The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-13

| for any hostile navy to approach with | in 500 miles of the American coast | without being destroyed. This asser-
 ton was made by MT. Ryan while re- | ferring to the airplane as a military | flyers spoke in all sincerity of the fu- ture of the airplane and the common
 thought that ran through all these
 addresses was this: Within a few | years the airplanes will be looked upon
 as fully as indispensable to conditions | which will be established in days of l peaceful industry and great prosperity
 as are any other means of transporta- | tion.
 :, Presumably MT. Ryan and the other speakers did not know that in the
 statements that they made they were vindicating a prediction which Peter i Cooper ventured to make many years
 ago. MT. Cooper had, few years l earlier. built the first locomotive en . zine that was constructed in the | United States. The triumph of George Stephenson in England with his loco-
 motive. "The Rocket" was soon | brought to the attention of MT. Cooper
 and he was persuaded to undertake l the building of locomotive engine upon plans worked out by himself. ! ] a very crude machine. nevertheless, it
 did all that Mir. Cooper expected of it. 1 He looked for improvements and lived ! long enough to see the pioneers of the 1 great mogul engines which are capa- l ble of hauling as many as hundred
 cars heavily laden with freight. One ! of the fundamental principals, how
 ever. of a locomotive engine was es- tablished by MT. Cooper when he built l the first locomotive.
 COOPER PREDICTED AIRPLANE
 MT. Cooper's attention was after
 wards concentrated upon other things
 than locomotive construction. For | many years after he maintained the l distinction of being the first American | locomotive builder. He often thought
 of this machine and as a result of this ] contemplation he at last ventured the prediction that in time, perhaps after
 a generations age had passed, Ameii- I can inventive ability would have work ed out the problem whose answ CT would show how to drive through the 1 air a machine heavier than air and whose own weight would be consider ably increased by that of passengers | and commodities put upon it. The | only real problem, MT. Cooper said, to l solve was the providing of the neces- 1 sary means to propel an air machine. | He seems to have had a vague idea | of the internal combustion engine, al- 1 though it was not perfected until some
 years after his death. Having invent ed the air machine and demonstrated it's practicability it would then, Mr Cooper said. after improvements had | been made and the apparatus brought
 to it's highest capacity. be used for transporting passengers. commodities l and mails and would in the course of l time become a true commerce bearer. MT Cooper's son-in-law. the late Abram $. Hewitt who narrated this prediction. lived long enough to sec that MT. Cooper was justified in mak' | ing it. Now the ablest expert authori-
 ties and the present day masters of the art and science of aerial transportd- tion speak in public of a future Tor the airplane which will demonstrate it's great commercial importance. In England they are preparing for long
 distance traffic by means of airplanes
 and the prediction is made in all sin
 cerity there that within few years
 great fleets of airplanes will be oper- ating commercially between England
 and Europe and even India and oper- ating commercially.
 MT. Ryan is understood to believe that our own government and ths
 aviators will speedily have worked oi'
 problems whereby mail aircraft be-
 tween important centers will make their trips as regularly as do the mai
 cars upon our railroads and at fai greater speed. He also believes thai more and more passenger traffic. es' pecially that which represents the de-
 sire to make rapid trips between com
 mercial centers. will be under way
 and furthermore that aircraft will bt used to greater and greater exten for the transportation of commodities such for instance as the class Of com modities known as express freight. THE LIBERTY MOTOR
 Since the beginning of the war man, improvements have been made in air craft construction and probably add oi