The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1919-01-23
The Aeroplane Mail.
By H. H. Windsor, in the February Pop.
ular Mechanics Magazine.

| A lot of progress has admittedly been
made in the world in other than post
office affairs, since the day when the old
stage and its skim hand numbered up to
the tavern with its passengers and-im-
portant event-the mail The mail is the
one big lottery approved alike by church
and State, and in way mildly satisfies
that spirit of gambling which seems in
ert IN even the most correct, for one
never knows what may come neXt-a
bequest or bill.
The history of letter carrying has al
ways been an interesting picture 1t
starts with the solitary messenger, on
foot. Drawing the dangers of wild animals
and wild men. Then the mounted cour-
Ter, first a ploddng horseman on an in
different beast, and later : regular Paul
Revere with infrequent relays of fresh,
fleet horses Next the stage with its
impressive function, whose arrival was
really an event From stage we div ge
to steamboat and railroad tram, and some
look forward to a near future in which
even these two shall converge in those
swift vehicles of the air which are hoped
to leave behind al previous carrying
agencies as a mere speck on the horizon
Ever since that British airman carried a
piano as ballast from somewhere in Eng
land to another somewhere in France.
anything short of moving house via the
air route seems possible
The service is SO new and ineXperi-
enced, however, we should not be too
impatient of immediate results, for obvi-
ously a generals important orders which
must reach distant point regardless of
danger to life or loss of machine, If only
minutes can be saved, is quite different
proposition from the great bulk of BUSH
ness and personal correspondence which
can already be transmitted between
points thousand miles apart in as many
minutes by telephone or telegraph as an
I aeronlane would require hours to accom-
plish
! N'.ere business documents will never
warrant the peril to life and limb which
is an accepted risk IN warfare.
The few attempts with long distance
mail planes which have been made during
the past 90 days suggest the need of con-
siderable perfecting of air craft before "a
regular, dependable air service is possible.
The attempted flight from the Pac fic
coast to Washington with only two sched-
uled stops got no farther than Arizona,
/ NllilG lue dtttulpI 10 start DAILY planes
simultaneously form New York and Chi
cago was a complete tizzle. In each case
the mail eventually was brought by rail-
road the second half of its iourn Y, and
consumed from twice to three times the
time ii gould have made on fast mail
train. To accomplish even this, Carl
Smith, balloonist and aviator Of II
years experience, was killed, and his
machine wrecked. Other aviators were
! injured, and machines damaged.
In our Impotence of results We are apt
to lose sight of the fact that air travel
will always be handicapped by storms
and air conditions which do not seriously
interfere with either railroad train or a
steamship, both of which have a sub
stantial body on which to travel. Al
express tram can reduce its speed, anc
yet make Roadway; but an air vehicle
cannot drop below certain minimum
speed and remain afloat. In the present
stage of the art, the high-speed gas en-
CINE; the only present available power fo
planes, is not only delicate machine
but very sensitive to atmospheric changes