ANTARCTIC COLD

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 73, 29 April 1929, Page 8

ANTARCTIC COLD

Australian Press Association.

STORM PERIOD AT HAND. How To Keep The Face Warm.

BAY OF AVHALES, April 2GAnother storm period seems upon us. Tlie wind is again blowing liard and tlie temperature is still 21 below. Last niglit it was 40 helow and the day before 58. The wind started yesterday afternoon and steadily increased in t'orce until the drift outside hides everything in a smother which blinds and confuses anyone who ventures out in it. Commandor Byrd has heen trying all sorts of aiTangeinents recently in an attempt to fiiul something to protect us against tlie wind, and yesterday he went for a long wallc down the bay ice with the temperature 51 below and a 20-mile wind blowing. If tbe wind can be kept from the face, wliich is the only exposed pnrt of the body, lie has found lie can kcop warm for a long period of time. lie bas been experinienting witli face masks to protect tlie nose and cbeeks. and bas devised ! oue wbicb, although it gcts wet and ! frozen. doesn't toucli tbe skin and arts ; as a sliield. Tlie only jilaces which tlie I wind can hit are a round tlie eyes, and j he is trying to find a way to protect 1 tliem. Furs liave proven perfect c1 ltliing except for fast travelling, j when they are too warm. j AVhile ("ommander Byrd was on tbe 1 bay ice yesterday there was a perceptible fog, despite the low temperature. Tt seems ineonceivable that moisture could exist in air in such cold weather, but tlie fog is real. This is explained by the fact that liumidity mav be relativelv just as crcat here as in a warmer climate, altliough the actual amount of moisture contained in tbe air at 50 below is infinitcsimal. Tlie air will liold only a certain amount of water at certain temperatures— for instance. it will liold about 200 timos as much water at 50 above as 50 below, but 50 below has a certain saturation point, so when a wind eomes up. as it did yesterday. and stirs up the warmer and colder air the change in temperature causes condensation of a smal] amount of moisture and makes an unnatural nppearing, but very real, fog. Bv Russell Owen. copyright, 1920 fv the New York Times Company and tbe St. Louis Post Dispatcb. All rights for publication reserved tbrough r.ut tlie world. AVireless by the New York Times.