prize at one of the Hendon Race Meetings, I believe. And the same company have kindly lent a few slides, which I am sure you will like to see. You are regularly spoilt children, because every one seems so ready to lend things to be shown to you.
When we went over to America in 1910 to have a meeting of astronomers who study the Sun—the modern Sun worshippers—I was lucky enough to see a great aeroplane race meeting: and it was specially interesting to see Mr. Grahame White dropping chalk balls to try and hit the funnels of an imaginary ship marked out on the ground. It was quite difficult to hit the funnel from 100 feet up, when travelling at full speed, and of course an aeroplane would have to fly much higher up in time of war to avoid being shot at. So at the end of the meeting Mr. Grahame White kindly volunteered to try from a much greater height—1700 feet, I think. A hard chalk ball falling from this height might by accident hurt some one badly, so in this instance he dropped eggs, and presently a man came out with a megaphone to say what the result was; and he said something like this—
Mister—Grahame—White—has—dropped—eleven—eggs—from—seventeen—hundred—feet—but—the—umpires—have—not—been—able—to—say—where—any—of—them—fell.
You can well believe that the crowd laughed at this odd result, and it was suggested that the eggs hatched out on the way down and flew away!
Here you see that wonderful modern achievement called looping the loop. But, with all our admiration for aeroplanes, we must not forget that in the old days
