The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-05
SOME ACHIEVEMENTS
 THAT ARE WONDERFUL
Story of the Growth of the Man
 Bird.
Navigation of the Air Is Now simple aratter and the Evolution of Flying Machines Leads To Some RemarEable
 Things.
nY wARwICK JAMEs PRICE.


 pr. Evans in ancientest Crete, Pro-; fessor Flinders Petrie in Egypt, and their fellow archaeologists the wide world over, may be bringing to light proof after proof that there's nothing new under the sun--the fact yet re- mains that man Is steadily, surely ad- vancing in his conquest of the ele- ments and forces of nature. The era of mere strength was closed forever when the day of trained skill dawned. Brawn has gone down before brains. matter before mind. and each recur- ring twelve-month tells an ever lengthening story of the progress or the race. Nineteen nine's contribution to this o-be-continued serial has been markedly brilliant In the labor atories of scientists and the homes Of simple citizens have been solved problems, which long have baftied all attempts at solution. Electricity has been put to work as never before. In the heavens above. and the earth be- meath, and In the waters under the earth, "The Brains of the Year." have achieved victories which even the hopefulest of 1s0s's prophets might we'll have hesitated to foreteli.
 Growth of Man-Bird.
 First of all. '09 has proven beyond all question that we're going to fly. Who would have guessed. years ago. as he acclaimed the sad tale of Da- rius Green. that he would live to see an emperor greeting gentleman who had just stepped down from his air ship, after a trip of 460 miles. and in troducing him to "a plain American who had grown rich from the sale Of Aeroplanes? But thousands besides Wilhelm II and Count Zeppelin and Orviile Wright can attest to the happening The mere existence of such daring fellows as the Wrights and Bleriot. Paulham and Parseval, Latham and Lambert and Leblanc. Curtiss and Cody, Santos-Dumont and Summer. Farman and Rougier ana Delagrange--the mere fact that twen- ty-one cash prizes for conquering the air. ranging from s200 to $50.000 and totalling at more than $217.000, are awaiting claimants--the mere news of flying machines invented in Mexico and Russia. China and Norway,-such straws show how blows this twentieth century wind of mechanical achieve ment.
 Latham, the Englishman. failed to cross the British Channel in his mono plane (missed 1t by a scant two miles), but the Frenchman Bleriot needed but thirty-seyen minutes to soar above the twenty-one choppy miles which separates Calais from Dover This was in July, and just before 1t the brothers Wright had returned to their native Ohio, after victories unnum- bered in the old world, to receive medals and plaudits; and not long af- fer the waters of ."Le Pas de Calais" had been tvanQuished. Wilbur Wright manouevered above New York's North River with all the easy precision which was to have been expected Of an aviator who. in the year, had GOV cred a title matter of between 2,5Oo and 3.000 air-miles.
 With scarce a week of the hfty-two failing to produce its item of over- head news of value. 1t Is difficult to give any three or four happenings as of especial importance, but possibly the accomplishments most nearly or record breaking sort are these:
 Height: Orrville Wright near Potsdam, Germany, In October, rose to a height of 1.600, feet, thus gsurpas- sing by good margin Lambert's spec tacular flight, the self-same month, In which he rose 1,200 feet. looking down on the 9S4-foot Eiffel Tower. ra
 speed:-Delagrange at Doncaster, England, in October. drove his machine at the rate of something over fifty four miles an hour; slightly surpas- sing the achievement of orville Wright. at Fort Myer. in July.
 DtStance.-Henry FarnanI at mOuH- melon. France. in November. covered IA miles in four hours. six minutes and twenty-five seconds. ,-
 To which must be added the two victories of Glenn Curtiss, at Rheims in August and at Brescia month later; in the one case he won the tn- . ternational Cup by covering. on cir cu1ar course. 12 miles in 16 minutes. and in the other carried off the Grand Prix flying 31 miles in trifie less than fifty minutes.
 Dfrigibles and sphericals.
 The dirigible has likewise sailed in- to the forefront of importance sisce January last came in. Goodale has hovered along and above the North River (June): Crosse II" (Aug) very handily made a 210 mile journey in fifteen hours and forty minutes: Ital- ian army officers (oct) have practi- cally duplicated this: and the French bag "Liberte" has accomplished 161 miles in five and a half hours. The September which witnessed this feat. however, saw also the horrible death dive of Frances "Republique." an air monster of the rigid" type. involving four fatalities.
 Zeppelin would seem to have dis fanced all competitors of this sort. An airship which can leave its home