“BOUNCING BETTY”

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 September 1940, Page 10

“BOUNCING BETTY”

1 BYRD’S ANTARCTIC TRACTOR, “Bouncing Betty,” ponderous mechanical pachyderm, the faltering flight of which over the highways from .Chicago to Boston to join the United States Government’s Antarctic Expedition last year, amused and amazed the nation, has not yet proven its worth as an instrument of polar exploration, Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd has announced. The admiral, who arrived at his Boston home recently, after six months in Little America, said that the expedition had been successful in carrying out most of the objectives of the trip. “Our objectives,” he explained, “were to put down two bases, one at Little America, the other to be known as the East Base, to establish 1200 miles of hitherto uncharted coast line, and to serve 15 branches of natural science.”

Describing how the expedition had been able to get through the heavy ice fields which 14 times before had turned him back, Admiral Byrd said he was able to plot about 900 miles of coastline between Little America and the East Base. This, he said, is the United States’ claim to an area of mountains and ice covering nearly 1,000,000 square miles, and containing coal deposits enough to supply the world for years. Penetration to this ice-blocked coastline was made by plane, the admiral explained. “After 21 days of terrible weather,” he said, “during ' which time we were surrounded by ice and pounded by polar storms, we were able to put a plane over the side of the Bear. This was done on the first day we saw the sun. The plane was placed in the water at the lee of an iceberg, and before we could get off the ice closed in and nearly destroyed it.” A mystery of the ice pack, which has proved such a stubborn barrier, was that for the entire 1,200 miles there was not a lead or opening. The ice consisted of tightly packed, broken up pieces, looking much like a crazy quilt, and no piece larger than 100 square yards. “It would have been impossible for sleds or tractors to traverse this ice,” the admiral said. Referring to the snow cruiser, Admiral Byrd said: “We had difficulty landing on the ice, as we could not find a place big enough to hold its weight. Although it crashed off the runway when we put it over, and I thought it was going through the ice, it did not, and we were able to cruise in to Little America. When I left, the rend, which was removed to get it on board the North Star, was being put on. The practical value of the snow cruiser will be discovered when it starts out this spring.” Admiral Byrd explained that it was not his snow cruiser, but that he was glad to take it along for the experiment. Although believing the chief value of the discoveries in the Antarctic to be scientific, Admiral Byrd said that in the event of a war, and if anything happened to the Panama Canal, the United States might be glad to have this newly-claimed region as a possible base for ships.