The Newtown bee., 1908-09-04
The NeWtOWn Bee.
THE HOME CIRCLE
WHAT WE MAY FAIRLY EXPECT
 OF THEFLYING MACHINE
BY REV RALPH E. DANF0RTH.
Newtown. Friday. September {, lsoa.

Now that people generally are real izing that the Aying-mahine is, or should be a possibility. a great many wild statement and speculatlons are be- ng printed about its future accom- Dlishments. Yet careful and con- consideration of the subject may point to results and changes to be wrought by the flying-machine which are more far-reaching than are some of the cratic flights of imagination turned out by the press from time to time.
 For example, in the single matter of rapid transportation, statlstlcs from great cities on both sides of the At lantic show that with the improvement of rapid transit and its extension to suburban and rural districts the dan gers of contested population are being greatly reduced, and many young lives with not few maturer lives-are saved.
 Countless children are now growing up in the freer air and larger spaces without the city limits, who would be compelled by circumstances to spend their little lives in the narrow quarters of dwarfed tenement suites were it not for rapid transportation; and the air would be even stuffier and the cities even more crowded for their presence. Whatever the fying-machine can do for rapid transit-and if it is success 1t can do much-will increase by just so much the benefits to civilization. The Aying-machine will probably add to the dangers of rapid transit tor time, but many as are the accidents incurred in rapid travel, the chance of accident is far preferable to the sure injury re- sulting from unbroken confinement in densely crowded quarter, an injury which, though it may not be noticed by the first generation, is sure to be | felt by the second or the third gener- ation.
 The wind may at some time, or may never be kind enough to blow gas- bag-and incidentally some human and mechanical freight-directly over the North Pole. According to the laws of chance such feat might be possible, but the results to civilization, if not nil, would be small.
 The French government, it is de- clared, has already authorized certain officials to devote their energies to a far look ahead. and to formulate plans for meeting difficulties confronting the Customs and War Departments wher national boundaries shall be crossed high in air, day or night. This shows pleasing faith in the future of the fying-machine.
 With all difference to any opinions held by others, in my opinion such changes will not come about through the instrumentality of gas bags ir whatever shape such may be construct. ed. Any sufficient volume of gas foi lifting the requisite cargoes, will be the plaything of the winds when theil forces awake and stir themselves. AL though we are not always justified 1T drawing analogies from nature, there is no bird. bat or insect that floats it self in the air by means Of a gas-bag and in this way they are wise. In stead they present the thin edges o1 flat wing surfaces to the wind. only their bodies opposing its force. St must it be With the aeroplane; tht cargo of freight will oppose quite enough surface to the winds for mar with his ingenious contrivances to con trol. The most successful aeroplanes however, may initiate neither the form nor the action the wings of the bird
 but be as much an improvement ovel nature as are the wheels of the locomo
 tive that outruns the wild, deer super
 for. for our purposes, to the mechanism
 of the legs of the deer, and as tn,
 ocean steamers excel, in power and en
 durance, the fish of the sea.
 If the perfection of the hying-ma
 chine should, through its greater pos
 slbIe speed and increased facility, b
 the eliminating step toward freein such denizens of the city as may desir country life, its boon to huamnit
 through this one achievement woul ) be beyond measure.
 The paths through the air, like tn
 mariners paths through the sea, ar , all good roads. There IS no need
 prepare the way; no smoothing (
 rough ways, no blasting of rocks nc felling of forests; no laying of roat ? bed, ties or rails; no bridging c 2 chasms or leveling of mountains no a following of winding valley marke
 out by the streams will be necessar!
 for all roads will be good roads to u
 machine and the man that can conque the air. Let us consider briefly u l..,,I4, 4ho+ ;s x,ybot ploip onyop,f