Thursday, June 13, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 13, 1924. Macready jumps into the dark.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 13, 1924. Macready jumps into the dark.

Friday, June 13, 1924. Macready jumps into the dark.

Lt. John A Macready, already famous for this; 


First "Crop Dusting". August 3, 1921.

On this day in 1921, crop dusting, spraying pesticides by air, was performed for the first time in an experiment involving the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

First crop dusting being conducted.

The first flight featured Army Air Corps pilot John A. Macready and aircraft engineer Etienne Dormoy who performed the test with a Curtiss JN4 over a field outside of Troy, Ohio.  Lead arsenate was sprayed to attack caterpillars.

Dormay left, Macready right.

Macready would complete an Army career prior to World War Two, leaving the service in 1926, but was recalled to serve in the Second World War.  He retired from the Army Air Force in 1948.  He was a legendary pilot at the time and had many firsts while in the service, including being the first Air Corps pilot to parachute from a stricken aircraft at night.

made his aforementioned night jump.

He landed in a tree, which saved his life.

Which, in an odd way, brings up this item:

Mosquito Control Notification: Aerial Granular Larvicide Scheduled for June 13

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Laramie, Wyoming – City of Laramie Mosquito Control has scheduled the application of granular larvicide to control larval mosquitoes in rural areas adjacent to the city.  The application is scheduled for Thursday, June 13th beginning at daylight.   The product is a granular form of Bacillus thuringensis israelensis (Bti) that is designed to penetrate heavy grasses and brushy foliage to reach water sources, especially in maturing hay fields, where larvae are present. The application is targeting both nuisance and vector mosquito larva. The product is environmentally friendly and will not harm fish, amphibians, livestock, or other aquatic invertebrates. If weather conditions are not favorable for the application, it will be postponed until weather conditions allow for the application. 

Treatment areas include irrigated acreages along the Big Laramie River southwest of the city, flooded riparian zones in the Big Laramie flood plain southwest and north of the city, and acreages north and west of the city that are irrigated by the North Canal and the Pioneer Canal.  

Schedules regarding Mosquito Control, Parks, and Cemetery chemical applications for control of weeds and insect pests are available daily through the Mosquito Control and Integrated Pest Management Hotline at 721-5056. The schedule is updated at approximately 4pm daily. Spraying information is also available on the city website. Look for the daily mosquito and chemical application hotline tab on the home page at www.cityoflaramie.org.   For further information contact Hunter Deerman, Mosquito/IPM Supervisor at 721-5258; hdeerman@cityoflaramie.org or Scott Hunter, Parks Manager at 721-5257 SHunter@cityoflaramie.org.

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Silent Cal had a brief statement for the Press:


Monday, June 3, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: June 3, 1909. Dreadnoughts and Flyers.

Lex Anteinternet: June 3, 1909. Dreadnoughts and Flyers.

June 3, 1909. Dreadnoughts and Flyers.

The Imperial Russian Navy, down to four ships following the Russo Japanese War, began a program of rebuilding, laying down keels for four dreadnoughts.


The Wright Brothers returned to Ft. Myer, Virginian, with an improved Wright Military Flyer.  The prior version had killed Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, June 1, 1909. Pathfinder Dam completed.

Friday, May 17, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 17, 1924. U.S. Flyers reach Paramashiru.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 17, 1924. U.S. Flyers reach Paramash...

Saturday, May 17, 1924. U.S. Flyers reach Paramashiru.

Notre Dame students clashed with Ku Klux Klan members arriving in South Bend.

By Vallee - Made with freely available DEM data using QGIS and AerialOD, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=144444385

Three U.S. Army airplanes flew from Attu to Paramashiru in the Kurils, the longest and most dangerous leg of their transglobal flight.


The route allowed the effort to avoid Soviet airspace.  The US had not yet recognized the USSR.

Attu has been discussed here several times before, Paramushir (Russian: Парамушир, Japanese: 幌筵島, Ainu: パラムシㇼ) has not.  It is a volcanic island in the northern portion of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. The Kurils have been mentioned on this blog only once previously. 


Paramushir derives from  Ainu and means “broad island” or “populous island”.   Now a Russian possession, it was a Japanese one at the time.

Monday, May 6, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 6, 1944. Normandy Reconnaisance and the A7M.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 6, 1944. Shelling Sevastapol.

Saturday, May 6, 1944. Shelling Sevastapol.

Reconnaissance photograph, Normandy.  Taken by a F5, the reconnaisnace version of the P-38.


The first flight of the Mitsubishi A7M, the intended replacement for the famous A6M "Zero", occured.  Only seven of the carrier planes would be built before the end of the war.

Friday, May 3, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 3, 1924. Zinaida Kokorina.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 3, 1924. Foundings.

Zinaida Kokorina, against the odds and through the intervention of the Soviet head of state, became the first female military pilot on this day in 1924.



She wanted to become a fighter pilot, but was persuaded to remain a flight instructor, which she did through World War Two.  She later became headmistress of a village school at Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan before retiring to Moscow.