McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1917-08-03

planes and 100000 men to run them.
II that sort of a feet could be turned
loose on Germany next week, drop
ping bombs on their iinpudent and
heartless hosts, it would put them
out of business in a week. But the
Germans know what we are doing,
and they are making aeroplanes as
fast as they can, too. What an aw-
full sight, to see thousands of these
flying monsters. mile above the
earth. battling with each other,
and the blood falling like crimson
dew, and the bodies and broken ma
chimes falling too. A good place to
stay away from, for man down be-
low!
visited an aeroplane exposition
at the Grand Central Palace here
some months ago. There were big
Curtiss biplanes, long, slender Wright
machines, and many other forms of
flying craft. | stepped the length of
some of them. and found it to be
sixty feet from tip to tip of their
wings. | looked into the car, and
saw it was fixed up with brakes, steer
ing gear, ETC., like an automobile.
They said good aeroplane, which
would make from 100 to 120 miles an
hour, could be had for $4,000, of
which half was for the motor alone.
| saw the original Wright machine,
the first machine in the world that
was heavier than air, to fly. 1t was
poor looking specimen, about 40
feet long and twelve feet high, two
stretches of canvass with the pro-
peller between. The Wright brothers
(sons of "a preacher at Dayton, Ohio)
offered the whole thing for a million
Of dollars. The patents are worth
many hundred times that sum to-day.
The wings of these aeroplanes are
made Of spruce pine, covered with
Irish linen that has been heavily sized
When they are high in the air they
look like great, big mosquito hawks
(or, as we used to call them, devils
darning needles, or dragon fiies) than
anything else. No express train or
automobile can make such speed.
Some of them have small boats fas-
tened at the lower side so that they
can swim in the water as we'll as fly.
An expert flyer can turn his machine
upside, or sideways; can fall half a
mile and catch. up and rise again;
some have gone up six miles or more
above the earth, | believe, but even
at this time Of the year it is zero
weather up that high.
At the Aero Exposition I met Ad-
miral Peary, the man who found the
North Pole. He was walking around
the machines and studying them. |
introduced myself to him, and he told
me some wonderful things about his
trip to the North Pole. He said the
greatest degree of cold he met was
72 degrees below zero. but that he
did not suffer much at that tempera-
ture. When near the Pole he tried to
find the depth Of the ocean. The line
went down 5000 feet (about a mile
and three quarters) and then broke;
so he did not find how deep it was.
At the South Pole the land and ice
together rise to a hight of ll,000
feet above the sea, and the cold is
far worse than at the North. Peary
said he wanted. to try to reach the
South Pole, and could have done so if
he had not been discouraged by sci
entists who told him that finding one
pole was glory enough. Peary said
that if we only had enough aviators
to run these flyers we could use them
to splendid advantage against the
Germans, but that at present it was
easier to get machines than it was
to get men to run them. 1t requires
very steady nerves to fly, and the
smaller the flyer. the better.
Well, all these preparations for war
will change our national life so CON-
pletely thatwe will not know our
selves in year or two. The air viii
be full of the clack of aermotors and
the despised auto will follow the horse
into oblivion. In soaring so high
above the earth will man also elevate
his morals and his sentiments? Will
he be higher minded, more kind and
more mindful of his God?
LINDSAY S. PERKINS.