In The Arctic.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

In The Arctic.

A POWER-PLANT AT

THE POLE

For the greater part of the- year, tho ice-bound world of the Farthest North is a dark and desolate land. This is the storv of the setting up ot the first electric generating plant evtr introduced to the Arctic Regions. It was working there in the early days of the Great War, eleven degrees from the Polo, in Crocker Land. The expedition was shipped northwerd in a sealing ship. and disembarked in Greenland. on the stony refuse of a retreating glacier, where there were four or five Eskimo houses. The men built a house round tho huge 500-gallon tank which was tlic chief part of their equipment, the house being thirty-four feet square, with a living-room in the middle, and- bedrooms, electrical room, workshop, etc., ranged around. When the complete plant had been installed one of a thousand cases of liquid fuel that had been taken out was broken open, tho engine tank was filled, and an attempt was made to start her by turning a crank. But nothing happened. The engineer tried in vain. He was followed bv the geologist, the doctor, the cook, and, last of all, the strong Eskimos, but, Mill nothing happened. It seemed as if all their elaborate preparations were of no avail. Everything seemed in order, yet the engine would not go. At last the engine "was primed with ether from the doctor's stores, and then the went merrily, but she stopped the moment the ether was exhausted. In the end it was discovered that the first case

had been filled with kerosene, wrongly labelled —an odd little adventure to beS '*The'machinery now ran well, andl the whole establishment was soon a "la/, lieht in the Arctic darkness, one big lamp burning at the front door serving as a beacon" for the Eskimos who came nian> miles to see the new wonder. The house was warmed by the spare boat generated by the electric machinery, but it had been built, after the Arctic fashion, to keep in all the beat and soon the whole plans became so hot that every door and window had to he opened wide and chunks of ice thrown info the watertank. So the Arctic darkness and cold hot h lost thfir terrors. The expedition tried to establish wireless communication with the world, but did not succeed. There was no elevation of sufficient height to serve for tho erection of a receiver, and the winds were too I strong for kites. So a movement was made to a neighbouring island, the general tint; plant being transferred and set up there. The problem was how to tfeinove the 300-gallon tank, and finally it had to be cut into halves. But wireless could riot he established on the island after all. The kites could not be kept high enough to act as receivers of tho calls that might bo vibrating through tho l'olar atmosphere, and ill-luck attended them. They were smashed by tho winds, they collided in mutual destruction, and the last kite of all* came to the most ignominious end. Taken away into the icy solitudes to forward the march of science, this final hopo of tho expedition so far as wireless was concerned was destroyed by two cheerful Eskimo puppies, who made a bed of it and left it a wreck. Still, the party did not wholly tail. They spent two vears in scientific observation, and kept their electricity going for domestic purposes; and tho lights tney flashed into the wintry nights from mainland and island arc still and long will bo a talked-of memory among the Eskimos whoso home is next door to the Pole.