Overview
By Airship to the North Pole chronicles the adventures of Swedish engineer Salomon August Andree, who made the first failed attempt to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon in 1897, and of American journalist Walter Wellman who organized and led three unsuccessful air expeditions from 1907 to 1909. The book investigates the stories behind the quests to reach this remote and inhospitable outpost by air and examines how those stories were created and reported by the press. What he uncovers allows readers to reflect on the distortions of the written historical record, particularly unkind to Wellman, and what that may tell us about our own age of exploration as we look to the last frontiers in space.
Full Product Details
Author: P. J. Capelotti
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Imprint: Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.540kg
ISBN: 9780813526331
ISBN 10: 0813526337
Pages: 236
Publication Date: 01 April 1999
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
"A brilliant and absorbing reconstruction of two polar expeditions. Dr. CapelottiÆs fascinating book lifts the veil covering the obsessions of explorers.--Alan Gurney ""author of Below the Convergence"" ItÆs the weirdness of these early airships and some of the people promoting them, especially in the unforgiving world of the Arctic, that makes Dr. CapelottiÆs book a æmustÆ for anyone interested in aviation history or in polar exploration. The author deftly combines archaeological and historical sources in a fresh and convincing way to tell his story.--Richard A. Gould ""Brown University"" P. J. Capelotti chronicles the adventures of Swedish engineer Salomon August AndrTe, who made the first failed attempt to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon in 1897, and of American journalist Walter Wellman, who organized and led three unsuccessful air expeditions from 1907 to 1909. The book investigates the stories behind the quests to reach this remote and inhospitable outpost by air and examnes how those stories were created and reported by the press. . . . What he uncovers allows readers to reflect on the distortions of the written historical record, particularly unkind to Wellman, and what that may tell ys about our own age of exploration as we look to the last frontiers in space.--Bulletin of Science ""Technology & Society"" P. J. Capelotti, an archeologist, became intensely interested in what might remain as remnants of two early attempts to reach the [North] Pole by air from Danes Island in the Spitsbergen archipelago. . . . Capelotti has provided thoughtful reading by examining artifacts to determine whether or not they substantiate a written record. In so doing, he gives us a truer understanding of the means required and the tools used in early attempts to get to the North Pole.-- ""Technology and Culture"" This . . . engaging book focuses on the Arctic expeditions of S. A. Andree, a Swedish engineer, and an American journalist, Walter Wellman. Andree made an ill-fated attempt to complete the first balloon voyage over the North Pole in 1897, an effort that took his life as well as that of his two companions. . . . Capelotti has written an interesting analysis of human exploration.-- ""Choice"""
This . . . engaging book focuses on the Arctic expeditions of S. A. Andree, a Swedish engineer, and an American journalist, Walter Wellman. Andree made an ill-fated attempt to complete the first balloon voyage over the North Pole in 1897, an effort that took his life as well as that of his two companions. . . . Capelotti has written an interesting analysis of human exploration. * Choice * A brilliant and absorbing reconstruction of two polar expeditions. Dr. CapelottiÆs fascinating book lifts the veil covering the obsessions of explorers. -- Alan Gurney * author of Below the Convergence * P. J. Capelotti, an archeologist, became intensely interested in what might remain as remnants of two early attempts to reach the [North] Pole by air from Danes Island in the Spitsbergen archipelago. . . . Capelotti has provided thoughtful reading by examining artifacts to determine whether or not they substantiate a written record. In so doing, he gives us a truer understanding of the means required and the tools used in early attempts to get to the North Pole. * Technology and Culture * P. J. Capelotti chronicles the adventures of Swedish engineer Salomon August AndrTe, who made the first failed attempt to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon in 1897, and of American journalist Walter Wellman, who organized and led three unsuccessful air expeditions from 1907 to 1909. The book investigates the stories behind the quests to reach this remote and inhospitable outpost by air and examnes how those stories were created and reported by the press. . . . What he uncovers allows readers to reflect on the distortions of the written historical record, particularly unkind to Wellman, and what that may tell ys about our own age of exploration as we look to the last frontiers in space. -- Bulletin of Science * Technology & Society * ItÆs the weirdness of these early airships and some of the people promoting them, especially in the unforgiving world of the Arctic, that makes Dr. CapelottiÆs book a æmustÆ for anyone interested in aviation history or in polar exploration. The author deftly combines archaeological and historical sources in a fresh and convincing way to tell his story. -- Richard A. Gould * Brown University *
A well-written tale of two unlucky polar explorers. While undertaking archaeological research in the Spitsbergen archipelago, 600 miles below the North Pole, Capelotti (Social Sciences/Penn. State Univ., Abington) worked with artifacts left behind by the Swedish explorer Salomon August Andree and the American journalist Walter Wellman. Capelotti's book falls into two roughly equal parts; the first treats the failed attempts by first Andree and then Wellman to reach the North Pole by airship, and the second examines the material remains of their expeditions. The first part is the more interesting for general readers, especially because the principals seemed strangely unaware that they were doomed to failure from the outset. Andree, whom history has remembered unkindly as either a lunatic or an idiot, attempted his polar feat in an airship that, though it needed to stay aloft for a month, would not hold its hydrogen gas for more than a few days. The craft disappeared, taking Andree and two crewmen with it. Their remains have never been recovered, although film from their aerial photographs was later found and processed. Wellman, a Chicago-based journalist and incessant self-promoter, participated in the search for Andree's lost ship, and he took up the challenge in three failed airborne expeditions; a rival Chicago paper proclaimed the last a voyage which for foolhardiness exceeds anything in the history of human recklessness. All this is but a footnote in the history of exploration, but Capelloti tells it well. The second portion of his narrative, which will likely interest only archaeology buffs, looks in close detail ( One cross beam steel tube I inch in diameter remains attached to two side frame members, spacing them apart by a width of 30 inches along the inner edge of the frame and 34.25 inches along the outer edge ) at the detritus Andree and Wellman left behind. All in all, a nice job of historical reconstruction. (Kirkus Reviews)
Author Information
P. J. CAPELOTTI is a lecturer in the social sciences department at Pennsylvania State University at Abington and the author of Our Man in the Crimea: Commander Hugo Koehler and the Russian Civil War. He is a Fellow of the Explorers Club and a member of the advisory board for the Program in Maritime History and Archaeology at the University of Hawaii.
