TRAVELING AT HIGH SPEEDS ON THE SURFACE OF THE 
EARTH AND ABOVE IT:1 
By Prof. H. 8. Herr-Suaw, LL. D., F. R.S., M. Inst. C. E., M. R. I. 
The Spirit of the time shall teach me speed.—King John. 
There are few things so important to man from a material point of 
view as the power of locomotion; seeing, therefore, that in this 
respect he is far less well endowed by nature than many, if not most, 
living creatures, it is no wonder that he has striven from the earliest 
times to overcome his inferiority by means of mechanical devices. 
The marvelous results of these unceasing attempts which to-day we 
enjoy, or, as some people would prefer to say, “take advantage of,”’ 
are accepted by most of us as a mere matter of course, and we are 
further apt to assume that the progress which has been so marked 
during the last century, and particularly in recent years, will con- 
tinue indefinitely. Now, quite apart from mere locomotion, the 
question of speed is one of great scientific interest, and, more than 
this, it is the real test of the power of locomotion. This is not a 
mere accident, but has its root in something far deeper. The desire 
for speed is a quality inherent in man, and is doubtless a primordial 
instinct, the reason for which we see in all other animals, being 
derived from prehistoric ages. Speed was from the first a necessity 
of life to enable the weak to escape from the strong and to enable 
the strong to prey upon the weak, and men depended, just as much 
as the animals did, for their very existence on fleetness and speed of 
motion. 
From what few and somewhat uncertain records we have of the 
achievements of man in running in the ancient sports, it does not 
seem there is very much difference between his powers then and in 
modern times. As to modern times, we find that for the short 
distance of 100 yards, and for the longer distance of a mile, the 
records of 25 years ago still stand, notwithstanding the strenuous 
efforts made to improve upon them on many scores of occasions each 
subsequent year. Thus we have for the former the record of E. 
Donovan in 1886, 21.3 miles an hour, and in the same year the record 
of W. G. George for the mile, 14.2 miles an hour, which have never 
been beaten; while for one distance, that of 200 yards, the record of 
with author’s additions, from separate of Proceedings of Royal Institution. 
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