The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1910-09-25
FAST As A BULLET
0Idfield's HorrlfIc Speed In His
2OO-H. P. Benz.
RATE OF 1872 MILES An HOUR
Man Who Made Speed That 10 Appsil.
Inc to Think OF VIII Race
at the Illinois state Fair
Every Day.

Mans utmost speed since the world
began Is q blur OF gray, streaming
flame and blue vapor, hurled above
the smooth sand OF Daytona Beach,
Florida. The apparation is Barney
Oldfield in his 2oo-horse power "Blit-
zen" Benz racing automobile, (who will
appear every day at the Illinois State
Fair with the same Benz and the
miles sweep beneath his wheels at the
rate Of two miles In considerably less
than . single minute. The wings of
death rustic In the roar Of the exhausts
and the pound OF the surf, as Oldfield
drives faster than anything save o bull
let ever travelled before.
What does 1t mean! II means that
Oldfeld travelled more than 200 feet q
second. 1t means that he would have
outdistanced any means OF locomotion
pitted against him; it means that the
veteran OF speed and a fate-tempting
chance taking vocation, attained a
speed never imagined by the most
learned mechanical experts and a new
era was opened in the rate Of speed
which human being can travel with
out disaster. A kilometsr-ss Of mile
lat the rate Of l42 miles an hour, a
full mile In 27.3s seconds, or at the
awful rate or 1915 miles per hour:
such Is the remarkable achievements
Of the man who annihilated space,
In the one daring feat q the century.
The sensations Of such speed are
Overwhelming. The average man nat
urally Quails at the bare thought OF fac
Ing the terrific wind resistance of more
than two miles minute, to say moth
ing OF the attendant dangers incurred
by the comet-like flight
But Oidfleld never thought OF such
things; his mind was conferred on the
guidance of. the throbbing mass OF
steel that fairly flies, IA #
~ have realized my life's ambition -
he remarked, biting off the end of a
cigar after his 1.mile-an-nour ride.
II have travelled faster than any other
person in the whole world. I have shot
along the rock-line sand OF Daytona
Beach at greater speed than any OF
the wise men believed was possible
without encounteGing disaster.
'T think am calloused tothe ordin-
airy dangers OF automobile racing, but
there was a new dread and fear for
me- The limitsof speed was going
faster for mile after milo than scfenti-
flo automobile engineers inquired could
he attained without the tires being
thrown off the wheel by centrifugal
force. The loss on traction was start
ling. Fully aithird Of the distance the
wheels were of the ground. The front
wheels were shooting Up and down In
3 weird dance that caused me to shut
down my motor until they would hold
to the ground. knew the motor was
capable Of so many hundred revolu.
tions per minute. ! knew that the
gearing would admit OF a speed of $50
miles an hour when the engine was
Wide open. 1t was up to me to find
out what the limit of speed really is.
would wait for particularly good
stretch Of beach and then I would
let the great old ear have its head
Down would go the throttle and the
spark would be advanced we'll along
Then we would shoot through space.
! would begin to choke, everything be-
fore me would become enshrouded I'm a
haze and would suddenly feel as
though was in the midst of a night
mare, about to jump off some noun
famous precipice. Then l would shut
her down. had driven faster than hui
man ever travelled. Far faster, for 14o
miles an hour is million times as