Days of the ‘Home Library Club’

Saturday, 14 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Among the treasures inherited from my father is his library with a rich collection of books dating back to the early part of the 20th century. Of immense value is a series of books he had bought in 1939/40. The publishers are ‘The Home Library Club – conducted under the joint management of The Statesman – The Times of India – Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.’, as mentioned in the opening page of each book. With no introduction or preface in a single book, except the name of the ‘General Editor’ of each book, it was not possible to get any details of the publications. Obviously it was the foresight of the ANCL founder D.R. Wijewardene to be a partner in a joint venture with two leading Indian newspapers. Being the Head Master (as heads of schools were then called) of a government Bilingual School (where English was the dominant language with separate schools conducting classes in Sinhala), he was naturally keen to build up a good personal library. He has put his signature in each book with the date of purchase. That’s how I knew when the Home Library Club books had been published. The books, counting over a dozen, are excellent sources of reference on a wide range of topics. Printed in India, they are well illustrated with black and white pictures and it’s amazing how the quality of the print and the paper has lasted for over 75 years. ‘Man rivals the birds’ I have randomly selected a chapter in one book to illustrate the research gone into pick material for these publications. For today’s readers, the content may sound pretty archaic but it has to be viewed in the context of the time the books were released. The chapter is titled ‘Man rivals the birds’ and is the opening one in ‘Marvels of the Modern World’ edited by Harold Wheeler Hon.D.Litt., F.R.Hist.S. It begins thus: “On July 14, three Russian airmen landed in California after having flown non-stop from Moscow, a distance of six thousand seven hundred miles in sixty-two hours. Their journey was not a stunt but part of a survey of the trans-polar route over which the Soviet Government proposes to operate a regular service to the United States. “The flight took place less than thirty-five years after the first fully-controlled aeroplane flight was made, and only eighteen years after British mails were carried by air for the first time. So much has man achieved in the air since the beginning of the century that it is quite impossible to predict where he will stop.”

How true! What a long way we have come in the field of air travel. The writer then discusses the adventure by the Wright brothers – Orville and Wilbur – who made the first power-driven man-carrying flight on 17 December 1903 – a flight that lasted no more than twelve seconds and only 120 feet. Three other flights were made on the same day, the last one covering a distance of 152 feet in 59 seconds. The air age had dawned! The numerous experiments in air travel in the years that followed are discussed in detail illustrated with pictures. Some of the milestones mentioned are: nThe first London-Australia flight was mad in 1919 by Captain Ross Smith and three companions in 27 days 20 hours. By accomplishing the feat within 720 hours they won a prize of 10,000 pounds sterling rom the Australian government. nThe aerial conquest of Africa was achieved on 17 February 1926 when Alan Cobham reached Capetown after having flown from London, 8500 miles away, in a flying time of 94 hours, and a total elapsed time of three calendar months. nThe first round-the-world flight was made by four biplanes of the US Army leaving Seattle, Washington on 6 April 1924 and coming back there on 28 September – 175 days later. nLeaving New York on 24 June 1931, Wiley Post and Harold Gatty covered a distance of 15,471 miles round the world within a flying time of 107 hours. The elapsed time was 8 days15 hours 51 seconds.