AMAZING SPEED ATTAINED IN GAMES

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 312, 18 December 1936, Page 2

AMAZING SPEED ATTAINED IN GAMES

DEMON BOWLER KILLS DOG AMONG CROWD.

HOW FAST CAN A GOLF BALL GO—IF YOU HIT IT?

A billiard ball can travel at 22 m.p.h.—faster than a sprinter doing IQO yards in 10 seconds. This” was proved by an experiment carried out in a London club by a play'er who drove the ball the four yards from the bottom to the top cushion in thirty-seven hundredths of a second. -In. football, a fast penalty kick can travel at nearly 40 m.p.h.,, and this fact was brought home to a goalkeeper, who, it is true, was so small that he took , size four in boots. He failed to get his hands to the ball, and the impact was so great that player and ball landed at the back of Athe net. A firm of tennis ball manufacturers uses a machine to test wear and tear on - balls. The testing consists of serving a ball 660 times at a speed of 60 m.p.h. But when a tennis ball goes to Wimbledon it must be able to ktand up to a strain twice as great as this. Tilden, who holds the world’s record, once drove a ball at 150 m.p.h. An illustration of what such a speed means was provided by Perry. Playing at Budapest, he was hit on the* head by a terrific drive. He fell

lilca a stone and was carried unconscious. to the side of the court. It Avas fortunate that he was not a batsman playing against' a certain fast bowler who flourished in the days of W r G. Grace. On one occasion this c.enion bowler sent down a “snorted which the wicket-keeper and two . fielders failed to stop. A man in the crowd held up. his 'coat to stop the miniature cannon-ball, but it went through; and killed a dog on m the other .side. 3,000 Pictures a Second, t L jfo-day’s fastest bowler is wood, whose speed is 90 m.p.h., and the long-distance record for a ;tutil stands at 83yds Ift 9in, the bowler being A. O.: Burrows, plri/ing at’ Hobart on November 21, 1925. But the world’s record for a thrown baseball is even faster than Larwood’s speed. Although no preliminary run is allowed, and the thrower has to keep one foot on a small plate, this record stands at 95 ntp.h. This is about the speed that an ice-hockey puck travels after a hefty swipe at goal.’ In the case of the billiard ball, a stop-watch, registering lOhths of a second, but for higher > speeds in sport more elaborate de-

vices are necessary. One of the most interesting of these is the Western Electric High Speed Timing Camera. It has a device which starts the working mechanism at the crack of the starter’s pistol.” A film is taken of the whole race, and beside each picture frame is the timcjj, accurate to one I,oooth of a second, which each runner is taking. An enlarged picture of the finish of the race can be in the judges’ hands three minutes after the race. This camera can take up to 3,000 pictures per second. At the maximum speed the film is rushing through the camera at 50 m.p.h. The American record for a golf ball, held by Wood Platt, stands at nearly 180 m.p.h., but even 'this speed has been exceeded during a test made this year in England with a high-speed camera, when a velocity of 280 feet per second, or ovoir 190 m.p.h., was recorded. A professional golfer obtained startling proof of the penetrative powers of a golf ball. He stood a 500-page telephone directory on end four feet in front of the tee, and drove the ball with all his might. It tore its way clean through the book and travelled a further 100 yards. Anglers sometimes hold ,casting competitions, and a man can make his line whiz out at between 40 and 50 m.p.h.

Bow-and-Arrow Champion. There is a hunter in North America who shoots; all his animals with a bow and arrow. His arrows fly so swiftly that he can drive one clean through the body of a I,ooolb bear or, to vary the target, through nine heavy motor-lorry tyres. The arrows reach a speed of over 200 m.p.h. Pellets from an air-rifle travel at about twice this speed, while those from a shot-gun attain a velocity of over 700 m.p.h. No wonder the day targets, which travel at a mere 50 m.p.h., are blown to smithereens by the impact of the tiny' lead shots! The high-velocity rifle used in biggame shooting is, of course, much fas’er. The maximum speed is over 2,000 m.p.h., with an extreme range cf about three miles. At short distances the velocity is so terrific that the bullet, weighing less than an ounce, develops an energy of over a ■ton.