takeoff and landing from water 1911, first transatlantic flight 1919. The Curtiss OX-series engines powered most planes in this time, US and Canadian pilots in World War I were trained in the Curtiss Jenny. He also built the first travel trailers and was the model for the hero in "The Adventures of Tom Swift." His last flight was in May of 1930, he died 23 July that year.
Beauty in a good woman is like fire at a distance or a sharp sword; the
one does not burn, or the other wound, those who come not too close.
- Cervantes
Man is flying too fast for a world that is round. Soon he will catch
up with himself in a great rear-end collision and Man will never know
that what hit him from behind was Man.
- James Thurber
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then
burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all
be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
- Albert Schweitzer
Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly
and follow.
- Chinese proverb
People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves
of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the
ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves
without wondering.
- St. Augustine
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