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Notes and News.
First Race to the Moon. A dramatic race to decide who shall be the first man to
an attempt to reach the moon is now taking place between young inventors in New York and Paris.
Early in July they both hope to release man's greatest dream of shooting themselves to the earth's satallite in giant rocket machines.
These daring pioneers of space are Mr. Walter B. Bevan, a wealthy New Yorker, and Herr Robert Krask a young German who has studied the problems of inter-planetary communication for many years.
Mr. Bevan, who is now putting the finishing touches to a huge projectile with which he hopes to make his attempt, told a press representative that he was confident that he would be able to land on the moon in his “space express.'
"Before I make my inajor experiment,” he said, "I intend to make an experiment with a smaller rocket which will be empty, except for explosive charges which will propel it through space. If all goes well, t shall then make my big effort in a rocket apparatus in which I shall be a passenger.”
Mr. Bevan intends to take one other passenger with him and also a dog and a cat. Food for six months will be stored in the apparatus.
"In the tail of my machine," he said, “ will be a number of gigantic fuses or rockets in which will be contained a mixture of hyarogen and oxygen. These will drive the giant projectile through space at a terrioc speed.
"I expect the journey to the moon will take about 6 weeks. I am making certain arrangements for a return journey, but they will depend very largely on conditions."
Herr Krask's apparatus is also a giant rocket propelled through space by gases. It is being constructed in a lonely spot in Silesia, and he hopes to bave it ready for initial experiments early next month.
Journeys to the moon are visualised by Mr. Robert Esnault Pelterie, the famous French scientist, as common place happenings fifteen years from now.
“At first there will propably be space expresses making journeys of up to 200,000 feet in tho void," he declares. " These machinos would be able to go round the world in one and a half hours or cover the distance betweep Pons and New York in just over twenty minutes."
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
