THE BOOMERANG

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 8 March 1930, Page 9

THE BOOMERANG

The "returning boomerang' 'is a. sic-kle-shaped piece of wood, roughly three feet long. Ojic side of the curve is flat, and the other convex, with a, sharp edge, so that the air obtains less push against one part than another. The boomerang is thrown with a double motion, something like the screw back of a stroke at billiards. The result is that it starts its journey with a spin as well as a forward motion. When it lias reached the end of its forward motion it begins to rise, theair pressure working under the peculiarMshaped wood tending to make it lift.. Its spin then comes into operation. The boomerang will circle round sometimes as often as five times, returning to the neighbourhood of its starting point in a series of curves. Europeans have with much effort sometimes succeeded in making a more or less workable boomerang, but the instrument reaches its full development only among the savago aborigines of Australia, in whose hands it has been known to bo thrown 100 yards before the first turn and to rise to a height of 150 ft. Though a savage toy—for the "returning boomerang" is not used as a weapon as is the non-return variety—the stick has received considerable attention from scientists interested in the problems of air flight. Its particular structure and threw, which the aborigines are too ignorant to describe, must in a crude wa\ have solved many of the questions of the aeroplane.