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Review

The Life of Xavier Lavalle

(Reviewed by Rene Talland. Ecole Aeronautique, Paris)

Ten years ago Lavalle, "that imperturbable dreamer of the heavens," as Lazareff hailed him, gathered together the fruits of a lifetime's labour, and gave it, with well–justified contempt, to a world bound hand and foot to Barald's Theory of Vertices and "compensating electric nodes." "They shall see," he wrote—in that immortal postscript to The Heart of the Cyclone—"the Laws whose existence they derided written in fire beneath them."

"But even here," he continues, "there is no finality. Better a thousand times my conclusions should be discredited than that my dead name should lie across the threshold of the temple of Science—a bar to further inquiry."

So died Lavalle—a prince of the Powers of the Air, and even at his funeral Cellier jested at "him who had gone to discover the secrets of the Aurora Borealis."

If I choose thus to be banal, it is only to remind you that Collier's theories are today as exploded as the ludicrous deductions of the Spanish school. In the place of their fugitive and warring dreams we have, definitely, Lavalle's Law of the Cyclone which he surprised in darkness and cold at the foot of the overarching throne of the Aurora Borealis. It is there that I, intent on my own investigations, have passed and re–passed a hundred times the worn leonine face, white as the snow beneath him, furrowed with wrinkles like the seams and gashes upon the North Cape; the nervous hand, integrally a part of the mechanism of his flighter; and above all, the wonderful lambent eyes turned to the zenith.

"Master," I would cry as I moved respectfully beneath him, "what is it you seek today?" and always the answer, clear and without doubt, from above: "The old secret, my son!"

The immense egotism of youth forced me on my own path, but (cry of the human always!) had I known—if I had known—I would many times have bartered my poor laurels for the privilege, such as Tinsley and Herrera possess, of having aided him in his monumental researches.

It is to the filial piety of Victor Lavalle that we owe the two volumes consecrated to the ground–life of his father, so full of the holy intimacies of the domestic hearth. Once returned from the abysms of the utter North to that little house upon the outskirts of Meudon, it was not the philosopher, the daring observer, the man of iron energy that imposed himself on his family, but a fat and even plaintive jester, a farceur incarnate and kindly, the co–equal of his children, and, it must be written, not seldom the comic despair of Madame Lavalle, who, as she writes five years after the marriage, to her venerable mother, found "in this unequalled intellect whose name I bear the abandon of a large and very untidy boy." Here is her letter:

"Xavier returned from I do not know where at midnight, absorbed in calculations on the eternal question of his Aurora—la belle Aurore, whom I begin to hate. Instead of anchoring,—I had set out the guide–light above our roof, so he had but to descend and fasten the plane—he wandered, profoundly distracted, above the town with his anchor down! Figure to yourself, dear mother, it is the roof of the mayor's house that the grapnel first engages! That I do not regret, for the mayor's wife and I are not sympathetic; but when Xavier uproots my pet araucaria and bears it across the garden into the conservatory I protest at the top of my voice. Little Victor in his night–clothes runs to the window, enormously amused at the parabolic flight without reason, for it is too dark to see the grapnel, of my prized tree. The Mayor of Meudon, thunders at our door in the name of the Law, demanding, I suppose, my husband's head. Here is the conversation through the megaphone—Xavier is two hundred feet above us:

"'Mons. Lavalle, descend and make reparation for outrage of domicile. Descend, Mons. Lavalle!'

"No one answers.

"'Xavier Lavalle, in the name of the Law, descend and submit to process for outrage of domicile.'

"Xavier, roused from his calculations, comprehending only the last words: 'Outrage of domicile? My dear mayor, who is the man that has corrupted thy Julie?'

"The mayor, furious, 'Xavier Lavalle—'

"Xavier, interrupting: 'I have not that felicity. I am only a dealer in cyclones!'

"My faith, he raised one then! All Meudon attended in the streets, and my Xavier, after a long time comprehending what he had done, excused himself in a thousand apologies. At last the reconciliation was effected in our house over a supper at two in the morning—Julie in a wonderful costume of compromises, and I have her and the mayor pacified in bed in the blue room."

And on the next day, while the mayor rebuilds his roof, her Xavier departs anew for the Aurora Borealis, there to commence his life's work. M. Victor Lavalle tells us of that historic collision (en plane) on the flank of Hecla between Herrera, then a pillar of the Spanish school, and the man destined to confute his theories and lead him intellectually captive. Even through the years, the immense laugh of Lavalle as he sustains the Spaniard's wrecked plane, and cries: "Courage! I shall not fall till I have found Truth, and I hold you fast!" rings like the call of trumpets. This is that Lavalle whom the world, immersed in speculations of immediate gain, did not know nor suspect—the Lavalle whom they adjudged to the last a pedant and a theorist.

The human, as apart from the scientific, side (developed in his own volumes) of his epoch–making discoveries is marked with a simplicity, clarity, and good sense beyond praise. I would specially refer such as doubt the sustaining influence of ancestral faith upon character and will to the eleventh and nineteenth chapters, in which are contained the opening and consummation of the Tellurionical Records extending over nine years. Of their tremendous significance be sure that the modest house at Meudon knew as little as that the Records would one day be the planet's standard in all official meteorology. It was enough for them that their Xavier—this son, this father, this husband—ascended periodically to commune with powers, it might be angelic, beyond their comprehension, and that they united daily in prayers for his safety.

"Pray for me," he says upon the eve of each of his excursions, and returning, with an equal simplicity, he renders thanks "after supper in the little room where he kept his barometers."

To the last Lavalle was a Catholic of the old school, accepting—he who had looked into the very heart of the lightnings—the dogmas of papal infallibility, of absolution, of confession—of relics great and small. Marvellous—enviable contradiction!

The completion of the Tellurionical Records closed what Lavalle himself was pleased to call the theoretical side of his labours—labours from which the youngest and least impressionable planeur might well have shrunk. He had traced through cold and heat, across the deeps of the oceans, with instruments of his own invention, over the inhospitable heart of the polar ice and the sterile visage of the deserts, league by league, patiently, unweariedly, remorselessly, from their ever–shifting cradle under the magnetic pole to their exalted death–bed in the utmost ether of the upper atmosphere each one of the Isoconical Tellurions Lavalle's Curves, as we call them today. He had disentangled the nodes of their intersections, assigning to each its regulated period of flux and reflux. Thus equipped, he summons Herrera and Tinsley, his pupils, to the final demonstration as calmly as though he were ordering his flighter for some mid–day journey to Marseilles.

"I have proved my thesis," he writes. "It remains now only that you should witness the proof. We go to Manila to–morrow. A cyclone will form off the Pescadores S. 17 E. in four days, and will reach its maximum intensity twenty–seven hours after inception. It is there I will show you the Truth."

A letter heretofore unpublished from Herrera to Madame Lavalle tells us how the Master's prophecy was verified.

I will not destroy its simplicity or its significance by any attempt to quote. Note well, though, that Herrera's preoccupation throughout that day and night of superhuman strain is always for the Master's bodily health and comfort.

"At such a time," he writes, "I forced the Master to take the broth"; or "I made him put on the fur coat as you told me." Nor is Tinsley (see pp. 184, 85) less concerned. He prepares the nourishment. He cooks eternally, imperturbably, suspended in the chaos of which the Master interprets the meaning. Tinsley, bowed down with the laurels of both hemispheres, raises himself to yet nobler heights in his capacity of a devoted chef. It is almost unbelievable! And yet men write of the Master as cold, aloof, self–contained. Such characters do not elicit the joyous and unswerving devotion which Lavalle commanded throughout life. Truly, we have changed very little in the course of the ages! The secrets of earth and sky and the links that bind them, we felicitate ourselves we are on the road to discover; but our neighbours' heart and mind we misread, we misjudge, we condemn now as ever. Let all, then, who love a man read these most human, tender, and wise volumes.

(Transcriber's note: The following "advertisements" appeared in the format that would have been used in a newspaper or magazine ad section—that is in two columns for the smaller ads, and in quarter, half, full and double page layouts for the others.)

MISCELLANEOUS

[ WANTS ]

REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY, FOR East Africa, a thoroughly competent Plane and Dirigible Driver, acquainted with Petrol Radium and Helium motors and generators. Low–level work only, but must understand heavy–weight digs. MOSSAMEDES TRANSPORT ASSOC. 84 Palestine Buildings, E. C.

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MAN WANTED–DIG DRIVER for Southern Alps with Saharan summer trips. High levels, high speed, high wages: Apply M. SIDNEY Hotel San Stefano. Monte Carlo.

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FAMILY DIRIGIBLE. A COMPETENT, steady man wanted for slow speed, low level Tangye dirigible. No night work, no sea trips. Must be member of the Church of England, and make himself useful in the garden. M. R. The Rectory, Gray's Barton, Wilts.

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COMMERCIAL DIG, CENTRAL and Southern Europe. A smart, active man for a L. M. T. Dig. Night work only. Headquarters London and Cairo. A linguist preferred. BAGMAN Charing Cross Hotel, W. C. (urgent.)

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FOR SALE—A BARGAIN—Single Plane, narrow–gauge vans, Pinke motor. Restayed this autumn. Hansen air–kit, 58 in. chest, 153 collar. Can be seen by appointment. N. 2650 This office.

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The BEE–LINE BOOKSHOP

BELT'S WAY–BOOKS, giving town lights for all towns over 4,000 pop. as laid down by A. B. O. THE WORLD. Complete 2 vols. Thin Oxford, limp back. 12L 6d. BELT'S COASTAL ITINERARY. Short Lights of the World. 7s. 6d. THE TRANSATLANTIC AND MEDITERRANEAN TRAFFIC LINES. (By authority of the A.B.C.) Paper, 1s. 6d.; cloth. 2s. 6d. Ready, Jan. 16. ARCTIC AEROPLANING. Siemens and Gait. Cloth, bds. Ss. 6d. LAVALLE'S HEART OF THE CYCLONE, with supplementary charts. 4s. 6d. RIMINGTON'S PITFALLS IN THE AIR, and Table of Comparative Densities 3s. 6d. ANGELO'S DESERT IN A DIRIGIBLE. New edition, revised. 5s. 9d. VAUGHAN'S PLANE RACING IN CALM AND STORM. 2s. 6d. VAUGHAN'S HINTS TO THE AIRMATEUR 1s. HOFMAN'S LAWS OF LIFT AND VELOCITY. With diagrams, 3s. 6d. DE VITRE'S THEORY OF SHIFTING BALLAST IN DIRIGIBLES. 2s. 6d. SANGERS WEATHERS OF THE WORLD. 4s. SANGER'S TEMPERATURES AT HIGH ALTITUDES. 4s. HAWKIN'S FOG AND HOW To AVOID IT. 3s. VAN ZUYLAN'S SECONDARY EFFECTS OF THUNDERSTORMS. 4s. 6d. DAHLGREN'S AIR CURRENTS AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 5s. 6d. REDMAYNE'S DISEASE AND THE BAROMETER. 7s. 6d. WALTON'S HEALTH RESORTS OF THE GOBI AND SHAMO. 3s. 6d. WALTON'S THE POLE AND PULMONARY COMPLAINTS. 7s. ad. MUTLOWS HIGH LEVEL BACTERIOLOGY. 7s. 6d. HALLIWELL'S ILLUMINATED STAR MAP, with clockwork attachment, giving apparent motion of heavens, boxed, complete with clamps for binnacle, 36 inch size, only L2. 2. 0. Invaluable for night work.) With A.B.C. certificate. L3. 10s. 0d. Zalinski's Standard Works: PASSES OF THE HIMALAYAS, 5s. PASSES OF THE SIERRAS, 5s. PASSES OF THE ROOKIES. 5s. PASSES OF THE URALS, 5s. The four boxed, limp cloth, with charts, 15s. GRAY'S AIR CURRENTS at MOUNTAIN GORGES, 7s. 6d.

A. C. BELT & SON, READING

SAFETY WEAR FOR AERONAUTS

Fickers! Flickers! Flickers!

HIGH LEVEL FLICKERS

"He that is down need fear no fall,"

Fear not! You will fall lightly as down!

Hansen's air–kits are down in all respects. Tremendous reductions in prices previous to winter stocking. Pure para kit with cellulose seat and shoulder–pads, weighted to balance. Unequalled for all drop–work.

Our trebly resilient heavy kit is the ne plus ultra of comfort and safety.

Gas–buoyed, waterproof, hail–proof, nonconducting Flickers with pipe and nozzle fitting all types of generator. Graduated tap on left hip.

Hansen's Flickers Lead the Aerial Flight

197 Oxford Street

The new weighted Flicker with tweed or cheviot surface cannot be distinguished from the ordinary suit till inflated.

Fickers! Flickers! Flickers!

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APPLIANCES FOR AIR PLANES

What "SKID" was to our forefathers on the ground, "PITCH" is to their sons in the air.

The popularity of the large, unwieldy, slow, expensive Dirigible over the light swift, Plane is mainly due to the former's immunity from pitch.

Collison's forward–socketed Air Van renders it impossible for any plane to pitch. The C.F.S. is automatic, simple as a shutter, certain\ as a power hammer, safe as oxygen. Fitted to any make of plane.

COLLISON

186 Brompton Road

Workshops, Chiswick

LUNDIE do MATTERS

Sole Agts for East'n Hemisphere

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STARTERS AND GUIDES

Hotel, club, and private house plane–starters, slips and guides affixed by skilled workmen in accordance with local building laws.

Rackstraww's forty–foot collapsible steel starters with automatic release at end of travel—prices per foot run, clamps and crampons included. The safest on the market.

Weaver & Denison

Middleboro

AIR PLANES AND DIRIGIBLE GOODS

REMEMBER

Planes are swift—so is Death

Planes are cheap—so is Life

Why does the plane builder insist on the safety of his machines?

Methinks the gentleman protests too much.

The Standard Dig Construction Company do not build kites.

They build, equip and guarantee dirigibles.

Standard Dig construction Co.

Millwall and Buenos Ayres

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HOVERS

POWELL'S

Wind Hovers

for 'planes lying–to in heavy weather, save the motor and strain on the forebody. Will not send to leeward. "Albatross" wind–hovers, rigid–ribbed; according to h.p. and weight.

We fit and test free to

40 east of Greenwich Village

L. & W. POWELL

196 Victoria Street, W.

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REMEMBER

We shall always be pleased to see you.

We build and test and guarantee our dirigibles or all purposes. They go up when you please and they do not come down till you please.

You can please yourself, but—you might as well choose a dirigible.

STANDARD DIRIGIBLE CONSTRUCTION CO.

Millwall and Buenos Ayres

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GAYER AND HUNT

Birmingham and Birmingham

Eng. Ala.

Towers. Landing Stages, Slips and Lifts public and private

Contractors to the A. B. C., South–Western European Postal

Construction Dept. Sole patentees and owners of the

Collison anti–quake diagonal tower–tie. Only gold medal Kyoto

Exhibition of Aerial Appliances, 1997.

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AIR PLANES AND DIRIGIBLES

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C. M. C.

Our Synthetical Mineral

BEARINGS

are chemically and crystal logically identical with the minerals whose names they bear. Any size, any surface. Diamond, Rock–Crystal, Agate and Ruby Bearings–cups, caps and collars for the higher speeds. For tractor bearings and spindles–Imperative. For rear propellers–Indispensable. For all working parts–Advisable.

Commercial Minerals Co.

107 Minories

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RESURGAM!

If you have not Clothed YOURSELF in a

NORMANDIE RESURGAM

YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT BE INTERESTED IN OUR NEXT WEEK'S LIST OF

AIR–KIT.

RESURGAM AIR–KIT EMPORIUM

HYMANS & GRAHAM

1198 Lower Broadway, New York

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REMEMBER!

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* It is now nearly, a generation since the Plane was to supersede the Dirigible for all purposes. * TO–DAY none of the Planet's freight is carried en plane. * Less than two per rent of the Planet's passengers are carried en plane.

We design, equip guarantee Dirigibles for all purposes.

Standard Dig Construction Company MILLWALL and BUENOS AYRES

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BAT–BOATS

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FLINT & MANTEL

SOUTHAMPTON

FOR SALE

at the end of Season the following Bat–Boats:

GRISELDA, 65 knt., 42 ft., 430(nom.) Maginnis Motor, under–rake rudder. MABELLE, 50 knt., 40 ft., 310 Hargreaves Motor, Douglas' lock–steering gear. IVEMONA, 50 knt., 35 ft., 300 Hargreaves (Radium accelerator), Miller keel and rudder.

The above are well known on the South Coast as sound, wholesome knockabout boats, with ample cruising accommodation. Griselda carries spare set of Hofman racing vans and can be lied three foot clear in smooth water with ballast–tank swung aft. The others do not lift, clear of water, and are recommended for beginners.

Also, by private treaty, racing B.B. Tarpon (76 winning flags) 120 knt., 60 ft.; Long–Davidson double under–rake rudder, new this season and unstrained. 850 nom. Maginnis motor, Radium relays and Pond generator. Bronze breakwater forward, and treble reinforced forefoot and entry. Talfourd rockered keel: Triple set of Hofman vans, giving maximum lifting surface of 5327 sq. ft.

Tarpon–has been lifted and held seven feet for two miles between touch and touch.

Our Autumn List of racing and family Bats ready on the 9th

January.

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AIR PLANES AND STARTERS

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HINKS MODERATOR

Monorail overhead starter for family and private planes up to twenty–five foot over all

Absolutely Safe

Hinks & Co.. Birmingham

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J. D. ARDAGH

I AM NOT CONCERNED WITH YOUR PLANE I AFTER IT LEAVES MY GUIDES,

BUT TILL THEN I HOLD MYSELF PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR LIFE,

SAFETY, AND COMFORT. MY HYDRAULIC BUFFER–STOP CANNOT RELEASE

TILL THE MOTORS ARE WORKING UP TO BEARING SPEED, THUS SECURING

A SAFE AND GRACEFUL FLIGHT WITHOUT PITCHING.

Remember our motto, "Upward and Outward," and do not trust yourself to so–called "rigid" guide–bars

J. D. ARDAGH, BELFAST AND TURIN

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ACCESSORIES AND SPARES

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CHRISTIAN WRIGHT & OLDIS

ESTABLISHED 1924

ACCESSORIES and SPARES

Hooded Binnacles with dip–dials automatically recording change of level (illuminated face).

All heights from 50 to 15,000 feet L2 10 0 With Aerial Board of Control certificate L3 11 0 Foot and Hand Foghoms; Sirens toned to any club note; with air–chest belt–driven horn motor L6 8 0 Wireless installations syntonised to A.B.C. requirements, in neat mahogany case, hundred mile range L3 3 0

Grapnels, mushroom—anchors, pithing–irons, winches, hawsers, snaps, shackles and mooring ropes, for lawn, city, and public installations.

Detachable under–cars, aluminum or stamped steel.

Keeled under–cars for planes: single–action detaching–gear, turning car into boat with one motion of the wrist. Invaluable for sea trips.

Head, side, and riding lights (by size) Nos.00 to 20 A.B.C. Standard. Rockets and fog–bombs in colours and tones of the principal clubs (boxed). A selection of twenty L2 17 6 International night–signals (boxed) L1 11 6

Spare generators guaranteed to lifting power marked on cover (prices according to power).

Wind–noses for dirigibles—Pegamoid, cane–stiffened, lacquered cane or aluminum and flux for winter work.

Smoke–ring cannon for hail storms, swivel mounted, bow or stern.

Propeller blades: metal, tungsten backed; paper–mache wire stiffened; ribbed Xylonite (Nickson's patent); all razor–edged (price by pitch and diameter).

Compressed steel bow–screws for winter work.

Fused Ruby or Commercial Mineral Co. bearings and collars.

Agate–mounted thrust–blocks up to 4 inch.

Magniac's bow–rudders—(Lavales patent grooving).

Wove steel beltings for outboard motors (nonmagnetic).

Radium batteries, all powers to 150 h.p. (in pairs).

Helium batteries, all powers to 300 h.p. (tandem).

Stun'sle brakes worked from upper or lower platform.

Direct plunge–brakes worked from lower platform only, loaded silk or fibre, wind–tight.

CATALOGUES FREE THROUGHOUT THE PLANET