Why? The Science of Athletics

ELIMINATION OF HUMAN ERROR 189 watch in his hand, which, if not a very accurate method of self-timing, yet gave him the inspiration needed for record-breaking when no human opponent could be found fast and enduring enough to push the great Finnish runner to the limit. At the Princeton Invitation Athletic Meeting in I934, however, when two new world's records went on the books, Ben Eastman running half a mile in I min. 49.8 secs. and Glenn Cunningham a mile in 4 mins. 6.8 secs., thirty thousand spectators sat breathless and thrilled to the core as they saw the hands of the great Western Union sports clock go creeping round the dial as the flying feet of the runners tore over the cinders of the track. Those spectators were thrilled because for the first time in history they were able to follow the process of smashing world's records, and to envisage the way the runner, in the case of Cunningham, was using Father Time himself for a pace-maker. When Cunningham made his mile record keen competition was not available, for he left his field behind him, and time after time his eyes sought the dial of the big clock set up in the Palmer Stadium, as if seeking a challenge from some invisible opponent who was dogging his footsteps and spurring him on to make his new world's record. There is yet another consideration, which is the way in which the working up of the spectators to a pitch of wild enthusiasm reacts upon the competitor to spur him on to efforts hitherto believed to lie outside his compass. This was seen upon the eccasien of Bill Bonthron making his world's I,5oo-metres record of 3 mins. 48.7 secs. at the National A.A.U. Track and Field Championships at Milwaukee, U .S.A., on June 30th, 1934. That day A. L. Buettner, the announcer, was quick to sense the atmosphere of the gathering and to realize the potentialities of the new invention that was such a novelty to American athletic fans. "Watch the clock !" The amplifying system carried Buettner's vmce into