Rivista Mensile del Touring Club Italiano, Vol 18, No 11
Articles in this issue
- Obituary of Dr Gildo Guastalla, Touring councillor, who died almost without warning on the night of 12 September; a polyglot invalided into motoring, he had crowned an alpine career with the ascent of Monte Rosa and become the club's authority on international road-traffic law.
- L. V. Bertarelli announces the Council's decision to follow the Carta d'Italia, whose last sheets go out in 1913, with a Guida d'Italia meant to free Italians from Baedeker, compiled with the help of ministries, communes, railways and learned societies; at roughly 150,000 copies its book value would reach six million lire.
- How to renew for 1913 — by payment to the Milan office in Via Monte Napoleone 14 or at the branch offices and consulates from Asmara and Bergamo to Udine and Venice — with members urged to convert to the five-year subscription (L. 30, L. 40 abroad) or to life membership; publications stop for anyone unpaid after 15 January.
- Account of the mass alpine excursion from the Matterhorn to Monte Rosa organised by the Milan section of the C.A.I. under Corriere della Sera patronage, with cav. Tedeschi directing, halts at the Theodulo hut, the descent of the Colle della Bettaforca and Fiéry and the Bergamo squad's arrival at Gressoney; the Touring gave a prize and met the party at Chatillon and Valtournanche.
- The Touring Council has approved adding a Corsica sheet to the 58 sheets of the 1:250,000 Carta d'Italia despite the difficulty of surveying beyond the frontier; the writer sketches the island's "Vendetta corsa" souvenir daggers hawked at Bastia and a railway network thinner than Sardinia's.
- Captain Piazza's scheme of "Campi-Stazione" for aerial touring: rectangular landing grounds whose surrounding trees, walls and power lines must stand at more than ten times their height from the short sides, with ditches 200 m from the launching centre and seven white 3×4 m recall panels marking each launch axis.
- A survey of the kite from children's toy to man-lifter — monoplane versus cellular types, Capt. Baden-Powell's kite trains carrying a man to about 90 m in 1898, Cody's 1903 Channel crossing towing a boat — and its naval, wireless-aerial, photographic and signalling uses.
- Arnaldo Fraccaroli argues that the Cyrenaican Bedouin are only accidental enemies, armed and incited against Italy by the Turks; he describes their warrior-shepherd life of raids and blood-feuds and cites the tribal list drawn up by Ugo Sabetta, former Italian vice-consul at Derna, headed by the wealthy Abidat.
- Avv. B. Mattiauda recalls the Touring's toponymic revision under L. V. Bertarelli — 48,000 informants' reports and 7,197 names on the Carta d'Italia corrected in little over a year — and argues that place-names, together with the rock carvings of the Vallone delle Meraviglie, are the surest witnesses to Italy's prehistory and to Etruscan speech.
- From Delacroix's Moroccan journey and his debt to Veronese to today's Italian orientalists, singling out Fausto Zonaro — whose Constantinople pictures (Punta di Scutari, Barbieri di Costantinopoli, Il reggimento Erthogrul) were shown at the Teatro Nazionale and opened by Vittorio Emanuele III — and the young Mario Moretti-Foggia.
- Prof. Antonio Capuani describes the new road climbing from Tavernola to Vigolo above the Sebino (Lake Iseo), inaugurated the previous May, with its succession of "tournants", the vegetation zones it crosses from laurel and vine up to alpine pasture, and views over Monte Guglielmo and the scar of the 3 March 1906 landslide.
- G. Fiorentino reports a camp on the heights of Rivezzoli and credits Prince Scipione Borghese with bringing camping to Italy, itemising the outfit: folding cots, tables and stools, wall bags for books and washing kit, a waterproof ground cloth and a separate kitchen tent pierced for the stove-pipe.
- News in pictures: the rising against the Turks on Samos with talk of proclaiming a republic, the Italian squadron appearing off the Gulf of Smyrna, and the inauguration of the new railway to Longarone with the Malè viaduct, linking the Cadore to the rest of Italy.
- Photographs from Libya — General Reisoli's advance of 17 September taking Casa Aronne, Case Leben and il Rudero, General Ragni's occupation of Zanzur, Sidi Bilal and the green hill on 20 September, and the fantasia at Aziziah celebrating the capture of Captain Moizo — with aviation, rowing and cycling news, including Dario Beni's win in the Roma-Napoli-Roma of 20 September.
- Progress on members' free publications: the Bari and Iglesias sheets of the Carta d'Italia are finishing distribution, followed by Sassari-Cagliari, Tempio Pausania-Foggia and Trento-Lecce; the Tripolitania and Cyrenaica map and the monograph "Il bosco contro il torrente" still go to new members, and the Lazio and Emilia regional guides are in press.
- The magazine's monthly news digest, grouped under Aerologia, Aeronautica, Aviazione, Automobilismo e Ciclismo, Ferrovie, Geografia and Varie.
- The rain-spoilt international kite meeting at Spa, where an Arti-Aero-Club Belga kite lifted 53 kg, an 8.50-franc aerial kite on 150 m of line put the Sauvenière station in touch with the Eiffel Tower, and the Belgian train raised a passenger 72 m in 12 minutes.
- W. Roeder's German patent for a balloon fabric lined with cork powder to damp gas temperature swings; the repaired Zeppelin L.Z-12, renamed Z-3, sent to Metz and then to Gotha for bomb-dropping trials from 1200 m; and anti-airship guns firing 15 kg smoke-trailing shells to 8000 m for four new British battleships.
- Mandelli's four-hour, 400 km flight with three passengers at 108 km/h at Wiener-Neustadt; France's new hydro-aeroplane pilot's certificate; Védrines' Gordon-Bennett Cup win at Chicago on a 140 HP Deperdussin; Legagneux's 5680 m altitude record on a Morane-Saulnier; and Gabriel Poulain's muscle-powered "decimetro" hop at Juvisy on an 11 kg bicycle.
- Royal Decree No. 960 of 12 August 1912 orders a census of drivers and vehicles on Carabinieri forms; and the Annuario's 1910-11 figures — 930,651 bicycles, 7,513 motorcycles and 11,119 cars yielding L. 4,559,822 to the State — with Milan first for bicycles and motorcycles and Turin for cars.
- The projected 10,250 m electric underground railway from Sampierdarena through Genoa to Quarto dei Mille, fourteen stations and a 990 m viaduct over the Bisagno; and the newly opened Lana-Vigiljoch aerial cableway in Austria, 2200 m long with a 1150 m rise and four 16-seat cars.
- Guido Cora's fifth Balkan journey through Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia-Slavonia, Serbia and Bulgaria; the 1915 Panama Canal opening and San Francisco exposition; Italian transoceanic emigration down 9,133 departures; and Stromboli's six-vent crater under study by Annibale Ricco and Gaetano Platania.
- Miscellany, including the correspondence stirred up by Commander Bravetta's September article and a note on the "Deutschland über alles" pamphlet circulating in Germany with its ten-point buy-German decalogue.
- Ing. Carlo Reina replies to Commander Bravetta's September piece on ballistics, quoting the Fourth Day of Galileo's Dialogues to show that Galileo had already described the air's resistance to projectiles nearly a century before Newton's proof of 1723.
- Reviews of Paolo Revelli's "L'Egeo", Pierre Gauthiez's "Milan", Fred T. Jane's "All the World's Aircraft", Baedeker's Autriche-Hongrie, Braunbeck's Sport-Lexicon, Amilcare Beretta's "Il Nuoto" and a run of French aviation and forestry manuals.
- Books presented to the club, among them Ing. Arrigo Gullini on communications in Montenegro, Lobetti-Bodoni's "Fra i monti d'Usseaux", the proceedings of the L.I.A.T.'s XIV Congress at Vienna and the Federazione Ciclistica Trentina's 1912 Strenna.
- August's draw among members who had introduced at least one new member gave the gold medal to Giuseppe Duranti of Finalmarina and silver medals to Gino Frezza of Treviso and rag. Felice Monza of Como, drawn before the auditors.
- The Direzione's official notices for the month, running from the Austrian ban on the club's work in the Trentino and the new Carta d'Italia sheets to road-accident prevention and the Council's decisions on camping, glaciers and municipal requests.
- The I.R. Luogotenenza at Innsbruck has circularised every Trentino Capitanato, Ampezzo included, that the Touring counts as a foreign society until legally constituted in Austria; its capo-consoli and consuls must resign and remove consulate boards, affiliation plates and road indicator signs.
- With some 6,000,000 sheets of the 1:250,000 Carta d'Italia distributed, the Council has resolved to add a Corsica sheet to the 58 — the rest of the island falling on the Sassari and Tempio Pausania sheets — and to fit Malta into the blank space of a coming edition of the Sciacca sheet.
- The Direzione's press note on preventing motor accidents: "Rallentare" and "Tenere la destra" to be painted in large letters on retaining walls and rock faces at bends, carriageways banked towards the centre of curves, warning signs at blind crossings, and roadside hedges kept to the regulation height.
- Comm. Johnson, the Touring's representative on the commission for the 1914 bicycle tax plate, is to carry to Rome the tamper-proof fixing designs submitted by members, the club taking no responsibility for their patents or commercial arrangements.
- Avv. Devoto's proposal for a camping section is declined, but the club will publish a propaganda and technical handbook compiled in part by sig. Clerici, under the patronage of Prince Scipione Borghese and of Dr Scotti of the S.U.C.A.I., organiser of three years of "Tendopoli".
- At the request of the Turin section of the Club Alpino Italiano, a L. 200 grant towards the study of glacier variations is approved out of the funds of the club's forest-and-pasture propaganda commission.
- Satisfaction is recorded at the Florence road congress's progress — enrolments, attendance and papers, and the receptions promised by the Provincial Deputation and Municipality of Florence and by capo-console on. marchese Gerino Gerini.
- The Direzione notes the condolences received on the death of councillor cav. uff. dott. Gildo Guastalla and the difficulty of finding a successor able to carry on his work on motor-circulation legislation and customs.
- Col. Raffa, president of the winter tourism commission, has left for Libya in command of a special column, breaking off the study he was making on the Splügen for a winter event.
- Alagna Valsesia's request for a contribution to the mule track to the Colle d'Olen is refused, on the standing principle that the Touring campaigns for better roads but does not subsidise work belonging to the administrative authorities.
- Pieve del Cairo's request for the Touring's opinion on siting a new pontoon bridge over the Po, against the Province of Alessandria's preferred location, is declared beyond the Direzione's competence and referred back to the Commissione Strade.
- List of members taking the five-year subscription of L. 30 (L. 40 abroad), with its silver-and-enamel badge, from Arlington and Asmara to Mogadiscio, Pará, St Petersburg, Rio Gallegos and Tobruk.
- Members declared benemeriti for introducing ten new adherents, from Palazzo S. Germano and S. Paulo to Callao and Sunchales, with G. B. Frassine of Rovato taking the gold medal awarded for a hundred.
- The candidates for membership who applied between 1 and 30 September 1912, listed as soci vitalizi and then soci annuali by province, from Alessandria and Ancona through Genova, Milano and Roma to members abroad in France, Monaco, Germany, Greece, England, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Switzerland.