The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1916-05-10
EVOLUTION OF SPEED
WRITER HAS TRACED ITS PROG
REss THROUGH CENTURIES.
All Of Mans Ingenuity, However, HaS
Not Caused Him to Devise Means
70 Travel Faster Than
the Little Swallow.

Those twittering swallows have
something to twit about. Until an
hour ago I thought Of them only as
friendly decorations In the sky. Now
I see them In their true light, as
mans rivals in the struggle for speed
supremacy.
was sitting by a sunny bay win
dow, overlooking q stretch Of the main
street In a sleepy Southern village. In
all the landscape nothing had stirred
for half an hour but the swallows, a
passing motor car, and a schoolboy
racing IN its wake In the vain hope OF
'b~ >6ing" ride. Motion, however
even so little OF 1t as this-has way
OF nonopollzing our attention from
everything else. It set me to thinking
about speed: wondering, IN particu-
lar. how motor cars and swallows and
self.propelled humans compared IN
the worlds record. l got down
newspaper almanac, a pad OF paper
and a pencil, and began to enliven
some slow moments by tracing the
dizzy evolution Of speed.
The standing Of the self-propelled
human, / soon enough discovered, was
pitifully " low In the averages. In his
lightest apparel and favored with
sniked shoes and well'rolled track OF
cinders, the best that the best man
among US can run a mile in Is at q
rate that would carry him only Il
miles an hour. Even II human mus
Gle could maintain for an hour the
mace of q worlds championship 100
ward dash, our record would be only
81 miles and a small fraction.
But see how mans pride and his
lus, for speed have urged him to e1-
pedients. Mounted on the best OF race
horses he has managed to have him
self propelled for mile at q rate OF
nearly 40 miles an hour.
By inyenting the bicycle he then
r.ised the rate at which he could
cover a mile a: speed Of 81 l-3 miles
an hour. The motor cycle almost
succeeded in doubling this pace. Its
rate for the mile IS 100.
Meanwhile, man was developing
other inventions. In a locomotive ne
attained a speed, over a short course
of 120 miles an hour. He experiment.
ed with flying machines, until in the
fastest monoplanes he managed to hurl
himself through the air at q rate OF
six and one.half more miles an hour
than he had been able to force out OF
q railway engine. This rate Is enough
to make the brain reel, but think, next.
OF the terrific speed at which he has
driver a motor car-142.S miles an
hour.
Cause for congratulation truly, but
not vet enough to allow him to CROW;
for. even with this, man has not De-
come the speed king OF creation.
Hawks and vultures. our scientists
saw, can attain a speed OF $50 miles
an hour. And not only can they pass
ND In short-distance swoops ana
sourts: they also can maintain their
greater speed over long courses. On
an air route from Antwerp to Com
nfeene, a swallow-no picked athlete,
either, but (supposedly) a common
homebody bird, eager to get back to
the family chimney-few 140 miles
the other day at an average speed OF
123 miles an hour. No worlds CHAM
ton motor car or monoplane has
record that compares favoraoly Win
this for such a distance.
Man is swiftly progressing; ne can
motor a mile now at speed ten
times as fast as he can run 1t; and
he may yet become the speed king OF
creation. But meanwhile-and this Is
what gals him-he has to take on MS
hat to an ordinary little twltter1ns
swallow.-Charles Phelps Cushing, IN
New York Evening Post.