Achievements of the Air-Ship
A FEW days ago Mr. Atwood flew from St. Louis to New York in an air-ship, some stretches of the distance being covered at the rate of a mile a minute. Nearly seventy-five years has been required in developing the modern railway locomotive, and a century of progress has been expended on the great ocean liner, while fully a quarter of a century has been taken in developing the automobile to its present standard of perfection and usefulness; but we have only to go back five years, to 1906, to find in all the world but two men, the Wright brothers, that could fly in a machine heavier than air. Now there are more than five hundred men that can fly in air machines, and the number is rapidly increasing. Indeed, some women as well as the men are taking it up. Manufacturers are experimenting with much more powerful machines, and it is thought that it will not be long until air craft will be on the market that can readily sail a distance of five hundred miles or over before alighting. At the recent aviation meet in Chicago a battleship was outlined in whitewash in Grant Park, and General McCormick issued the order, "Out with the aeroplane squad!" When the order was given, seventeen air-ships arose and began circling the outline of the battleship and throwing their bombs. Each one was provided with four bombs; and one of the men landed three of his on the dummy battleship, another landed two, and several of them landed one each. Another of the aeroplanes dropped a flour bomb into a company of marines, and it was adjudged that if it had been a real bomb instead of the practise one the whole company would have been annihilated. Every day seems to add new evidence that the predictions of the uses of the air-ship in time of war will be more than met. The butcheries of war were bad enough before this new implement was added.