New-York tribune., 1918-05-30
A 135-MiLe Joke
FROM an address by Charles F. Ke,-
terang, president, to the Societv of
Automotive Engineers, May 20.
AM GOING to give you very simn,s
account of an incident {, n.-.

cago came there to see me regardins so
business matters. Each of them had .,...
sons IN the aviation corps. Thew loo,sa
WORRIED and said to them, What is wrong
with you fellows?"
one SAID, IF you had two sons in ~.
AVIATION corps you certainly would be wor-
ried. We have no engines, airnlanes 49,
anything else. This confounaed r;,.
motor IS a failure, great joke pcrpetratea
on the American public. am going n
Washington
SAID, There is train at and ano.bs,
at 8; just skip the and take the 3 o,c,o,,
train"
We went to the airplane factory in pav-
ton and came to one lone Liberty engine
he said' my God! Have they got one done
Have you had this in a 'plane?v
SAID, NO; never had this in 'nlaney -
He said, "Why don't you put i !,
plane ?"
lie walked about and finally into an aisle
ana saw about seventy-fve Liberty engine.
in a row.
He asked, what are they?v
SAID, Liberty engines"
Where did you get them?p
SAID, THE name plates on then, +.1,
where they are from, some from the pacL
ard Company, some from the Lincoln no+ou
Company"
He asked, How long have Won bssr r.+
ting them?"
Right along"
How many have you hadp
Two hundred and fifty or thre. bu,-
dred." A1A-
He went about and saw one ~ ~. a.
planes, and that we had actus,,, ,,,;,.
machine
He said, "You can't get the engine. OF
the ground"
saio' Partially true; you can't ge. them
on the ground unless you run them"
He asked, How fast do they go7v
sald' That is a question. Would YOU
like to ride behind one of these engines,
cant show you by conversation anv+oire
about it,
he SAID, Il have never been up..
said. "You had better take vour ;,;+;.
ton right now. Here is stop-watcb
'us' as you leave the ground press that
and when you pass 10000 feet press II
again. and when you come back tell us.n
A Transformation
We sent him up and he came back Tai,
about transformation. He was NOT tho
same fellow that went up at all. He had
forgotten everything about being scared
and being 10000 feet in the air
He said, "My Cod we got up 10000 fee.
IN little over seven minutes"
We said, "f you would like to take an
other ride, we want to show vou how fast
We go"
He said NO; I don't care to 20 again.
but my friend will go on this trip"
Inc friend went up and we ran him over
measured course and showed him we were
getting better than 1876 miles an hour.
Those men went back to Chicago con-
tented with their experience. They said,
wait till we get back there; we want to
see some OF those fellows who have been
telling US that we have no engines or air
planes" They had some facts they had
gotten first-hand
There are few very important facts
and here is very simple one that perhaps
you have not thought of: The Liberty
engine cannot read; it has no earc: there-
fore, it does not know anything about the
criticism that is going about it. Other
I Go Lpo !,
would get off the ground. l think they
would be too discouraged to try. But know
ing nothing Of the situation. they are doing
admirably, and the engine to-day, as near
as | have been able to analyze it, knowing
something of aviation engines, is as good
as, if not better than, has ever before bee
created.
1t is being produced in quantities. They
shipped the thousandth engine several days
ago, only two companies having been in
production. One of these has been in pro-
duction for about sixty days.
1t has not been year since the first one
of these engines was put together expert
mentally. 1t is a new product, a new order
of things, which people are not familiar
with. 1t is perhaps because we do not
analyze these conditions that so much criti-
cism and gloom have spread over the coun-
try. There is only one thing that will
answer the criticism, and that is the engine
itself
Thew .ThoU Cn .Cinoinp