Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-11-09
INVENTORS STRIVE
NAVIGATION
Achievements of Hlers at Bel
mont Park Meet Demonstrate
Tremendous Advance
Made In Six Years.
By RCBERTUs LOVE


~ believing 1t is a great deal
more convincing to see a man
fly than to read about his flight. A
very few years ago / was one OF the
skeptics who laughed at the notion
that man could learn to fly. Those OF
US who laughed were not inexcusable.
Men have .trodden this old globe for
many centuries, always eager to aban-
don the sod at will and av1ate into tho
azure. Thousands and thousands have
attempted to contrfve some sort OF con-
traption capable OF taking them up
into the empyrean, circling around IN
the cerulean and bringing them back
to terra gf1rma safe, sound and sane
Up to a very. few years ago all such
attempts were failures, and that's why
we laughed.
But now, thanks most largely to the
two assiduous sons of Bishop Wright
of Ohio, we laugh no longer. We even
pay respectful tribute of memory to
ancient IcaruS, who made wings OF
wax, and to modern Darius Green,
who made his of luther or s1thin or
other" Icarus and Darius failed. Or
vile and Wilbur succeeded. The world
moves and men fly. Bird-hke they
aviate in machines with wings and
tails that sweep and soar and coast
and glide swiftly and gracefully.
Nearly Two Mile Climb.
+ Only a few days ago Ralph John
stone of Kansas City, at the Belmont
park aviation meet on Long Island,
scared lark-like in a biplane nearly
two miles up into the sky, so far above
: the earth that his machine was lost
to view in a cloudless atmosphere.
tombstone climbed up the air ladder
9,714 feet, breaking by 52S feet the
worlds record for altitude. He was
trying for 10000 feet, but quit 286
feet short of his ambition only because
his motor quit first. At the same time
and place j. Armstrong Drexel climb
ed 1878 feet in a monoplane and came
Gown then because he had a dinner
engagement at Sherry's and he was
getting sick at the stomach A man
with q sick, stomach is not calculated
10 enjoy his dinner, so we readily ex-
cuse Mr.. Drexel for descending when
: he did -.
Wilbur Wright, standing on the
ground, was the only spectator of
Johnstone,s fight who was disappoint-
ed The bipLane VIII 90 higher than
10000 feet before long. I hope said
q Wizard Wilbur, with confidence born
OF expert knowledge. And all OF Us
hope 1t will and that its daring aviator
.wn descend as safely as did John
stone ana, like him, call not In vain for
a bowl of hot soup and a plate Of
beans.
Let Us bark back for moment into
the almost ancient history of aero
planning. Two years ago Thomas R.
MacMechen, an enthusiastic young St
Louis newspaper man who believed In
aviation, brought to New York Henri
Farman, French aviator and maker of
aeroplanes. Mr.. MacMechen with as
soc1ates agreed to pay NJ. Farman
large round sum for the performance
Of aviation stunts, expecting sufficient
gate receipts TO pay, the piper and have
a grub stake left.
q Reference to newspaper files cover
Ing those days will show that brother
Journalists had fun with MacMechen-
those wise guys Of journalism who in
habit the metropolis. Some of their
fun perhaps was justified, for as a
matter of fact NJ. Farman, loudly trum-
.
renown, failed to do any flying that
was worth mentioning twice in the
same century. His machine crawled
along the ground like a bug that had
been stepped on by a beast The Jump
Ing frog of Ca1averas county, which
was loaded to the muzzle with shot,
did about as much jumping as Far
mans bfplane did flying Farman was
disguised. So was everybody else.
= Rapid Progress In a Year.
Two years ago the art of aviation
was not far enough advanced to in
sure a successful exhibition of flying.
For that matter, one year ago there
wasn't very much thrill in the perform
ances of aviators. Glenn II. Curtfss,
TO be sure, had won the Bennett cup
in the first international race at Rheims
for speed. But Curtiss disappointed
hundreds of thousands of spectators
when he failed to fly more than a few
feet at a time as the star attraction in
connection with the st. Louis centen-
NAL celebration in October, 1909. He
was still a trife shaky on his wings,
so to speak. Yet last June this same
Curtiss thrilled the world by flying
from Albany to New York with only
one landing en- route. In the interval
he had acquired his wing control. He
was no longer an accident in aviation.
He was an adept.
In the Curtiss biplaDe plant at Ham
mondsport, y. Y; in the Wright BIZ
plane factory at Dayton, o., in the
Bleriot monoplane works abroad and in
other experiment shops the tirelesS
workers have wrought wonders in the
improvement of the aeroplane during
the past twelvemonth. While the ma
chimes look very much as they did a
year ago to the layman. various little