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SPEED

One World's Record a day is not nearly enough for the Navy. Lieutenants Williams and Brow have been indulging in a friendly game of record-smashing which is as close as the most rabid fan for races could wish. At the present time both of these gentlemen have to their credit the feat of travelling at the rate of four and a half miles a minute, and both accomplished this on the same day.

The Navy has wisely requested her airmen to permit these records to stand long enough for the ink to dry on the books. Although London statistics show that it is safer to fly than to walk, Navy officials are inclined to believe that a continuation of flights--especially with the same unrepaired planes--will eventually lead to disaster. Indeed Lieutenant Williams narrowly missed crashing into a squad of bombers which were meandering along at a poor sixty or ninety miles an hour. He did not bother to slow up, for according to him it is "just as well to hit them at 270 as 170".

This nonchalant remark brings one to the realization that a new stage in air-development has arrived. Increasing speed brings no new dangers in the way of collisions. The danger point has long since been reached. The new problem is what rate of speed the human system can stand without collapsing Inertia of the internal organs has caused unconsciousness in rounding curves at the new terrific speeds.

Just as science has solved other problems she will certainly solve this one. Five hundred miles an hour will be as common as the present hundred miles an hour in the air. When that time comes, an all-night trip will no longer be necessary for the trip to Princeton or New Haven. Saturday cuts will be non-existent. One may eat his lunch at leisure in Cambridge secure in the knowledge that he will be seated in the Bowl or in the Palmer Stadium when Captain Smith, 1932, kicks off to the Bulldog or the Tiger

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