Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-08-13
FORM
. OF AMUSEMENT
. NOW IS Speed
By r. EDGREN.

ny ~ AIbSAA-Ns
NEW YORK.-Compared to the
past, this is the age of speed. Nobody
knows, and it would take Jules Verne
even TO guess, what may come in the
future. @-.
| Such amazing speed results have
come with the mechanical progress OF
the past ten or fifteen years that even
Fl. g. Wells story of trip to Mars
doesn't sem impossible. Perhaps >in
a few hundred years more they'll be
running expresses TO Mars and the
other planets, and locals to the moon
and nearby portions of space.
Three days last week, on Lake
George, the fastest speed boats In the
world competed for the gold challenge
cup-the greatest amateur racing
event on the water And beside the
30-mile race, run in three heats, there
was the one-mile speed trials run
with the hope of breaking the worlds
record at that distance and proving
that America is still able to build the
fastest boats on earth, even If Eng
land did win back the cup couple
Of years ago.
Compare this mile-a-minhte speed
with the performances of the past
Why. only a few years ago a 20-mile
beat was a marvel, and when hyd-
roplane made 80 miles an hour on the
Seine, near Paris, the whole world
shrugged its shoulders and accused
the French timers and builders of
taking. But it wasn't many months
before 80 miles an hour was only
fair rate of speed.
In ancient times the fastest boats
were the Viking galleys, which had an
edge in speed on the Roman and Phoe-
nician galleys that prowled up and
down the coasts of Europe The gal,
leys used sail and oars, but they had
only square rig, without Readsails, and
could make very little progress with
out favorable winds. Even with the
great sweeps helping they probably
did little better than 10 miles an hour
Imagine the sensation q modern pow
er boat would have made tearing along
through Viking fleet at so miles an
hour! The old sea kings would surely
have thought that Their and 9din
We're with them. eo -.
Autos Can Travel.
Racing automobiles can make 100
miles an hour, some of them even
greater speed for short distances
Compare that with the racing chariots
o fthe Romans, clumsy, springless,
wood and bronze affairs that must
have dragged atlthe heels of the hors-
es like the fire engines we see going
down our streets now and j
then, even today. At the best they
could not 60 nearly as fast as horse |
running alone, and the fastest horse
that ever lived couldn't pace q racing i
auto fer ten yards, or come anywhere !,
near 1t.
And the flying machine-latest ana
greatest of our speed wonders. Fly
ing is In its infancy, yet monoplanes
have made 40 miles an hour without
wind assistance. When airmen have
learned how to take advantage of the
great sweeping currents of air that /
swirl high over head across the oceans
Ihey'll make Transatlantic trips thatl
will astonish people. The airships are
he scouting and messagecarryingl
Of war. What would an air.
ship have done In ancient times? Then
2 man was the fastest messenger. I'M
ancient Greece they had state dis
patch carriers who could run horses
q adeath, Man was faster than the
aorse In jaunts Of several days dura.
lion. Once, when the Persians were
anding an army in Greece, an Athen.
an runner went out to warn, the Spar
ans and other peoples remote from
Athens. That runaer covered dis
.ance computed at 100 miles. and
when he arrived hack in Athens the
ollowing day the people were at first
ncredulous and wouldn't believe that
lie had delivered the messages. The
runner declared that the gods had
carried him over the mountains, and
alter when his feat was authenticated
his became tradition. Probably he |,
vas speaking figuratively.
What is the limit of mechanical
speed produced by human ingenuity?
Some OF us viii live to see great
progress but no living man will ever
answer that question.
@ -. 49, {. /