Radio age (May 1922-Dec 1923)

RADIO AGE — "THE MAGAZINE OF THE HOUR' Photograph on the right shows Dr. Donald B. MacMillan in the chart room of the "Bowdoin," the tiny ship now in the Arctic. On the right is a picture of an iceberg as seen from the deck of the Bowdoin. Photographs by courtesy of E. F. McDonald, Jr., of the Chicago Radio Laboratory, who was a|member of the adventurous party for some distance into the frozen north. Radio communication with the boat was sustained daily, until July 28. A Fragment of MacMillan's 1923 Trip to the Arctic THE elaborate preparation for the MacMillan trip back to the Arctic reached its culmination June 23, when the Bowdoin, trig, trim and smartly arrayed with international code flags, shoved off from Wiscasset, Maine. On board were Dr. Donald B. MacMillan, his crew of six men, a handful of guests, including the two ex-Arctic explorers, General A. W. Greeley and Langdon Gibson, the former the oldest living Arctic explorer and the latter a participant of the early memorable Peary expeditions. Every man, woman, and child of the town and county were at the dock to wish Godspeed and wave a kerchief of au revoir. This group was considerably swelled by many visitors from Maine and notables from different parts of the United States. Long after the seething crowd at the dock became a blur against the dark land background as the Bowdoin sped down the river, we could still hear the shrill voice of a locomotive and the boom of a cannon calling farewells. The wireless operator on board the Bowdoin kept up constant communication even after we were out of sight with Mr. Maxim, Mr. Warner and Mr. Schnell of the American Radio Relay By E. F. McDonald, Jr. League, who had erected a temporary Zenith radio receiving apparatus on the pier, and used that not only for receiving but for sending messages over the short distance to the Bowdoin. This sending of messages with a receiving set was accomplished by making the receiving set oscillate and when the antenna switch was touched with the moistened finger, it produced signals so that messages in continental code were readable aboard the ship. The first stop was at Boothbay, where next objective, Monhegan Island. Within the very next hour we ran into a school of enormous black fish, which are a species of whale, some of them ranging forty feet in length. So close did we approach one of these that Tom McCue disturbed it in its peaceful slumber by tossing a can of pemican, which reached its mark. At Monhegan Island we were cordially received and dined by the inhabitants. Our moving picture photographer bade us good-by here. We saw him tearing Here is the crew ing Dr. Donald B. all visitors, including General Greeley off a reel of film as we left him standing and his daughter, took leave of us. Then on the shore, but the day was misty and we put to sea in earnest and had as our not conducive to good pictures. Clouds of fog enveloped us practically, all the way from Monhegan to Sydney, Nova Scotia. But notwithstanding the impenetrable mist, we crossed the Bay of Fundy, passed Cape Sable and the grave yard of the Atlantic without mishap. During one of the night watches we encountered a mysterious ship which was in our course about one point off our port bow when its lights were sighted, and as we approached extinguished all lights. It had all the earmarks of a warship, but it might have been a rum runner or a Canadian of 'the "Bowdoin," sturdy little ice-pusher, that is carry government rum MacMillan into the far north waters. runner chaser.