Word: mi.
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Department and the British Embassy drew blanks, newshawks began to do their own research. They discovered that the three bits of land had been claimed for the U. S. in 1860 under the terms of the Guano Islands Act. Jarvis, a treeless, scrubless coral patch less than two sq. mi. in area, was originally discovered by the U. S. sailing ship Eliza Thomas in 1821. In the days when the nitrates from bird-droppings were worth big money, Jarvis was an important place for guano hunters...
...credit to Sikorsky Aircraft for pioneering the art of ocean flying. Sikorskys will be surpassed by Martin's new China Clipper at hauling passengers, mail & express over such long routes as the California-Hawaii run (2,410-mi.) But the Sikorsky Clipper will continue to give able service in South American waters, is admirably adapted to the 1,250-mi. jump across the Tasman Sea contemplated by Sir Charles Edward Kingsford-Smith's airline...
Buccaneers like Bonito and Captain Edward Davis are supposed to have used lonely Cocos, 400 mi. from the mainland, to cache their booty. In modern times many a gentleman of fortune has searched Cocos for pirates' spoils. Not long after Franklin Roosevelt stopped to fish at Cocos on his way to Hawaii last year, a British syndicate began the most business-like search of all. Trouble developed when the authorities of Costa Rica, which claims Cocos, got wind of their doings. Shortly 75 Costa Rican policemen arrived at the island, deported the treasure hunters bag and baggage for digging...
Today the loft on the Journal's roof houses 76 cooing Hearstlings. The birds can fly 50 m.p.h. with a 2-oz. payload, are used within a 50-mi. radius. Film negatives and copy written on onionskin paper are placed in aluminum capsules, fastened to the birds' backs with elastic. The Journal used 20 pigeons on the Crempa story, finds them useful in covering ship-news, trials, sports, outlying murders. From ships at Quarantine, 14 miles away, the Journal gets pictures of incoming celebrities in twelve minutes. Rival papers must wait two hours until the ship docks...
...nighthawks but little else. They do not fly entirely by blind instinct, but apparently have their own system of avigation. The secret is supposedly in the ear, since the birds are unable to fly with their ears stopped up. U. S. distance record for homing pigeons is 2,150 mi. (Maine to Texas) at a speed of 700 mi. per day. The sport of racing homing pigeons, introduced in the U. S. about 1875, is still popular in Belgium, where nearly every village has its Societe Colombophile. The annual concourse national-Toulouse to Brussels (500 mi.)-was inaugurated...