Notes, Sep. 19, 1927

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Bills Payable. A taxpayer saw in the newspapers that the Navy consumed 383,550 gallons of fuel oil and gasoline searching for the Dole flyers. Irate, he telegraphed the War Department, received an answer that he and other taxpayers would pay for those oils to the tune of $67,142.49.

Handwriting. Newspapers last week printed the last words of Paul Redfern, lost flyer to Brazil. In scratchy manuscript, dropped to the deck of the steamer Christian Krogh, the facsimile read: "Point ship to nearest land, wave flag or handkerchief once for each 100 miles. Thanks, Redfern."

Healthy & Wise. Connecticut's governor, John H. Trumbull, shook his head. He would not fly in the Maine State Forestry Department's plane from Moosehead Lake to Augusta. He inspected the plane, took a train to Augusta. Soon the plane fell into Lake Caucomgumoc, killing pilot and passenger.

Balloons

Diplomats, soldiers, scientists stood at Henry Ford's Detroit Airport peering upward at round blobs in the sky. Official Starter Edsel Ford had sent away 15 balloons in the 16th annual Gordon Bennett trophy race. The U. S. and Germany each had three balloons; France, Belgium and Italy two each; England, Spain and Switzerland one.

South winds shouldered the bags over Ohio, over the Carolinas. The next day five descended.

At various points in the South, frenzied blackamoors scuttled in from fields to report balloons overhead. Three more bags dropped safely the second day. Farthest South (the race was for distance) finally dropped the Detroit, piloted by R. C. Hill and A. G. Schlosser, having floated some 800 miles. (Frenchman Bennaime's 1,358-mile float from Stuttgart to Moscow in 1920 remains the record). The Goodyear VI placed second, W. T. Van Orman piloting.

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