Tuesday, November 14, 2006

 

This Day in American History

On this day in 1889, New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began her attempt to beat the literary journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by traveling around the World in less than 80 days She succeeded, finishing the trip in January, 1890--in 72 days. Because airplanes have put other means of travel into a deep decline, it is difficult to imagine that anyone could beat the 72 days now without resorting to airplanes. Monty Python guy, Michael Palin did it in 80 days for BBC television about a decade ago, but it was a close run thing. He followed the Jules Verne path and his real problem was travel in the Muslim world. Hmmm.

Comments:
I think we should bring back Zeppelins.

With Helium, such energy efficiency, such a large carrying capacity, and the fact that they can hover at little or not energy cost, why not?

I kind of like the old ships of the air.
 
I agree to a point. Helium, which is safer than hydrogen, just doesn't give the same lift. The Germans drove their two world cruising zeps for thousands of miles without mishap (well, one mishap). We on the other hand, crashed all of ours and quickly. So did the Brits. If we could solve the safety problem, I'd be with you all the way. Thanks for the comment
 
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