SOME RECORDS BY THE HUMAN ANIMAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume LV, Issue 5828, 1 December 1893, Page 3

SOME RECORDS BY THE HUMAN ANIMAL.

Without meohanio-1 aid man can walk for several hours, at a speed whioh is ordinarily from three to four milea per hour. Under exceptional circumstances ho has covered over eight miles in one hour, and an average of two and three quarter miles per hour for 141 hours. In running be haa covered about Hi milea in an hour* In water he hae proved himself capable of ewimming 100yds at tho rate of throe miles an hour, and 22 miles at rather over one mile por hour. He has ahown himself able to jump ao high aa 6ft 2s in from the ground, and over a horizontal distanoe of 28ft 3in, and has thrown'a oricket ball as far ss 382_ft before it struok the ground. The power of tho living human meohanism to withstand widely diverse and excessive strains ia altogether inapproachable in artificial constructions* Thus, although fitted for on

external atmospheric pressure of 151b to the square inch, he has been able, as exemplified by Messrs Cox well and Glaisher in 1862, to aßoend to a height of seven milee, and breathe air at a pressure of only 3-yib to the square inoh ; and on the other hand dive-s bave been down into water 80ft deep, entailing an extra pressure of 361b per square inch, and have returned safely* With appliances on land and water man's position as a competitor with other animals in speed was vastly improved by hia use of meohanioal aids — without any extraneous motive power. With skates, for instance, he has traversed the distance of 3 miles at the rate of about 21 miles per hour ; but the most wonderful iuor ease to the locomotive use of man was in the modern oyole. One mile has been oyoled at the rate of 27.1 miles an hour, fifty at twenty, 100 at 16.6, and 900 at 12.43 an hour. In water man's own speed unaided, as previously stated, was one tu three miles an hour. Porpoises are said to be able easily to keop up with steamers going fourteen, miles an hoar, and a sea boat going at five miles an hour had been unable to overtake the aquatic bird oalled the Great Northern Diver, when endeavouring to m.ke hia escape by alternately swimming on the surface and diving below. With boats pro* pelled by oarß or scu.l6 he could increase his -peed to a maximum of twelve miles per hour for four hours ; but invariably on water as almost invariably on land man was quite unable to compete in power or locomotion with other specially constructed animals, whether or not he avails himself of mechanical aids, ao long as hie own bodily strength is the only motive power he employs.