At The Pole, Breath Crackles, Throats Burn

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28267, 3 May 1957, Page 8

At The Pole, Breath Crackles, Throats Burn

In the low temperatures at the South Pole, exhaled breath emits a crackling roar like steam escaping from an open valve and creates light fog throughout the snow tunnels, says a United States Navy report. Outside work of any type is becoming increasingly difficult as temperatures drop. Heavy work at that altitude (approximately 9200 ft) causes the breathing rate to become faster.

Cold air is burning the throats and chests of the 18 men at the pole station. When this happens, the men have to work at a slower pace, with frequent breaks. The main tunnel at the station is 12 feet below the surface. It is six feet wide and eight feet high, with branch tunnels either side at frequent intervals.

Each day approximately 150 cubic feet of snow is melted for drinking water, washing, and cooking. The snow is now being manhauled, as the weather has become too cold to use tractors, which are now in storage. Men have been working outside for up to three hours at a stretch without discomfort. Appearance of “Indians” At Little America the other day men sitting down to breakfast could hardly believe their eyes when they looked up and saw i group of what appeared to be Red Indians. The striking feature was the unusual haircuts. Each “Indian” had a two-inch crew cut strip extending from the centre of his forehead bacK across his head top and tapering to a point at the base of the neck. All other hair had been removed. A few new phrases were immediately added to the station vocabulary, including “ugh” and “how.” It was suggested that the aurora skywatch party should be on the alert for smoke signals on the horizon. When asked the reason for the haircuts, one of the “Indians” explained that the haircuts helped them to observe a rule of the Antarctic: “Never panic; always keep a cool head.” Frozen Trousers

Intense cold has been playing strange tricks at Little America. One photographer who had been taking pictures from the top of

an outdoor fuel tank in temperatures of minus 50 discovered he could not bend his knees when he jumped down. His cold weather trousers had frozen. Two men have had their nostrils freeze tight closed with ice; screwdrivers snap like glass when pressure is applied to them during engineering work outside; and combustion handwarmers in parka pockets are going out because the fuel in them has dropped to a temperature too low to burn.

One photographer was unable to replace the slide in his plastic plate holder after taking a picture because the holder had contracted with the cold after the slide had been removed. The photographer is now restricted to using a wooden plate holder. Film pack, roll and movie film become brittle and snap when advanced in cameras.

A Navy pilot, Lieutenant Harvey G. Speed, was unable to retract the skis on his Dakota aircraft after take-off. Engine heat and exhaust vaporised air immediately froze on the landing gear of the plane and converted the machine temporarily to a “fixed undercarriage” type.