The Contemporary Night Owl

The flagship Eslite bookstore in Taipei, Taiwan's Xinyi district circa 2013.

After reading this post from the New York Time's Sinosphere blog about the popularity of Taiwan's Eslite bookstore chain and the large number of young people and urban professionals in Taipei who are spending the wee hours of the morning hanging out at the gigantic Eslite bookstore in that city, it's easy to conclude that there still are places in this world where bookstore culture is thriving, despite the disappearance of most independent bookstores in the US and elsewhere in the West.

So what about some of the other bookstores that stay open through the late-night hours? Where can some of those be found these days? In no particular order, here are ten bookstores and bookstore that stay open late at night:

1.) The Sanlian Taofen Bookstore. While Eslite caters to night owls in Taiwan and Hong Kong (and soon, in a couple of cities in mainland China as well), one of the major Sanlian Taofen bookstores in Beijing began catering to night owls in that city in April of 2014 when it started staying open for 24 hours a day.

Like Eslite, the Taofen Bookstore has a library-like atmosphere where readers who aren't sleeping can immerse themselves in a novel all night and enjoy a little peace and quiet from all the pressures of daily life.

According to this article from CCTV, Sanlian's year-long experiment in late-night bookstores has been such a success that a second 24-hour Taofen bookstore near Beijing's Tsinghua University campus has opened as well!

2.) Shibuya Publishing Booksellers. One of Tokyo's coolest bookstores is one that stays open until midnight!

Shibuya Booksellers is located in Tokyo's Shibuya shopping district. One of the many things that make this bookstore different from others is that it organizes its books by theme rather than genre or author. For instance, you might find Haruki Murakami's After the Quake grouped together with books on earthquakes or geology. Apparently books here were organized by the decade in which they were published a few years back, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

Also, unlike other bookstore chains, they don't limit their selection of books to books only published by Shibuya Publishing. They sell many other books from a wide variety of other publishers as well as magazines from around the globe. Of course being in Japan a big chunk of their selection is in Japanese, but they do have some English language books for sale.

The bookstore also features a coffee bar and art installations, making it the perfect place for a hipster to hang out at night!

For more info about Shibuya Booksellers, please see their homepage or be sure to check out TimeOut Tokyo's special review on them at http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/venue/2113/Shibuya-Publishing-Booksellers.

3.) Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus. Another bookstore that stays open until midnight is the Dussmann das KultureKaufhaus bookstore in Berlin. This gigantic bookstore, which is located in eastern Berlin's Friedrichstraße shopping district, is five stories tall and sells media of all kinds ranging from books to DVDs to CDs to calendars and much more!

Also featured in this bookstore is a restaurant, Catherine's, and an English section (featuring a massive selection of over 6,000 English titles) that is now a "shop within a shop".

This bookstore is perfect for spending a whole day (or a whole night for that matter!) just shopping around and taking in what the store has to offer!

4.) St. Mark's Bookshop. Having been in business since 1977, St. Mark's Bookshop in New York City has stood the test of time as far as bookstores go these days!

Located in NYC's East Village, St. Mark's stays open from 11 am to 11 pm everyday except Sunday and is the place for book lovers to go once all the other book stores close for the evenings! They have an amazing selection of books to choose from and host upcoming events such as author readings and magazine launches.

This is definitely the place to go if you love to spend an evening surrounded by books and literary events!

5.) City Lights Booksellers and Publishers. One of the USA's most historic bookstores just happens to be one that stays open until midnight!

City Lights Books was founded in San Fransisco, CA in 1953 by the Beat Generation poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin. It was a place where Beatniks could congregate and read poetry during the 1950s and early 1960s and where hippies could turn on, tune in, and drop out a generation later. It is also the first all-paperback bookstore in the US.

To this day, City Lights has remained true to its independent roots and carries a nice stock of the latest titles ranging from best-sellers to thought-provoking, controversial classics of the past century. The atmosphere in City Lights is very alternative...as it has been since the day it first opened its doors. The ailes are maze-like and the store is decorated with signs containing hand-written messages!

6.) Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe & Grill. For night owls and book lovers living in Washington, DC, the one place to go is Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe and Grill. As you may have guessed, this is a book store, bar, cafe, and restaurant all rolled into one. Founded in 1971, Kramer's prides itself on being both an indie bookstore and a restaurant/bar where a night owl who loves eating out at midnight or later can do so!

Kramer's is open from 7:30 am-1 am everyday except Friday and Saturday, when they stay open until 4 am.

This place is a dream come true for night owls!

7.) Eslite Bookstore (Hong Kong). At the time of this writing, Eslite's Hong Kong store also happens to be the only late-night bookstore in the territory. Spanning three stories high, this giant bookstore has quite a few English and Chinese book titles to choose from!

During the week, Eslite HK stays open from 10 am-11 pm and from 10 am-2 am on Fri-Sun nights.

8.) Book City. Since 1976, Book City has been one of Toronto, ON's most popular indie book store chains. Initially opening its doors in the Annex district, Book City has branched out across the city and has been one of Toronto's premier book store chains for nearly four decades now. Furthermore, their Danforth location keeps their doors open until 10 pm on Mon-Wed and 11 pm on Thurs-Sat.

9.) Powell's City of Books. No list of late-night bookstores would be complete without this store! Located in Portland, OR, Powell's City of Books is a colossal bookstore spanning a full city block with well over a million books in their inventory, which strongly justifies their claim to be the world's largest independent bookstore!

Powell's offers over 3,500 sections of books, an art gallery that features a monthly art exhibit and author events (often featuring famous authors, artists, poets, and more), do-it-yourself book publishing, and of course, coffee and espressos!

Powell's stays open from 9 am to 11 pm 7 days a week, making it a prime nighttime hotspot for Portland.

10.) Liberarte. Buenos Aires's Avenida Corriente (Corriente Avenue) is a long avenue of intellectual and nightlife hotspots that stay open during the night hours long after the rest of the city has gone to sleep.

One of the top late-night bookstores along this thoroughfare is the Liberate bookstore. This is a place where Argentine booklovers and intellectuals who aren't sleeping can come and discuss some of the latest literature. However, it is much more than that. It's an eclectic mix of a bookstore, CD/DVD store (with its own movie club), and theatre!

In addition to books, Liberarte has a theatrical hall that hosts theatrical, dance, and comedy performances from renowned performers at night (from both Argentina and elsewhere in the world), as well as book readings and discussions from some of Argentina's most famous writers, and a publishing house that publishes a number of new book titles.

For any night owls visiting Buenos Aires, this is a place you won't want to miss! For more information about Liberarte, see the following website from the Buenos Aires city government: http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/areas/cultura/cpphc/sitios/detalle.php?id=34 (Spanish language only)

Know of any other bookstores in this wide world of ours that stay open during the late night hours? Do you have any experiences with any of the above bookstores? Feel free to share your experiences in the Comments below!


Credits and Notes:
*Eslite bookstore picture credit: Kwongning210. Used via Wikimedia Commons per Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. 
    The Eslite Bookstore chain is owned by and a copyright of the Eslite Corporation based in Taipei, Taiwan. This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Eslite Corporation in any way, shape or form. Furthermore, the blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the other bookstores listed above. All listings in this post are a result of the author's own independent research and initiative.

A Boeing 307 Stratoliner from the World War II era. The Stratoliner was the first airliner to be pressurized, enabling it to fly at high altitudes.

In case you missed my first blog post about the history of night flying, you can read that here. Now on to part two: Night flying during the World War II years.

Regular "red-eye flight" services as we know them now were still not possible during the 1940s due to the lack of availability of night-flying equipment, the inability of most airliners to fly long distances, and so on. Obviously the war and the very high possibility of being shot down by either side while flying over occupied Europe or the Asia-Pacific region would make flying at night very risky. However, it was during this period of time that the technology that made routine night flying possible was born......

US paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division heading toward British Hotspur gliders during training exercises.

During the war, fighters and bombers on both sides launched attacks on ground targets, military installations, cities. and enemy aircraft at night. When the war broke out in 1939, the methods used for night flying - especially on the British side - were very crude compared with the technology available to them by the war's end. Some of the main methods used by the RAF at the onset of the war had been used by navigators for many centuries.

Military Night Flights and Celestial Navigation
At the outbreak of war, American, British, and Japanese military pilots navigated at night mostly by using the time-tested, old-fashioned way: Celestial navigation. With a sextant and star charts and by the light of the moon, the pilots made their way to their targets across occupied Europe and the Pacific. On a cloudy or foggy night, it was sometimes impossible to tell friend from foe. Japanese pilots would continue to fly this way at night throughout most of the war.

Devices such as the Mark 1B astrograph (used by both American and British air forces), the A-10A sextant used by the US Army Air Force made flying by the stars, and the Fairchild-Maxon Mark I Line of Position Computer used by USAAF and US Navy aircraft made night flying much easier. However, the Mark 1B and Fairchild-Maxon computers were far too heavy for most navigators and pilots to deal with and the Fairchild-Maxon computers were also very expensive.

The navigator of a bomber would often sit in the glass "bubble" (often sharing it with the bombardier or tail gunner) and make his calculations where he'd have a good view of the night sky and the ground below.

The German Luftwaffe, on the other hand, had its own special innovative night-flying technology which will be discussed in detail below.

Clandestine Operations at Night
Throughout the war, both sides used the darkness of night as a natural cover to launch clandestine operations into each others' territory. On the Allied side, C-47s and paratroop gliders dropped paratroopers, commandos, and secret agents behind enemy lines during the nighttime hours. Soviet airline Aeroflot carried out over 83,000 special nighttime missions by the time the war officially ended in September, 1945.

A German Be 09 "Bernhard" navigation antenna from WWII.

Wartime Technological Advancements and Night Flying
It has often been said that World War II was a "technological war." New technological developments were put to the test during the war and these developments changed the world. Some of these developments are still changing the world at this very moment. Needless to say, all the new technological developments of the WWII era made flying at night much, much easier.

Blind Flying Navigation Systems
Prior to the outbreak of war, new technologies were being developed that made flying at night a whole lot easier. Blind flying beams such as the Lorenz beam in Germany and the Diamond-Dunmore equi-signal radio guidance system in the US guided planes to the ground during the night and in bad weather conditions when visibility was down to a bare minimum. The Lorenz beam consisted of two different signals: A signal that transmitted Morse code dots, and another signal that transmitted Morse code dashes. All three were broadcast from a single radio transmitter via three antennae at the end of an airport runway. As a pilot came in for a landing, the main signal got stronger. If s/he veered off course to the left, s/he would hear the Morse code dots. If off course to the right, s/he would hear the dashes. If they were making a smooth landing, the signals would both align to form a single equisignal.

Before the war, the Lorenz beam was used by airports in several countries including Germany and Switzerland. It was used by Lufthansa as early as 1934 and would be used some 6-7 years later after the outbreak of World War II by the Luftwaffe as their main pilot guidance system to targets across the UK during the Blitz. Lorenz beams were picked up by special radio receivers installed in Luftwaffe aircraft known as Knickebein ("Crooked leg" in German) devices due to the crooked shape of the antenna which protruded from underneath the airplane.

The Battle of the Beams, or the British effort to jam the Lorenz transmissions and send out misleading transmissions, was a large-scale battle fought behind the scenes during the Battle for Britain!

After the war, the Lorenz technology was confiscated by the Allies and was put to good use by US, British and Soviet airlines until instrument landing systems came along during the 1950s and rendered the Lorenz beam obsolete.

The two main systems developed by the Allies were the Gee system and LORAN. The Gee system was developed by scientists in Britain, while the LORAN system was developed by American scientists. Both were very similar to each other. So much so that the two devices could be interchanged! These radio navigation systems made it possible for planes to find their way through pitch black darkness to their targets by correlating data on a map with radio transmitters installed at various locations throughout the UK, US, and Canada. Toward the end of the war, Gee and LORAN technology had developed to the point where pilots could fly straight to a target and bomb it without ever seeing it. The Gee devices installed in RAF fighter planes played a decisive role in Britain's victory in the air war against the Nazis during World War II.

After the war, both systems were used for many decades to come. The Gee system stayed in use in British and other Commonwealth aircraft until 1970, when the last Gee transmitter was shut down. Updated versions of the LORAN were used worldwide for both aircraft and ships until the 1980s-1990s, when GPS technology began to replace it. The last American LORAN transmitters were turned off in 2010.

Another groundbreaking development from German scientists was the Sonne, or "Consol" (as it was known in the UK) system. The Sonne transmitters transmitted radio beams that shot across the night sky in any direction. The Sonne system was widely used by German planes and ships navigating through the darkness of occupied Europe at night....as well as by British forces hunting down those same Germans! After the war, the Sonne network was widely used around the world for maritime navigation until 1991, when the very first Sonne transmitter set up by the Nazis in Norway was retired.

One thing is for certain: After the dust from war had begun to settle, these radio navigation systems changed air and sea navigation as we knew it.

Radar

An H2X radar set installed in a plane, most likely an American B-17, during WWII.

One of the most important devices to debut during World War II was the radar. Portable radar sets such as the H2X set on the right gave Allied aircraft a huge advantage over German forces during the war. They also made flying at night much easier and made enemy targets in the air and on the ground much easier to detect when the night sky gave enemy planes natural cover. Ground radar was used to pinpoint night fighters in the sky and to help coordinate anti-aircraft guns.

Over seven decades on, radar is still a very important part of our world today and is used for detecting storms, aircraft, and much, much more 24 hours a day. A few of the giant Würzburg radar units used by German forces during the war was used by several European nations including the Netherlands, the USSR, and France for much more important purpose afterwards: For detecting quasars, black holes, and pulsars in the night sky. These radars opened the door for the modern day science of radio astronomy.

Pressurized Cabins
The World War II era was also the period when modern-day jet airliners were born. While the war raged around the globe, aircraft designers kept working on creating aircraft with pressurized cabins that could fly at higher altitudes than the aircraft of the time and eliminate the need for oxygen masks for bomber crews, etc. Experiments on pressurization began as far back as 1920 by countries such as the US, France, Germany, and the USSR. Prior to the outbreak of war in Europe, the Americans unveiled the first pressurized airliner to the world: the Boeing 307. Only 10 of these airliners saw service and from late 1941 onwards, all of the American aircraft industry's attention was solely devoted to the war effort. Five of the 307s ended up being acquisitioned by the US Army and put to use as C-75 transport aircraft.

Thanks to its pressurized cabin, the Boeing 307 had the capability of soaring up to 20,000 feet. It had the capability of carrying 35 passengers and 5 crew members and it featured a 12-foot (3.6 meter) wide cabin specially designed to give night fliers a comfortable berth!


While all the developments in night flying during the World War II years happened on the military's side, all this new technology would start to be put to full use by civilian airliners after the Allied victory in 1945. From 1945 onwards, the stage was set for the era of flying that would come next: the Jet Age. And it was during the early years of the Jet Age that red-eye flights as we know them were born.

For part three of this series (Night flying in the early years of the Jet Age), please click here.

Links:
-http://timeandnavigation.si.edu/navigating-air/challenges/overcoming-challenges (Website from the Smithsonian Institution about overcoming the challenges of navigation at night and in stormy weather throughout the history of aviation. Features an online gallery of equipment used in aircraft from the early days of flight up to the 1990s.)
-http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/topics/radar (A history of radar from the BBC.)
-http://www.loran-history.info/ (An excellent website dedicated to the history of LORAN and the USCG crews who manned the LORAN stations.)
-https://www.astron.nl/~leeuwen/video/dloo/JAHH9p3.pdf (The Beginnings of Radio Astronomy in the Netherlands)
-http://www.narit.or.th/en/files/2007JAHHvol10/2007JAHH...10..221O.pdf  (Highlighting the History of French Radio Astronomy. 3: The Würzburg Antennas at Marcoussis, Meudon, and Nançay)
-http://www.boeing.com/history/products/model-307-stratoliner.page

Bibliography:
-Johnson, Brian. The Secret War. London: BBC/Methuen Publishers, 1978. Chapters 1-2.
-Braude, S.Y., ‎Dubinskii, B.A., Kaidanovskii, N.L. A Brief History of Radio Astronomy in the USSR: A Collection of Scientific Essays. New York: Springer Publishing, 2012, pg. 11.
-Okumiya, Masatake, Horikoshi, Jiro, Caidin, Martin. Zero! New York: Ballatine Books, 1956, pg. 211.


Credits:
Boeing 307 picture: San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives. Used courtesy of Flickr's The Commons.
"Bernhard" picture: Australian armed forces.
H2X radar: USAF/486 Bomber Group Association
*All pics used courtesy of Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise noted.

While the end of this month hasn't been as exciting as the beginning for late-night TV, there are a few highlights from this week worth mentioning:

Two days ago, famed American astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson made his debut on late-night TV! On Monday night, a late-night TV version of Tyson's famed StarTalk podcast and radio show started airing on the National Geographic Channel. The show will run for a trial run of 10 episodes at 11 pm on Monday nights and Tyson is very optimistic that the show will do well. According to comments made in Forbes, Tyson believes that the general public is very intersted in science and astrophysics and he sincerely believes his mission is to "bring science down to the public" and to "bring the universe down to Earth." If you're a night owl who is passionate about the cosmos, you probably don't want to miss this show!

Meanwhile, with less than a month to go before legendary late-night TV host David Letterman wraps up his show for good, he has begun bidding a long farewell and tribute to all those who have helped make his show such a big success over the past several decades. He began making his tributes on Friday night with a special tribute to his long-time bandleader and "right-hand man" Paul Shaffer, who has not only directed the music but also appeared in a number of skits on the show.

And finally, Conan writer Andrés du Bouchet caused a bit of a furor a couple of days ago - not least with his boss, late-night TV host Conan O' Brien - when he posted a few scathing tweets (which have since been deleted) about how "Comedy in 2015 needs a severe m------f---ing shakeup". Some might agree, but other media critics and reporters are very interested in the growing diversification of late-night TV in the USA as more and more foreign comedians and celebrities take over the late-night slots on American TV. Will American TV keep heading in this direction? We'll just have to watch and see!

Early aircraft at an air meet in Los Angeles, Jan. 1910.

This is the first in a series of blog posts I'd like to share about the history of night flying. This series is by no means a comprehensive or authoritative history of aviation at night, but rather some insights from history about milestones and technological developements in the world of aviation that have made nighttime flights as we know them possible. Without further adieu, here goes:

Nighttime flights are one of the many things we take for granted in our modern world. If we need to book an emergency flight from New York to London or vice versa, we can do that and be in either location in a matter of hours. A century ago, flying at night was not possible. It was only made possible by daredevil aviators who flew by the seat of their pants with virtually no equipment to guide them and very primitive planes that were manufactured less than a decade after the Wright Brothers made the world first flight!

The World's First Night Flight
The world's very first night flight is a subject of debate. According to numerous Internet sources, the world's first night flight took place in March 1910, when French aviator Emil Aubrun flew through the night sky in a Blériot XI monoplane from Villalugano, Argentina.  However, it's also possible that British aviator Claude Grahame-White may have made the first night flight a little over a month later when he flew from London to Manchester, UK during the Daily Mail air race in the wee hours of April 23rd. Not wanting to be beaten by his opponent, French aviator Louis Paulhan. Grahame-White flew the journey guided at first by the car lights of his party below and finished using the lights of railway stations along the way to guide him to Manchester. Ultimately he lost the race to Paulhan, but remained proud of the historical achievement he achieved while trying to win the race! Despite the debate over who made the first night flight, one thing is for certain: Whoever made that first night flight was one of those daredevil aviators of the early 20th century who were daring and sometimes a little on the wild and dangerous side with their "flying machines!"

Both of these events happened a little over five months before the first air-to-ground radio transmissions took place between an airplane and a radio operator on the ground. This was yet another milestone in nighttime flying that occured in 1910.

Night Flying During World War I
During World War I, British and later American biplanes made nighttime flights to monitor German U-boat activity in the Atlantic. U-boats prowled the oceans at night and these night attacks on Allied warships and shipping made aerial night observation and sorties a must. Allied warplanes often flew night missions over German trenches and field positions, dropping bombs on the enemy soldiers below. Most importantly of all, British planes flew over the skies of Britain at night and shot down German Zeppelins and bombers that attempted to attack Britain by air. Germany's Zeppelin fleet suffered a devastating blow at the hands of the British RAAF, losing 79 of the 123 Zeppelins built by the German armed forces for the war. The air war over Britain during World War I set the stage for the much more devastating and crucial air war that Germany would launch over 20 years later during World War II.

The "Air Jockeys"
While the world below them heated up and finally exploded at Sarajevo in 1914, the pioneering aviators aka "air jockeys" continued to set nighttime flying records around the globe. On February 11, 1911, French aviator Robert Grandseigne became the first aviator to fly over Paris at night when he flew his Caudron biplane equipped with electric lights over the city. On July 23rd, 1913, H.W. Blakeley became the first pilot to fly through Canadian airspace at night when he flew his biplane, equipped with electric lights on the wings, over the Dominion Livestock Show and Fair in Brandon, MB where bonfires guided the way to and from the air. In 1916, American aviator Art Smith went on his first tour of Asia and supposedly became the first aviator to fly over Japan at night. While Smith made his flight over Aoyama and Akasuka-Mitsuke, hundreds of spectators, including members of the Japanese royal family, Japanese Imperial armed forces, and foreign dignitaries, watched below. Fireworks exploded in the night sky as Smith landed his plane and he was surrounded by cheering crowds as he made his way back to his hotel that night.

The first successful nighttime air mail run in the USA was made on February 22nd, 1921 by an American pilot named Jack Knight. Knight flew his de Havilland from North Platte to Omaha, NE on an icy, snowy February night with the way to Omaha lit by bonfires below him by local farmers. Knight was one of several pilots who attempted this nighttime mail run on behalf of the US Postal Service and was the only one who succeeded.

USPS airmail planes at the airmail field in Omaha, NE in 1927.

Rough Flying
During the early 20th century, flying at night was not exactly cozy, comfortable, or safe. Throughout the 1910s, air to ground radio communications were in their infancy and as a result, there was no way for airfields to relay the latest weather conditions to the pilots up in the air during that time. Instruments were not available for measuring the latest wind or weather conditions or calculating distances. Pilots had to fly on sheer luck and knowledge of the terrain below. Also, ice had a tendency to build up on airplane carburetors and caused them to crash. Over the course of the 1920s, many of these problems were fixed. Engineers created heaters that kept the airplane's carburetors running warm during the course of the flight. Radio technology matured to the point where radios could be installed in planes and communication between pilots and airfields became instantaneous. Most importantly of all, numerous airfields started popping up across the globe that allowed planes to refuel and make long-distance flights. These airfields were essential for guiding pilots through bad weather during the night and guiding them safely to an airfield when visibility was bad.

As you can imagine, the first night flights could be extremely cold for the crew, especially in the wintertime. Pilots flying in the cockpits of WWI-era biplanes were completely exposed to the frigid night air and had to bundle up very nicely to stay warm! Over time during the 1920s, engineers found a way to heat the cabin and cockpit of an airplane by piping heat from the engine into the plane. After this innovation was added to planes, flying by night became extremely comfortable! This also made it increasingly possible for night flights to start carrying not only cargo and mail, but passengers as well.

According to an April 1922 issue of Aerial Age Weekly, the first nighttime flight from the UK to the Continental Air Route established across continental Europe occured that spring when a British Air Ministry plane took off from Croydon Aerodrome at 9:20 pm, landed at the aerodrome in St. Inglevert, France (with a quick stop at Lympne, Kent along the way), and returned to Croydon at 11:30 pm. However, that plane carried a couple of Air Ministry personnel who handled wireless communication and lighting as well as the crew of the plane itself. There were no civilians aboard.

The First Nighttime Air Passenger Services
In Camille Allaz's 2005 book The History of Cargo and Air Mail from the 18th Century, credit for the world's first regular nighttime civilian air passenger service goes to Deutsche Post. On May 1st, 1926, this nighttime air mail service route opened in Germany between Berlin and the then-German enclave of Königsberg, or what's now the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. This service carried both mail and passengers.

During this same year, the newly-formed German airline company, Deutschen Luft Hansa, began a nightly air service from Tempelhof Airfield in Berlin to Moscow via the Königsberg route.

Another Nighttime Aviation Record
On the night of April 16-17, 1927, the Portugese aviator José Manuel Sarmento de Beires made history when he made the world's first aerial nighttime trans-Atlantic crossing. Sarmento de Beires' flight started in Bolama, Portugese Guinea at 6:08 pm on the 16th. Sarmento de Beires and his crew of two made the flight in a Portugese Army Aviation Dornier Do J Wal seaplane named the Argos. After a dramatic nighttime flight that saw the Argos experience engine trouble and make a landing on the Rocks of St. Peter and St. Paul, it finally made it to Brazil's Fernando de Noronha Island at 12:20 pm on the 17th. Sarmento de Beires and his crew made this accomplishment at a time when the race to conquer the south Atlantic by air was at its most intense and the seeds were being planted for the era of traveling across continents by air.

Sarmento do Beires's flight came just one month exactly before the most famous trans-Atlantic night flight of them all: The first non-stop flight across the Atlantic from New York to Paris by American aviator Charles Lindbergh in his monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis.

The Take-Off of Night Flights
Nineteen thirty was a very important year for night flying in the USA, and night flying in general. This was the year when the first American nocturnal passengers took their first flight. Also in 1930, night flights became a lot safer when the world's first electrical runway lights were installed and activated at the Cleveland Municipal Airport (now known as Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport) in Cleveland, OH, USA. Until that point in time, airplanes used other means of lighting the runway below when landing such as spotlights attached to the wings and flares thrown from the cockpit.

A year later, nighttime flying made its way into the world of literature when the French author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry published his novel Vol de Nuit, or Night Flight in English. This novel was based on Saint-Exupéry's experiences as an airmail pilot who flew by the seat of his pants through the night skies and as a director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline. This book was adapted into the 1933 movie Night Flight starring Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, John Barrymore, and Lionel Barrymore.

Throughout the 1930s, nighttime flying became more and more routine as air routes became established between countries throughout the world as well as the European colonies in Africa and Asia. Major airlines such as Pan-American and Britain's Imperial Airways made sure that passengers, especially first-class passengers who flew at night, had as many of the same creature comforts that passengers on trains on the ground below had. Many of the more luxurious planes such as Pan-Am's Clippers, the Douglas Sleeper Transport, and the British "Empire" flying boats, had beds in the cabins and even smoking lounges! Electrical lighting made flying the most comfortable it had ever been. During this period of time, passenger and cargo planes were not pressurized like they are today and were much smaller than today's passenger jets. Most could hold 20-35 passengers at the most and flew at fairly low altitudes.

Flying by night - or at least flying by night in America - became even more comfortable beginning in 1935. According to an article from the August issue of Flying Magazine from that year, Central Airlines (an airline that flew daily and nightly flights between Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh) proposed that movies, or "talking pictures" as they were also called then, be shown during night flights! At the time there was widespread opposition from airline executives because the plane's roaring engines would drown out the movie's audio track. As for showing movies during daytime flights, that was not done because sunlight shining through the cabin windows would interfere with the picture. After Central Airlines demonstrated that movies were perfectly watchable during night flights to a committee composed of airline, transportation, and military executives plus some Congressmen (ironically enough, the movie Devil Dogs of the Air was the movie selected to be shown), their proposal received widespread enthusiasm and afterwards, movies became a routine feature of nighttime flights.

The two drawbacks to flying during this period of the time were the length of time it took to reach a destination, as well as the cost for tickets. Passengers could expect to pay a princely sum to fly on an airliners, especially one of the more luxurious ones! Also, since these planes flew at a maximum speed of around 250 mph, a plane could take days or even a week (or sometimes longer than that) to reach an international destination!

An airway beacon dating from 1929 in St. Paul, MN.

American Airway Beacons
One very important innovation in aviation was the system of airway beacons that was developed in the US during the 1920s and 1930s. These beacons were electric spotlights mounted on towers that were installed on mountainsides and in wilderness areas. The beacons were inspired by the lighthouses along coastal areas, which also guide planes and ships to safety during the night hours. Like lighthouses, airway beacons lit the way at night and guided planes to their destination when radio contact might be minimal or non-existent due to distance, bad weather, etc. Prior to this national network, volunteers often lit bonfires in remote or rural areas to guide planes to the nearest airfields. As navigational technology improved and planes began to rely on radar and computers to guide the way, this network of beacons was phased out and dismantled across the US. However, it was preserved in the state of Montana and is still in existence today, guiding planes during the night as it has for over nine decades now.

As the age of air travel was ushered in during the 1930s, the need for "air jockeys" to traverse the skies and set new records vanished. Some aviators such as Jack Knight became airline or military pilots and became legendary in a whole new way. Some contined to fly well into the era of DC-3s and 707s. One thing is for sure: These air jockeys gradually paved the way for international flights and long-distance flying, as well as nighttime flying.

Please click here for part two of this series, where I explore night flying during the World War II years with all of you out there! If you'd rather fast forward a few years to night flying during the Jet Age, you can read more about this subject in part three of the series.

Links:
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1910_London_to_Manchester_air_race (Wikipedia entry about the Daily Mail London to Manchester air race of 1910.)
-http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/so00/aviation_history.asp (A history of aviation in Canada from the Sept-Oct. 2000 issue of Canadian Geographic.)
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Smith_(pilot) (Art Smith Wikipedia entry.)
-http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/flying/seventy_five_years.htm (A webpage about Jack Knight's historic nighttime air mail run.)
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmento_de_Beires (The Sarmento de Beires transatlantic flight at Wikipedia.)
-http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/AAF-Night/ (Conquering the Night: US Army Air Forces Night Fighters at War by Stephen L. McFarland/Air Forces History and Museum Program, 1998.)
-http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/howitbegan.htm (Website dedicated to the history of the US airway beacon system.)
-http://www.ronaldv.nl/abandoned/airfields/ge/Berlin/index.html#Tempelhof (Page at the Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields website about the history of Tempelhof Airport.)
-http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/what-international-air-travel-was-like-in-the-1930s-1471258414 (Interesting article about what air travel was like during the 1930s.)

Bibliography
-Abbatiello, John. Anti-Submarine Warfare in World War I: British Naval Aviation and the Defeat of the U-Boats. London: Routledge, 2006, pgs. 26-27.
-Allaz, Camille. The History of Air Cargo and Airmail from the 18th Century. London: Christopher Foyle Publishing, 2005.
-Roberts, Rachel Sherwood. Art Smith: Pioneer Aviator. Jefferson: McFarland and Co, Inc. Publishers, 2003,  pgs. 111-112.
-Villard, Henry Serrano. Contact! The Story of the Early Aviators. Mineola: Dover Publications, 2003, pg. 127.
-Huking, Harry W. Night Fliers at 10,000 Feet Hurdle the Rockies. Popular Science  8.3 (1931): pgs. 32-33; 113.
-Lynn, Bert D. Britain's Aerial Ocean Liner. Popular Aviation 1.5 (1937): pgs. 19-20.
-Movies on the Airlines. Popular Aviation 8.9 (1935): pg. 92.
-Night Flight Croydon to Lympne. Aerial Age Weekly 15.10 (1922): pg. 183.


Credits:
-Dominguez Field Air Meet 1910 pic: Wikimedia Commons.
-Omaha airmail planes: Smithsonian Institution/Flickr Commons.
-Indian Mounds State Park airwaybeacon: McGhiever.
*All pics used courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

This past week has been a very interesting week in the world of late-night TV.

In Japan, a late night TV milestone was reached on Saturday night when an android hosted a late-night TV show for the very first time. An android duplicate of late night TV show host Matsuko Deluxe made its appearance on his show Matsuko Matsuko....and was an "unnerving" experience for the TV host. "Matsukodroid" and its creator, famed roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, were brought onto the show by Japanese advertising agency Dentsu in order to promote what it hopes will be a trend in android entertainers. As for Matsuko Deluxe, it's his hope that he will be able to "take a few well-deserved days off" thanks to Matsukodroid!   

As most of you here in the US are no doubt aware, South African comedian Trevor Noah is due to take over from Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Back home in South Africa, enthusiasm over Noah taking the helm on the show is growing, not least among his family - and his grandmother in particular. In an interview to a South African TV channel, she talks about how proud she is of her grandson....and also took the time to warn his critics that they could "give him ideas for his jokes"!

Last night on HBO's late night news show Last Week Tonight, viewers were surprised when host John Oliver sat down and interviewed American NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden for the show. The two discussed quite a few topics, including the NSA's surveillance programs and junk pictures!

And finally, six days ago, newly-christened host of American TV network CBS's Late Late Show James Corden was in for a shock when guest Katie Couric took a fall down a flight of stairs and seemed to have been seriously injured or even killed. Fortunately it was an April Fool's joke, but it was one that gave Corden and the audience a very big scare! 

No matter if you're a fan of late-night TV or not, one thing is for certain: It has been getting very interesting all around the world over the past week or two!

Martians destroying a town in England in a 1906 edition of "War of the Worlds".  On that infamous day in 1938, scenes like this were going through the heads of many frightened Americans as Orson Welles's radio drama was broadcast. (Henrique Alvim Correa/Wikimedia Commons)

While most people sleep during the night, there is a legion of workers who work during the nighttime hours, making sure that the essential services that power our lives stay on during the night. Part of that legion are the telephone operators who make sure our telephone and Internet service stays on during the night and who stay on standby to provide customer assistance if needed.

During the 1930s, telephone operators were also an essential source of up to the minute information
in the days before "instant" mass media such as TV. If anyone needed instant information about the news or weather or just needed to get in touch with Aunt Sally, all they needed to do was dial 0 and the operator would be with them right away.

One of the greatest examples of operators fulfilling that task during this period of time was the night when Orson Welles's radio dramatization of H.G. Wells's novel War of the Worlds aired in 1938 and caused a mass hysteria across the US. Throughout the night of the broadccast, telephone operators all across the United States were inundated with calls from terrified people trying to get in touch with family members or just checking to see if what they were hearing on the radio was real. Not only were the switchboards of major telephone companies such as AT&T overwhelmed, but the switchboards of local police and radio stations and telegraph offices as well. Operators worked through the night trying to reassure the public that the Martian invasion (as well as rumors that it was actually Germans and not Martians who were attacking and/or invading the USA) was not real and that they had no reason to worry.

In 1988, AT&T made a special video interviewing some of their operators who were on duty that night. In this six minute video they detail the sensation of that night, including how every single light on the half-block long AT&T switchboard lit up during the course of that broadcast, to the truly terrifying accounts of terrified people trying to place one last call through to their families to tell them they loved them before the Martians came.

Telephone operators are truly some of our society's unsung heroes and some of our "knights of the night". It's my hope to be able to share more of their stories here over time.

Links:
-http://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/Radio/Newspapers/Oct31/NYT.html (Page at war-of-the-worlds.org detailing reports of the public reaction to the radio drama, including some of the calls received by telephone operators on the night of its broadcast.)

One of the most quintessential movie series for late-night movie viewing is the Mad Max trilogy (soon to be quadrilogy when Mad Max: Fury Road hits the big screen this May). This movie series is one of the most popular action movie franchises of the late '70s-'80s and is the series that propelled Mel Gibson into stardom. What's lesser known is that a little B-rated movie called The Chain Reaction is directly connected to this franchise.

In The Chain Reaction, a nuclear waste storage site/state-owned enterprise named WALDO (Western Atomic Longterm Dumping Organisation) has been badly damaged by an earthquake and is leaking radioactive waste into the water table of the local countryside. Afterwards, the administrators of WALDO have decide to cover up the accident rather than inform the public. Heinrich Schmidt (Ross Thompson), a German nuclear scientist who works at WALDO, has been badly burned after being doused with radioactive waste leaking from a pipe at the facility. He knows the local population is in grave danger, but due to his severe injuries and his detention by the administrators, he cannot speak to the media and get word out.

Not willing to jeopardize the lives of thousands of people, Schmidt decides to escape and warn anyone who will listen. He successfully escapes from WALDO and makes his way to a nearby town, where he loses his consciousness and his memory. He wanders around the countryside with amnesia and stumbles upon Larry Stilson (Steve Bisley, or  Max's partner "Goose" from Mad Max ), a mechanic who is vacationing with his wife Carmel (Arna-Maria Winchester) at a country home. The Stilsons take him in and try their best to help him heal, but little do they know that some very shadowy forces are looking for Schmidt. And the Stilsons end up being targeted by these same forces as a result of harboring Schmidt.....

The Chain Reaction is famous for not only being one of the all-time classics of the B-rated "Ozploitation" movies that came from Down Under back in the 1970s-80s, but also a movie coming from the same cast and crew who were responsible for the Mad Max movies. It was released in the cinemas in 1980, the year after Mad Max became a smash hit worldwide. It even features some short cameos from Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played The Toecutter, and Mad Max himself: Mel Gibson! Here in the US, The Chain Reaction seems to have had very limited distribution on VHS and DVD over the past several decades since its release.

Like its bigger-budgeted cousins, this flick contains some very intense car chase sequences, which were all directed by Mad Max director George Miller. Even if movies such as this aren't exactly your cup of tea, the chase sequences alone make it worth watching!

Judging from the comments about this movie at IMDB, there are some who feel that The Chain Reaction could be considered a prequel of Mad Max. Given the storyline concerning a nuclear catastrophe affecting the environment, the car chases, and the cast and crew involved, it could certainly tie in to the post-apocalyptic storyline of the Mad Max series.

If you're a fan of B-rated action movies or are a Mad Max aficionado, this is a movie you'll definitely want to add to your to-see midnight movie list! If you're in North America, consider yourself in privileged company if you manage to find it!