THE RANGE OF LIFE

Evening Star, Issue 20193, 5 June 1929, Page 12

THE RANGE OF LIFE

ALTITUDE RECORDS DIZZY LIMITS REACHED Nearly every week the cable pages of the newspaper contain rclcrences to attempts made, or to be made, by aviators to beat the existing altitude records. Only a few days ago a message from Washington said that a lieutenant of the United States navy had been credited by the National Aeronautical Association with a record altitude flight of 39,14Uft in a biplane. This means that the daring airman reached a height above tho world's surface of nearly 71 miles. But even that is not the greatest height which man has ever attained. Over 40,00Utt has been reached. This height of .nearly eight miles sems to be about the limit to which man can ascend with the apparatus at present at his disposal. How man fares at those giddy heights and in his attempts to break existing records is graphically described in the ‘ Science of Life.’ The first altitude record-breaker we read of was Icarus, the sou of Daedalus, a versatile gentleman very prominent in the early legends of Crete and Athens. It was Daedalus who built the labyrinth for Minos, who constructed a wooden cow for Pasiphae, and who anticipated the Robots by making a bronze man which repelled the Argonauts. Minos, however, became displeased with Daedalus, who thereupon constructed wings for himself and his son Icarus, so that they could fly to Sicily and safety. Icarus, however, soared too close to the sun (the altitude reached is not given in the records of tho time), the wax .cementing his wings melted, and he “ crashed.”- But that is not authen-

Heated history, and it is necessary to come to comparatively recent times before properly attested altitude records are met with. it is probable that Coxwell and Glaisher attained in 1862 a height of something over 30,000 ft. They were in an ordinary gas balloon, and were conscious when 29,000 ft up. Glaisher at that height became insensible, but Coxwell saved tbe situation by pulling the ripping cord. This ne had to do with his teeth, his hands being too frost-bitten to use. In 1901, Person and Simng, two Germans, established a height record for anything living, reaching in a balloon a height of 34,000 ft. They, too, became insensible, in spite of the inhalation of oxygen. This record stood until a few years ago, whoa an American aviation officer reached 42,47014. lie lost his life, however, through his oxygen supply failing as lie descended, but self-recordipg instruments showed to what a stupendous height ho had readied.

Airmen who have attempted Height records describe themselves as feeling swelled, puffed out, and deformed, with a painful buzzing in the ears. 'The heart beats too vigorously against a lessened restraining force, and them may be bleeding in cars, nose, and lungs, and even from the eyes and gums. .Even if oxygen is inhaled it is only a palliative. Tissandier, who made a balloon ascent to 27,900 ft iTm : Paris in 1875, fainted at 20,500 ft. When ho recovered consciousness the balloon was descending, and both his companions were dead. At such altitudes comes a curious apathy: the airmen no longer see, hear, or act as rapidly as they are accustomed to at lower levels, and there is great ioss of muscular and mental power. Instruments are stared at, but their readings are nob comprehended. “ There is no suffering,” wrote Tissandier; “only an inward joy.” The cold at these heights sinks lo many degrees below zero, and this has a paralysing effect. ASCENDING LAX!) HEIGHTS. So far mention has been made only of attempts to reach great altitudes by some aerial method. The highest point on the surface of Uie earth is Alount Everest, which is a little short of 30,000 ft in height. That great mountain, thrusting itself more than six miles into the air, was perhaps conquered in 1924, when G. L. Alai lory and A. C. Irvine started ou a final

ascent from a camp pitched at a, height of 26,800 ft, and never returned. Previously Dr Somerville and Licutcnauteoloneb Norton, with infinite pain and suffering, had got to a height of 28.200 ft. The very slightest exertion, such as the tying of a bootlace or the opening of a ration box, was accompanied by marked rcspira.ory distress. -Vt 27,000 ft Dr Somerville had to take eight or'tei respirations for every step forward. Norton at his highest altitude ascended 80ft in an hour, and that only with extreme exertion.

As with aviators, so with mountaineers who seek to penetrate to great altitudes, three main adverse factors affect the body. There is the deficiency of oxygen to breathe, deficiency of pressure "upon the exterior of the body (hence the bleeding that occurs), and intense cold. Supplies of compressed oxygen can he carried, and are. carried, bv both airman and mountaineer, hut the airman has the advantage of being able to sit still, whereas the mountaineer must exert himself. _The mountaineer scores, however, in the fact, that he can. within certain limits, gradually educate Ids body to. the diminished 'pressur;, whereas the airman runs great danger of suffering from nn extrem? form «of mountain sickness owing to his rapid rise in altitude. It would seem, therefore, that 42,000 ft, or a trifle over eight miles, is at present practically the limit of the upward range of life. To win that much demands elaborate preparation and frightful exertion, and long before that height is reached animal and vegetable life ceases normally to exist. No bird can compete with the airman in his lofty soarings, although the condor of the Andes is credited with 2.‘),000ft. At higher levels those great birds use the

passes, flying low and close over the heads of travellers. RANGE DOWNWARD OF LIFE. Downward life is also restricted, but downwards it is increasing pressure, and in the solid earth increasing temperature, against which life lias to light. 'Clio forms of life familiar to us do not extend down into tho sea for very many fathoms; they are replaced by other species more adapted to cold and darkness and high pressure. A diver in a diving dress, with skilful management, good constitution, and favourable conditions con go to about 300 ft below sea level, can stay there for about twenty minutes, and return to the surface in easy stages. A naked diver may stay a couple of minutes ;.t a depth of 30ft or so, and even a submarine is closely restricted in its range of submergence. The relationship of living things to limiting pressures causes a considerable restriction in the movement of all life in the sea. Whales may dive deep, astonishingly deep at times, to as much as 800 fathoms, according to one authority, but such creatures do not reach anything like tho profoundest depths of the ocean. Whatever lives at gi-.?at depths must have its internal 'pressure as great as that about it. Such creatures as do live at great depths are adapted to the peculiar conditions of their particular level. They can no moro come up than the surface life can go -clown. Sometimes, however, some of the deep sea fishes " fall upward." .Many of them, like their surface kindred, have swimming bladders (o accommodate themselves to varying levels. These bladders contain gas under enormous pressure. If cue of these abyssal fishes rises too high in pursuit of prey, the gas in its bladder may expand beyond limits of muscular control. The poor fish can no longer go down, but continues to rise helplessly, and- probably painfully. Finally it arrives at tho surface distended beyond all recognition, or cvjit burst, and in cither case dead The ocean at its deepest goes down perhaps for seven miles. Life, therefore, so far as we know it is confined to a layer, of air and water having a total thickness of less than fourteen miles, and no one single form of life ,is able to span these petty limits. Man's vertical range seems fc be as great as any creature's, and yet thai, is no more than eight miles at tho very most.