Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1863-09-23
Aerial Navigation

The New York Herald, Of Tuesday,
thus describes what it picaseS to term the
greatest invention ever made by - single
individual The account i altogether on
the ''long bow" order, and like "a famous
type-setting machine, which WAS described
by the same paper, we shall probably hear
no more about it:
We have this week the pleasure to re-
cord the success of the most extraordinary
invention Of the age. if not the most a
the world ever saw at least the greatest
stride in invention ever made 10y "a single
individual.
In October last. DIR. Solomon Andrews
of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, commenced
the construction of war Gerostat, for re-
connOitering purposes, on his own per
sonal responsibility, not heing able. after
submitting his plans to the War Depart
ment, TO make the honorable Secretary
of War see the utility of Il machine
which would 60 over into Secesh and re-
connoitre the force and position of the
enemy.
The machine made by Mr.. Andrews
would carry up three men in addition to
all the fixtures and paraphernala for lis
forward movement. 1t contained twenty.
six thousand cubic feet of hydrogen gas
1t carried him, weighing one hundred
and seventy-two pounds, and two hun
dred and fifty-six pounds of ballast.
Upon his invitation last spring we have
sent our reporters ut three different
times TO witness his experiments with his
machine, and have watched its progress
with great interest.
Its form was that of three segars point
ed at both ends, secured together at their
longitudinal equators, covered 10y net,
and supporting, by one hundred and
twenty cords, car sixteen feet below
under its centre.
The car was twelve feet long, made OF
basket work, and was sixteen inches wide
at the bottom. The erostat, or cylin-
droids, were made of vanished linen. like
ordinary balloons.
On Friday, the 4th inst. he made his
last experiment, and demonstrated to an
admiring crowd the possibility of going
against the wind, and of guiding her in
any and every direction with a small rud-
der having only seventeen square feet of
surface
After few short flights, to satisfy him.
self and few friends that all was right.
and that she would do all that he had
contemplated, he set her off in a spiral
course upward, she going at a rate of not
less than one hundred and twenty miles
per hour. and describing circles in the air
of more than one and half miles in cir
cumference. She made twenty revolu-
tions before she entered the upper strata
of clouds and was lost to view She
passed through the first strata of dense
white clouds, about two miles high, scat
tering them as she entered, in all direc-
tions. In her upward flight could be dis
tinctly seen her rapid movements in a
contrary direction 10 the moving clouds,
and as she came before the wind passing
by them with great celebrity. As she was
distinctly seen thus to move. both below
and above the clouds on the clear blue
sky at five o'clock p. NJ, with the sun
shining clear upon her, there could be no
mistake or optical delusion 10 the he
holder.
As to her propelling power and motive
apparatus, it behooves us not now to
speak. 1t might be considered contra
band of war, or affording aid and comfort
to the enemy; for with such machine
in the hands of JEFF. Davis the armies
around Washington would be powerless
to preserve the capital.
DIR. Andrews deserves more praise for
the patriotic ingenuity with which he has
preserved his secret, and yet tried his
grand experiment in the open air before
the public, than even that manifested in
the conception and construction of his
machine. OF that and its beautiful SIM
plicity we may have occasion to speak
hereafter. We have the documents.