1912 – Page 6 – Old Magazine Articles

The Titanic Crew: Under-Drilled and Mediocre (The Nation, 1912)

The following is a very short opinion piece that more than likely served as an accurate reflection the of the opinions held by the Titanic‘s mourning loved ones. In their grief and incomprehension, some of the surviving family members of Titanic‘s victims, no doubt, did lay much of the blame on those who ply their trade at sea:

The Titanic‘s loss has made it clear that things are not going well among seamen. Despite the calmness of many of the crew, some of the facts that are coming out do not redound to the credit of the men of the sea. Like the captains of those near-by steamers that could have saved all but refused, they have made us all ask weather the old ideal of the sailor as a man brave to rashness, ready at any time to risk his life for others, and characterized by many other noble attributes of character, has faded from the sea…

Titanic Cartoons (Literary Digest, 1912)

Four cartoons pertaining to the loss of Titanic; the drawings first appeared in four different newspapers from various parts of the the United States shortly after news of the disaster had spread.

A Greek Tragedy at Sea (Century Magazine, 1912)

In an effort to add some element of nobility to that horrid April night when Titanic slipped under the surface of the sea, an anonymous opinion writer wrote this short editorial six weeks later:

The terrible event reads like an epic of night, or like a Greek tragedy on a colossal scale; more, it is a revelation of the power of God in man.

Early Aviation Safety Inventions (The Literary Digest, 1912)

An overview of the technological advancements that had been introduced in the aviation community in 1912. References are made to the superiority of the Pneumatic Flying Helmet, and the installation of the W. I. Twombly Safety Harness, oil gauges, self-acting gas pumps, double-cables, self-starting motors and heavily re-enforced wheels.

References are also made to the 1910, twenty-two mile flight across the English Channel by a pilot named Bleriot.

The First Casualty of an Air War (Popular Mechanics, 1912)

It was during the Italian-Turkish War (1911 – 12) that aircraft began to play active rolls in support of military operations. This article is remarkable in that it reports that as early as 1912, aircraft was used not merely to aid in the observation of enemy troop movements but also to drop bombs.

Captain Monte of the Italian army aeroplane corps has achieved the distinction of being the first airman wounded in battle while in the air with his machine.

Russian Composers Preferred by Rimsky-Korsakov (Review of Reviews, 1912)

For those of you looking for some dish in the music history department, this article recounts a conversation between Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 – 1908) and Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) as to which Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov preferred the best: Anton Rubinstein or Peter Tschaikovsky. Opinions flew in all directions and many more names were dropped before the conversation came to a close…

The Airborne Machine Gun (Literary Digest, 1912)

This remarkable aeroplane gun is the invention of Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac N. Lewis of the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Curiously enough, the gun was designed primarily for infantry and cavalry use.

Click here to read a 1918 article about the Lewis Gun.

The German View of the Next War (Literary Digest, 1912)

Attached is a short review of a book that turned many heads in the diplomatic circles of Europe in 1911: Germany And The Next War, written by Germany’s General von Bernhardi (1849 – 1930):

A very influential military writer in Germany declares that Germany must win her place as a world power through warfare.

The book sales in Germany were quite meager up until the first shot was fired in August of 1914, when they picked up considerably.

When the U.S. Navy Got A Little Larger… (Current Literature, 1912)

This article heralds the construction of two American battleships that would later become famous for the rolls they played during the Second World War. Both ships, U.S.S. Oklahoma and U.S.S. Nevada, would be commissioned in 1916 and assigned to the Atlantic Fleet during the Great War; Oklahoma protected convoys and later, in 1919, escorted President Wilson to France to the Versailles Treaty.

A Fiscal Report on the Immigrants of 1911 (America Magazine, 1912)

This is a short notice concerning which of the prominent immigrant groups were the poorest and the richest in the year 1911 – and from which nations did they originate.

Of the arrivals during the fiscal year, 1.6 percent were debarred from entering this country. Special mention is made of the fact that immigrants from Canada carried the greatest amount per capita, and those crossing the Mexican border brought with them the least money.