The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-08-30
Sunday in Exciting Race at
Rheims, Glenn Curtiss Wins
Another Race Despite Pen
aIization.
LATHAM FINISHED A
VERY CLOSE SECOND
lBleriot's Machine Turned Over
And Takes Fire and He Is
Severely But Not Danger
ousIy Hurt.

0CIACny ASIdIlOu rltlu, nHelIl5,
August 3O.-A. twilight vision of
a great white bird soaring above the
plain, SO highs that it seemed to rise
above the yellow harvest moon just
rising above the,distant hills, and the
fleeing Golden. Flier," as the Cur
tiss machine has abeen dubbed, smash
ing another worlds record In the
tPrix De Lavitesse, were the closing
glories OF aviation week.
The victory of Glenn H. Curtiss, the
sole American representative in the
contests, coming on the heels of his
great victory in the international cup
Saturday. gives the United States the
lions share oftthe honors OF the meet
ing.
The Prix De LaVitesse of 100000
francs $4,000. ). divided into four priz-
es, was distributed to the four ma
chimes making three rounds of the
course, 80 kilonIeters, at the greatest
speed. the first. prize being won by
'Curtiss handily, Notwithstanding his
,penalization.
Curtiss only missed winning the lap
speed contest from sBleriot by small
margin.
Captured secondsPIace.
He captured second place in that
event, which was~overfthe full circuit
of 10 kilometers, orr 621 miles, raising
This total money winnings for the
meeting to $1,000 francs, besides the
International cup, which goes to the
Aero Club of America, inscribed with
his name.
As in Saturdays cup contest, an ac-
cident-the only serious one of the
meeting, removed Bleriot, the Amer
leans most dangerous competitor. from
Sundays three-lap speed contest.
Bleriot's.escape from, death was mar
row one. He had passed the first
turn in the Prix De Lavitesse when
the rudder suddenly failed to re-
spond.
The machine turned completely over
three times. landing with such force
that the petrol tank burst, and, catch
ing fire from the dot motor, enveloped
the machine and pilot in flames. Be-
fore Bleriot could extricate himself
he was burned about. the face and
hands, but, fortunately, not seriously.
With Bleriot out of the contest. La
than remained Curtiss's only serious
rival. The race was intensely excit-
ing.
CurtIss overhauled Him.
Latham, with No. ID, started only
four minutes ahead of the American,
who gave chase. Curtiss overhauled
him in every kdlometer. finishing less
than 400 metres behind the French
man.
The time by laps was: Latham,
s:47 3-5, 17:a6 -. 1882 2-5; Curtiss.
7:59 As. 1900 90. 24:15 Is.
The committee first posted La
tham's time with one twentieth penal
ization as 27bl 2-5, giving Curtiss the
victory, as the others who had taken
part in the event had not approached
the Americans speed. Latham, how
ever. refused to accept defeat. and
brought No. %. With this he flew
considerably faster, his time being re-
corded as S:33, 17:O3. &:1S Is.
The time, but not the amount OF
penalization. was posted. and there
was excitement among the Americans.
as the penaNzation, which was only
one twentieth, would bring the time to
1898 is, seven seconds less than that
made by CurtiSs. No official infor-
nation could be obtained beyond the
fact that the judges were awaiting re-
ports from the field commissioner at
$3.50, after which no start would be
possible.
Would Try Again.
Curtiss. however. who said he had
been obliged thrice to muffle his ac-
celerator on the previous flight on ac-
count Of pitching, declared his conf
dence to do better in another attempt
and decided to try it again. Within
two minutes his machine was out and
speeding across the line. He flew
higher than he had ever gone before,
keeping the throttle wide open and
making each round at swifter speed
than in any OF his previous efforts.
The first round he covered in
7:4e rs: the watches showed 1887 Is
at the end of the second round and
they were snapped at o3:29 at the fin
ish. With his penalization Curtiss's
time stood at 25:49 % and this gave
him the race by almost q minute mar
gin.
But when he learned that the sec
ond round had been traversed in { :43-
rs, less than one second from Bier
lots lap record. he insisted upon maxi
Ing another effort, but failed to equal
the Frenchman's time by four seconds.
Two Texts.
a church In Scotland being vacant,
two candidates offered to preach, their