Semi-weekly herald., 1912-11-18
PROGRESS OF THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY.
BY Ira b. Hussey.

y
ago. People are now trying to break
records for altitude or speed, or dips
or curves in fancy flying.
There seems to be fascination
about it. Perhaps it is partly the
honor of outdoing competitor, or
the beautiful silver cups or high prizes
offered.
There is an endurance prize, one
for cross-country flight, high alti-
tude record, and one for speed
Graham White, the English aviator,
won prize of Si0,000.00 for flying
from Squantum to Boston Light and
return. The late Harriet Quinby, the
American aviator and the only woman
to cross the English Channel, had a
verbal contract of $4,000 in her flight
successfully accomplished, the contract
was repudiated. In crossing, she
reached an altitude of 5000 feet.
Hubert Lathum, the late Anglo
French air-man, was the first to at
tempt the flight, falling twice with
his monoplane into the channel and
had narrow escape from drowning
He had already made successful trip
over the English channel in a balloon
in six hours.
Travel is becoming more rapid on
sea, on land and in the air 1t is the
age of speed, and many are martyrs
to progress. There were seventy three
aviation fatalities in 1911. One avia-
tor killed for each $4,000 miles flown
last year. In the last four years 1853
have gone down to death trying to
achieve navigation of the air by
mechanical means. -Four women are
among the ones killed last year.
Sixty miles an hour is the average
speed of an aeroplane. The greatest
speed it has attained is i0i miles an
hour in a closed circuit. 1t has flown
nearly $4,000 feet high. One man
vent SO high that he was covered with
sleet and snow. Eighteen hours is
the longest time they have remained
in the air, at one time, and l3 passen-
gers is the most it has carried at one
time, the weight aggregating LAO
pounds. They have been used by hunt
ers in shooting ducks, by physician
in making calls, and by guests who
attended an aviator's wedding.
Airships have played u part in real
war. They have been used with sue
cess by the Italians against the Turks
in Tripoli; two airships dropped bomb
after bomb filled with shrapnel over
the Turkish encampment, and 1000
men and a number of horses were
blown to pieces. The Turks fled in
terror from the black smoke of ex-
ploding bombs, for the Italians had Sc
cured the latest and most deadly mod
els in airships. They used bombs at
night that brilliantly Illuminated the
giving an opportunity to take exact
aim, and bombs that created thick
cloud of smoke, lasting one hour,
which enabled them to fire from a
concealed position.
The Zeppelin dirgible air-ship, Vic
toria Louise, made an over-sea trip
with IL passengers on board at a.
speed of 40 miles an hour, after "A
flight of nine hours in the air.
A regular aerial passenger service
between Chicago and Milwaukee, a
distance of s5 miles, is soon to be es-
tablished; the two hour trip costing
$500 a person.
Italy is experimenting with aerial
mail, an aviator recently carrying a
sack of letters 101 miles in SS min
utes.
We have racing hydroplane that
can travel 30 miles an hour, it can
rest on the water two hours and rise
in the air with the grace and ease of
bird. Three lives have been saved
from drowning by it, two girls and "A
boy. Governors island in New York
has been chosen as the site for the
first hydroplane station to be estab-
lished by the signal corp of the Uuit-
ed States army, as branch of the
aeroplane station at College Park,
Maine.
An ensign from the French navy
flew across Paris in hydroaeroplane,
intends crossing the English Channel
in it.
The Akron, dirgible balloon that
blew up, was $50 feet long, length of
gas bag 2S5 feet, diameter AZ feet.
1t had 100 horse power motor, two
of so horse power, one II horse
power, and a small dynamo. The
small motor and dynamo We're used
for electric lighting and to furnish
power for the wireless outfit.
Thomas Moore, professional aero
naut, was killed recently in New York
when he attempted to make the three
cut dip from balloon 1000 feet
high, using three parachutes, one
after another, in his descent In
making his last dip he lost his grip on
the trapeze.
We have a submarine boat that can
carry 13 people and travel along 80
feet under water. On its steel sides
are arranged electric devices and
machinery to operate the craft and