The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1910-09-23

restricted. 1t is unthinkable that the
Creator intended that man should in
habit the air or fly like the birds. He
would have furnished him with wings.
The numerous deaths that have &C.
CURED from attempts to fly should
warn man that his habitation and
home Is the earth"
But in spite of warnings. published
and spoken, the craze for aviation re-
mains unchecked. A thousand inven-
tors are working in their shops, firm
in the belief that they are in sight of
the final secret that will wrest the
mastery Of the upper air spaces from
the birds and place it in the hands Of
wing riders" The blue vault Of
heaven is fretted by thousands of
! roaring propellers and shifting planes.
THE bird men" are dreaming dreams
OF cross-continent fights. The more
imaginative of them catch glimpses of
visions of transatlantic trips, faster
than the flight of the frigate bird.
When wireless telegraphy was in
vented 1t was but year or so until
! the country was filed with amateurs,
all busily working on new theories of
transferring messages. AS soon as
the Wrights, Farman, Bleriot, Paulhan
and Curtiss and others had demon
strated that a heavier-than-air ma
chine could actually remain in the air,
in thousand barns, warehouses and
hl oly or1 doh Ic oil fhn DIV
ilized world men and boys began to
try to build for themselves machines
In which to spurn the solid earth.
Historically, the science of aviation
has been taken up, and with a few
more improvements the death roll will
grow to even greater proportions. So
far most Of the men who have met
death have been veteran aviators.
Delagrange, LIE Blon, Ferber, Lefebvre
and Rolls were all wellknown and in
ternationally famous in the air fields.
But the moment came that found them
helpless despite their skill.
An analysis of the accidents Of the
past two years shows that death
comes In dozen shapes to the daring
aviator. The aeroplane Is pitifully
new thing, and even the veterans Of
the air are not always able to detect
in their machines the lurking weak
nesses. The first of the aeroplane &C.
cidents that resulted fatally was
caused by the guy wire Of one Of the
planes being placed too near the pro.
peller blades. Selfridge died in this
accident and Orville Wright was ter
ribly injured. 1t was months before
he again took up the problem of, aerial
flights.
1t was year later before death
took his toll again from the ranks Of
the air workers. On the seventh Of
September, 1909, two men, the FORE
most. aviators in their respective coun.
tries, met their deaths. Rossi was en-.
gagged In testing a machine of his own
invention near Rome, and after few
short and successful flights at a low
altitude he tilted his planes upward
at considerable angle and shot into
the air for an ambitious trial. He had
barely reached height of 60 feet till
some of the intricate machinery gave
way and he was dashed to death. M.
Lefebvre, well-known aeronaut OF
France, was killed on the same day
while soaring above Juvissy In
Wright biplane. Two weeks later the
pride of the Frenchmen in aeronau-
tics, Capt. Louis Ferdinand Ferber, a
pioneer in the art of flying, was killed
in q peculiar accident, one of the
many unexplainable ones that mark
the chronology of fight. He was soar.
ing over a field near Boulogne, when
his machine turned turtle" In the air.