Evening star., 1938-02-06
Speed: Man, Beast
and Machine
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
Man, who. at recorded best, has only
been able 10 run at the rate of 217 miles
per hour, has, by mechanical means, lift
ed that rate to the almost incredible fig
ures Of 31l.42 miles ON land and 44O,S
miles in the air. 1t was the Negro Olym-
pic athlete Jesse Owens who established
the land record for the United States,
Capt. G. E. T. Eyston who made the auto
mobile record for England and Warrant
Omcer F. Agello who hung up the air
record for Italy.
There is no record of the sprint time
Of Pheidippides, the runner who brought
the news afoot from Marathon by the
sea to Athens, nor is there any Of the
fabulous time Of the runner in Hereward
the Wake who easily kept up with
horse. So far as official records are
concerned, the American Museum Of
Natural History takes that of Jesse
Owens.
Man is declared, by himself at least, to
represent the crown of Creation and it
must be trifle embarrassing to him to
learn that, according to the museum. he
kOCc dV q SIldu pdCC Oil lOOI, dLu llOLll.
ing to speak of in the air, when compared
with one of the least-by cubic measure
ment-of natural creatures. For it has
been demonstrated that the fastest
known living thing is the male deer fly,
which attains speed of 818 miles per
hour. This fly moves through the air
so fast that the sound Of its own buzz
cannot keep up with it. The female of
hn cnoo{nc iS 1ojcIIrolv in
50 can be caught but it may be noted
that it can be caught only by the male
deer fly, for nothing on earth else is so
fast as she. She saunters along at the
rate of 6l4 miles per hour.
Much OF the study carried on under the
auspices of the American Museum of
Natural History was that Of Roy Chap
man Andrews, naturalist and explorer Of
every world. The study has included the
speed Of creatures in the air. on land and
in the water. There are some surprises
in the compilation.
When speed in terms of miles per hour
is stated. it must be understood that rela-
lively few of the creatures ever 60 even
as much as l mile at the rate stated.
Some would be incapable of doing so.
birds, which travel for long distances at
high speeds. Special instruments. cam
eras with stop-watch attachments and
the like have been utilized to obtain the
data on the speeds of the various crea-
lures recorded. So thorough has the
study been that the speeds of 200 fast
moving creatures, living and mechanical,
have been recorded. Nothing like it ever
has been attempted before.
Now here is paradoxical fact: Flies
are among the more rapid movers and yet
the slowest-paced bird recorded bears the
name of the scissor tailed f1ycatcher. 1t
must catch its flies by art and ambush
rather than by speed. 1t flies but 10
miles per hour. There is group of It.
mile birds, including the song sparrow, the
American eyre. and the bluebird. Like
wise. there is group in the 20-mile class
where one finds the meadow lark. the
blue jay, the purple martin and the chip
ping sparrow
Pages would be required to 60 over all
their records, there are so many The
list mounts in speed terms rapidly. The
Baltimore oriole makes 26 miles, as does
the black duck. The sharp-tailed grouse
makes 33 and the robin, that harbinger
of spring, 36 miles per hour. Pigeon
fanciers will be interested to know that
the museum puts the speed of the hon.
ing pigeon at As miles but the starting
makes 81. The eagle flies mile a min
ute and so does the mallard and the
Canada goose. The pheasant is in the
same class, but the canvasback, that
prime prize OF sportsmen, must be taken
at u miles on the wing
Xxx
The lovely swallow makes 106 miles per
hour the golden eagle, 120 miles, and.
fastest of all the birds, appears the
hunting duck hawk, which is given a
figure of no less than 180 miles per hour!
Turning to the mechanical birds, it is
shown that the Graf Zeppelin had rec
ord of 1852 miles per hour, with the top
airplane speed at $40 miles.
A classification of speed on land, in the
museums study, shows that the king
snake makes less than mile an hour.
There is rising scale in the snake world
with the record held by the red racer at
3.6 miles.
Most people have seen chickens run
ming. but probably few have realized that
their rate is 9 miles per hour. The quail,
on the ground, does better than IA miles.
One can derive some amusement from
dispassionately reading the list of land
speeds. They go: Average dogs. 40
miles; road runner. 20 miles; Jesse
Owens, 2l.7 miles; elephant charging,
24.5 miles: Charles German, ice skating,
253 miles: white-tailed deer, 80 miles"
etc.
The emu does 81 miles and, in contrast
to the squirt tests for most other land
creatures, has made that speed for 10
miles. The whippet does 353 miles per
hour, the greyhound So miles and the
Mongolian wolf the same. But the Mon-
golian wild ass makes 40 miles The race.
horse, Bob Wade is taken at a mark OF
42.3 miles. a young buck deer at 49 miles,
while Cobb gazelle and the pronehorn
antelope have shown a turn of speed at
no less than so miles per hour. But of
all these land creatures there is none
like the cheetah, the Indian hunting
leopard, which has been clocked at 10
miles. Next we find listed the railroad
train at l20 miles and the automobile at
3ll.42 miles. 1t seems incredible that the
cheetah, on its own four legs, could run
more than half as fast as railroad flyer
and almost twice as fast as the race
horse.
Turning to the water for speed rec
ords. we find fascinating list. The
carp is the slowest listed. 1t swims at
speed of only nine -tenthS of a mile per