TRAVELING AT HIGH SPEEDS ON THE SURFACE OF THE 

 EARTH AND ABOVE IT. 1 



By Prof. H. S. Hele-Shaw, 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 



1 Lecture before the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Friday, Mar. 31, 1911. Reprinted.by permission, 

 with author's additions, from separate of Proceedings of Royal Institution. 



629 



