QUICK TRAVELLING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19271, 8 September 1924, Page 8

QUICK TRAVELLING.

BAND AND 'WATER STILL SWIFTEST METHODS. Whatever the accomplishments of the Round-the-W or Id flight by airplane, it will not see 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 first of the army planes left Clover Field, Santa Monica. California, as the holder of the world record took for his 21,166-mile journey; and the air squadron is still far from home. John Henry Meats may reet 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 400 yeans 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 1876, made the trip in 117 days. Between ■'he two record-making circumnavigators came Phileas Fogg, the mythical hero of Jules Verne’s story. In the world of make-believe he encompassed the globe in SO days, in 1872. But even his record was broken when, in 1889, Nellie Ely, a New York newspaper reporter, completed the journey in 72 days 6 hours 11 minutes and 14 seconds. In the following year George Francis Train substituted for Miss Bly s record one if 67 days 32 hours and 3 minutes. Charles Fitzmorris, in 1901, bettered this by almost a week; and two years afterward Henry Fredrick cut the world’s record to 54 days 7 hours and 20 minutes. Colonel Burnley Campbell in 1907 took a little more than 40 days for the trip, and in 1911 Andre Jaeger-Schmidt, a Parisian journalist, made it ii. a few hours less. Mr Means, of the New York Sun, set out to beat this record in 1913 and established the present record of 33 days 21 hours 35 minutes and 4-5 second. He covered an average of 587 miles a day and of 24i miles every hour. These journeys, with the exception of Magellan’s expedition, have been accom plished by lightning changes from boat to train and train to boat. Mr Mears’s record seems likely to stand for some time to come.