The Developing of Transportation 



written in explanation thereof. Like all other mechanical 

 devices that have become so universal in their use, it has 

 passed through an evolutionary stage of development, 

 adaptation, change and growth. It is sufficient here to state 

 that its simple principle is an explosion within a cylinder con- 

 taining a movable piston that is driven by the force of the 

 explosion, thus producing the power that is conveyed in 

 many ways. The application of this principle has done more 

 to eliminate time and to shorten space in transportation 

 than any other invention. Its power is applied alike on 

 water, land and in the air. It has made man a migratory 

 being and has extended his range of travel to uttermost 

 limits of the world. It has made possible a change in the 

 speed of land travel from the stagecoach's four miles per 

 hour to the automobile's four miles per minute. 



Man had learned by observing the birds that the swift- 

 est medium of travel was through the air and he set about 

 to devise a method of overcoming the force of gravity so 

 that his body could be propelled through the air at a greater 

 rate of speed than any yet attained. The development of 

 the airplane has accomplished this end. With no rivers to 

 cross, no roads to grade, no tunnels to dig and no bridges to 

 build, the airplane now carries his body through the air at a 

 greater rate of speed than any living creature has ever 

 before traveled; and yet, air travel is still in its infancy and 

 its future possibilities cannot now be foreseen by those most 

 advanced in the science of air navigation. Now, better and 

 safer designs are supplanting the old. Statistics show that 

 air travel is now more than sixty per cent, safer than any 



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