QUICK TRAVELLING.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18150, 13 August 1924, Page 14

QUICK TRAVELLING.

LAND AND WATER STILL SWIFTEST METHODS. Whatever the accomplishments of the round-the-world flight by aeroplane, it will not set a new record for'speed in encompassing the globe, declares the New York "Times." Already, more than twice as much time has elapsed since the firßt of the Army planes left Clover Field, Santa Monica, California, as the holder of the world record took for his 21,166-mile journey: ad the air squadron is still far from home. John Henry Mears may rest at peace, since it is he,who holds the record.

Time-honoured, indeed, is the sport of racing for a record in circumnavigation of the globe.' Magellan, starting the game all unwittingly, more than four hundred years ago, established the first record in his three years' journey. No one succeeded in disputing his title for more than 350 ■ years. Then Captain W. D. Seymour, in 187t>, made the trip in 117 days. . , . Between the two-record-making circumnavigators came Phileas Fogg, tho mythical hero of Jules Verne's story. In the world of make-believe ho encompassed the globe in eighty days,-in 1872. But even his record was broken when, in. 1889,"Nellie Bly, a. New York newspaper reporter, completed the journey in 72 days 6 hours 11 minutes anil 14 seconds. In the following year George Francis ' Train substituted for Miss Bly?s record one of 67 days VI hours and 3 minutes. Charles Fitzmorris, in 1901, bettered this by almost a weelc; and two years afterwards Henry Frederick cut the world's record to 54 days 7 hours and 20 minutes. Colonel Burnley Campbell in 1907 took a little more than forty days for the trip/and in 1911 Andre Jaeger-Schmidt, a Parisian journalist,, made it in a few hours less. Mr Mears, of tho New York "Sun," set out to beat thia record in 1913, and established the present record of 33 day? 21 hours 35 minutes and 4-5 second. He covered an average of 587 miles a day and of miles every hour. These journeys, with the exception of Magellan's expedition, have been accomplished by lightning changea from boat to train and train to boat. Mr Mears's record seems likely to stand for some time to come.