Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1910-11-17

admissions every day! And, Just
think, we believed in gas bags then!"
Already Claude Grahame-White, the
English aviator, had won the great
race by completing the twenty laps.
Cpl miles, in l hour. 1 minute and 4
seconds-an average Of more than a
mile a minute-in a monoplane. LIE
Blanc, the Frenchman. made nineteen
laps in so minutes 40 seconds. being
unable to finish only because his gaso-
line gave out in the twentieth lap.
But these records, you may suggest,
are made on a laid out course, with
conditions favorable. Very we'll; read
along. The next day there was a
race with frills and thrills that put the
cup contest into the background. Ris-
ing from Bedloe's island, in New York
bay, the statue Of Liberty points her
finger skyward. Miss Liberty is an ir-
resistible attraction to aviators. Thorn
as f. Ryan offered $4,000 to the avi-
ator who would fly from Belmont park
around the statue and back to the
park in the fastest time. This meant
flying right over the housetops of
Brooklyn, over the deep salt waters of
the bay-not so simple as %cavorting
around a three mile level course with
plenty Of smooth meadow into which
to drop.
Encircled Miss Liberty.
Grahame-White made the fight
around Liberty, about thirty-six miles.
in 50 minutes 81 seconds. The u
litter thought he had the $4,000
c1nched, riveted and sealed. But sud
denly there arose from the aviation
field almost at the last moment allot-
ted to the race Young America in the
shape of ]. B. Moisant of Chicago, sit
ting snug and tight in a monoplane
he had just bought from LIE Blanc for
the express purpose of winning that
race for America. Never before had
Moisant flown that machine. His own
had been wrecked. Moisant completed
the encircling of Miss Liberty in 42h
seconds faster time than his British
rival. Count de Lesseps also made
the flight in excellent time. The three
men made the marvellous air voyage
without suggestion Of an accident.
But, say you, what's the use? A
camel can cross a desert without
drinking water, but who wants to be
a camel? AS to the usefulness of the
%aeroplane, that is 10 longer a matter
OF imagination. One of the thousands
of witnesses of the Liberty statue
race was General Frederick D. Grant.
commander of the department of the
east. General Grant as a boy was
in the Vicksburg environs when his
father, the famed Ulysses, spent some
months in his finally successful eff
forts to enter that hill built citadel
of the C~onfederacy. Suppose the ear
lier Grant had had the use Of a few
aeroplanes as army scouts. By send
ing them above the beleaguered city he
could have learned more of the true
inWardness of Vicksburg in five min
utes than he was able to learn from
the %earthbound outside in five weeks.
Aeroplanes Likely Army Scouts.
81 was greatly impressed by the
wonderful sight of these aeroplanes
flying over from Long Island and
around the statue" said the General
Grant of today. "The value of the
aeroplane as q military scout appeals
to me strongly"
Navy officers likewise recognize the
value Of the %aeroplane in war opera
tons. An aeroplane could get a good
running start on the deck of a battle
ship. Could drop a bomb on the deck
of an enemy's battleship? Well. why
not?
But some of the aviators contend
that war will end when the fleets or
battalions of aeroplanes nee have a
chance to show off their deadly pos
sibilities. Even if this be true. still
the aeroplane has its uses. Peace hath
her victories for the aeroplane
Thomas A. Edison. who is no idle talk
err. said recently that within ten years.
in his opinion, the aeroplane will be
carrying mails at a speed Of 100 miles
an hour. How about sending a special
delivery letter from New York to st.
Louis in about nine hours?
Undoubtedly the %aeroplane is capa-
BILE of much higher improvement. This
will come. We are told that 5000 pat
entS on airships and the devices con
nected with them have been issued al
ready and the applications average
ninety IA month. Yet more depends
upon the nan than upon the machine.
and. after all. it is the human intelli-
gence of the man rather than the near
human intelligence of the machine that
makes aeroplaning possible.
Much Depends on Man.
Says James Fl. Colwell, patent Office
expert, who examines personally near
ly all the models submitted:
Ter per cent of the success Of ev-
cry fight is due to the machine, Is per