Evening star., 1920-01-11


only were feeling their way.
Remember Frank Rettich: He is the
lad whose machine rose twice and
SKINNED nine feet and then eleven feet
at the height of a mans knees Carl
Ter than this, before Wilbur Wright had
come to France and showed them how,
the Farmans and Bleriots were not do
ing much better with their motors).
Some say shin-bones. Perhaps it was
both. 1t matters nothing Frank got
on the ground by unaided means-with-
out being thrown into the air, without
jumping Off height. without a motor
he rose from the ground and skinned
legs.
The name. Frank Rettich will go
down the ages along with that of
liDur wright and Santos-Dumont.
ne was the first bike skinner of the
air. and his exploit was at once as
n1moie and as immense as the crowds
OF laos who will follow him.
Rettich did not win the Peugeot
purse. but an aviette club, formed on
the spur of the moment by the Aero
Ciuo members. handed him $3.50 as a
mark of esteem. So, another new
thing had come into the world-an
aviette club. the first aviette club
Thenceforth. the Peugeot contests at
the Pare des Princes made something
of stir. Emmanuel Aime declared
the skimming bike to be at hand.
Henri Farman (who, alone, had made
sixteen foot Skins with a motor) and
Ernest Archdeacon (who had contra
dicted Wilbur Wright before he saw
him) declared. on authority. that hu-
man progress cannot increase the
power Of legs and arms.
Nobody listened. The boys were
skimming
/ remember the last contest
One hundred and eighty winged
bikes were entered, and 100 were ac-
tually brought to the popular track
in the Boulogne suburbs.
Sixty started.
Fifty-nine also ran: Among them,
Jacquelin, the old favorite cycling
champion. disappointed everybody.
With nifty looking apparatus de-
signed by an engineer OF roads and
bridges, he could not quit the dirt.
One terrific yacht" bore down on
the judges. with trys'ls, stun'sls. jibs
and awning stretched to slide upon
the breeze. When Cap put on spurt
of speed it reared like Fidgety Ann
and fell upon its side with a dull thud.
same" they said. surprised to see
him get that truck with awning OF
the ground. His name was Collot
And his gearings were camouffag ged
with pasteboard.
Looking back on the general French
ignorance about bearing surfaces be-
fore the war, it is declared, now, that
Collot must have had powerful gear
ing.
Collot's name crops up again, in De-
1919.
There were biplanes.
Their inventors. mostly. had put them
on tricycles, to support their vaster
bearing surfaces Their speed was
that of what the French call 'hygienic
walk"
One party had Wright vertical rud-
der" None bothered about warping,
none could change the slant OF his plane
while in movement. One party had
wooden propeller at the rear and an in
genious gearing to it. At the moment
when his wheels should quit the earth
his pedal force would be thrown auto
on the aerial propeller.
earth. They seemed held to it by some
thing very mysterious and quite invis-
ible in the nature of electromagnetic
think they call it gravitation.
He halted, sweating, putting, exhausted.
He said: II know what's wrong with
my machine. / shall rectify II" Then
the war came.
But (before the war camel little
bike with phenomenally small wings.
slightly warped and curiously pitched
and trebly braced, came fitting toward
US. Just before the judges stand, at
the attained speed Of twenty-five miles
per hour, the rider, with jerk Of the
hips, appeared to lift his front, rose,
and, begosh! with second effort, SEEM
ed to change his plane slant again. At
once he dipped to left-that second jolt,
they said had made him capsize. He
struck the track and broke. But when
they measured it they found that he had
SKINNED sixteen feet. 1t was an impos-
ing sight-historica1. Few had seen
the skins of Rittich, and this was
greater.
-.Do VIM" the party asked.
You win!' they answered; but can't
you do better?''
yes he said, II can. Just offer
81 900 for ten yards and will show you
how to do it.
Such was the. origin of the present
decametre purse.
His name was Paul Didier. Certainly,
at that moment, he had no overhead
plane. Photographed Immediately after
his skins, the picture shows him sitting
among wings at the height of his handle
bar They say that his device was
merged into certain patents. which are
about to receive improvements of world
interest.
Didier was killed in the war.
And now the entire affair is different.
What do the great manufacturers care
for 10000 francs which Didier craved
and pleaded to win.
The prize, | say. is the aviette itself.
Hence all this secret diplomacy about
new gearings and mechanical surprises.
Purses are no longer of any conse-
auence The real thing is the skinner,
for Jimmy to skim over the barn.
STERLING HEILIG.