The Press Junior THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1937. Ninety Years Ago

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22109, 3 June 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Press Junior THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1937. Ninety Years Ago

Aeroplanes are among the most ranting things in the modern world, and the latest machines and the new records established make news that is of interest to everybody. By comparison ships and trains, except for such giants as the Queen Mary and such novelties as a stream-lined Diesel locomotive doing 100 miles an hour or more, seem commonplace. Yet not so long ago railway trains were a novelty, and the achievement of steamships was making the world sit up with wonder. Files of an old illustrated weekly of 90 years ago show the things that were news in those days. Of course there were no photographs, as the camera had only just been invented, and was very primitive, but the news was illustrated by drawings, which really served just as well as photographs, and were often far more exciting. Each week in 1847 there were at least two or three Illustrations of railway matters, either new engines, or new stations, or accidents. And every issue had its pictures of new ships launched—ships, for the Navy, or for the Australian or Far Eastern trade—as well as highly imaginative pictures of shipwrecks. So, nowadays, every week the newspapers publish pictures of aeroplanes. These are the things that capture everybody’s imagination now, as trains and ships did so 90 years ago. Then the railway train was a new thing. People were not at all sure, if they went on a railway journey, that the engine would not blow up. For engines in those days were fairly primitive, and blew up fairly often. That is one of the reasons why our great grandparents were frightened of travelling in trains even when they had grown old and engines were so much better. We never hear of such things happening in New Zealand nowadays. The pictures of the opening of new railway stations in the old weekly have a modern counterpart in the photographs of new aerodromes. It was much the same with ships. The steamship was just beginning to prove that it was faster and more reliable than the sailing vessel. In addition trade was expanding, and the shipyards of England were busy building ships to carry it. Each week new ships were launched, and naturally people wanted to read about them and see pictures of them. Each week also, unfortunately, there were shipwrecks, and people wanted information about them. The frequency of such happenings explains why most people more than 70 years of age are very much afraid of the sea. Nowadays, shipwrecks do not happen very often, even though many more ships sail the seas. Modern ships, like modem trains, are safer, because better care is taken of the routes oyer which they have to travel, with guides in the form of lighthouses for ships and signals for trains. Engines are more reliable,

and so do not break down in storms and cause' ships to be driven helpless on to rocky coasts. The similarity in the kind of things people were interested in then and now is worth remembering, .as well as the difference between the safety of travel in ships and trains in 1847 and in 1937. Aeroplanes now are very much what ships and trains were then, and just as ships and trains very soon became completely safe and dependable as a means of travel, so will the aeroplane.