The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-05-31
The New Flying Ship.

markets and the shippi ng news received at this
port for the week. a misses $,
The New Flying Ship.
One day last week the telegraphic dispatch
es from New York contained the following
brief announcement: -
DR.. Solomon Andrews with three others,
made an ascent in flying ship, this after
noon. After remaining an hour in the air,
the party landed at Astoria, five miles distant.
He found difficulty in making Roadway when
against the wind, but has no doubt of his abil-
ity to navigate the air; .s
Perhaps our readers may not all be aware
most certainly we were not until quite recent
ly-of the scope and Importance of the enter
prise which was subjected to its first test on
the occasion above referred to. The idea of
navigating the air has always had an especial
fascination for men of bold inventive genius,
overcome the great difficulties in the way Of
such means of locomotion. Hitherto, how
ever, all such efforts have proved abortiye; and
perhaps the great majority of people have set
tied down to the conviction that aerial nayi-
cation is one of the impossibilities. But we
live in an age of astonishing achievements,
and it is not impossible that we may yet see
the realization of even the widest dreams of
the poets and inventors. ..,
To show our readers that this project is not
confined to few visionary enthusiasts, we
hasten to inform them that, there already ex-
lists in New York an organized company with
president and directors and capital subscribed,
which intends at once to fix upon routes OF
aerial navigation between our great cities, and
construct aerial vessels for conveying passen-
gers and freight. The first of these as we
have seen is already built, and has PISSED its
first trial with fair degree of success. The
inventor of the flying ship is DIR. Solomon An
drews of New Jersey, a man whose active me-
chanical genius has already given to the world
numerous inventions of much practical value,
and who is enthusiastic in his belief of the en-
tire practicability of the present scheme. A
writer in recent number of The Nation, who
visited this unique vessel just before its trial,
thus describes its model: 3a
She is balloon, not round like ball but
elongated, and at each end running to sharp
point. As the ship is now lying, these beaks,
her PROV and stern, point toward the horizon,
and it is not intended that they shall ever
point up and down toward the zenith and the
nadir. From end to end her length is eighty
six feet, and her diameter from side to side at
the point of greatest width is forty-two feet
In shape she would look much like an Indians
bark canoe to be closed as the bottom is, if it
were not for a leather strap which, passing
from the bow, goes underneath the vessel to
the stern and then is carried along the top to
the bow again. As the balloon swells against
this band, there is created longitudinal de-
preston extending the whole length of the
vessel, and like the cavity made when two
cylinders are laid side by side, and this depres-
sion can be made at the captains will. Its
capacity is $4,000 cubic feet, and the material
Of which it is made is very heavy pongee silk
As you look UP, portrait of General Scott, in
colOrs once gaudy but now faded, stares down
from the forward part of the balloon, and on
the after part there is General Mcclellan,
for the inventor of the flying Ship in building
it, has used the material of the two old army
balloons, and has adapted it to its present use
with CHARACTERISTIC ingenuity. The lower half,
say, OF each balloon was left whole, the upper
part from zenith to equator was cut as an or
ange peel is cut, then, by fitting these saw
toOthed ends into each other balloon was
obtained new in shape and cheap in cost
Underneath the balloon is narrow. wicker
work car, twelve feet long, secured by MANY
ropes. i1-lG
The principle on which the thing works
was described to this writer by the inventor, as
follows:
1t is upon the shape of the vessel, he ex-
planned to us, that everything depends. Fill
round balloon with gas and it ascends, don't
it? Goes up vertically. Throw out ballast,
it rises higher; let gas escape, it sinks; but it
has no forward motion. You've seen it drift,
you mean; go hither and thither with the cur
rents. 1t has no motion of its own except the
vertical no momentum, no motion relatively
to the medium in which it floats. But now if
you NIL with gas long, broad-backed, sharp
pointed balloon, balloon SO shaped that YER
tical motion will be very hard for it. will be
greatly resisted, what will happen then How
will such balloon go up? 1t will ascend. in
the dlrecuon OF the line of least resistance
That STANDS TO reason; its the only way II can
go. 1t VIII go up just as you've seen a half
Sheet of paper fall; you've seen 1t 4 tbousand
times; it falls in slanting direction If doea
not drop perpendicularly to the ground u b',t
follows the line OF least resistance for a hoIw
when it is started at an angle of SO many Do
rrees with the plane of the horizon to rise int
the air, and the ballast is SO placed as to keen
her bow at the proper angle, she must neces-
sarily rise not vertically hut in a slanting d.
rection. She keeps on rising, going forward,
you see, by virtue of the slant, and goes up
perhaps two miles, In going that high. she
has gained so many miles horizontally-per-
haps more, perhaps less, according to the wind
The wind will be sometimes with the ship,
sometimes against it, and in the average there
is neither gain nor loss by it. Having reach
ed height of two miles, say, the balloons
bow IN pointed downward. That is very east
ly done by sliding certain portion of ballast
to certain distance from the centre of the
car, so as to give the axis Of the balloon the
proper inclination. Then gas is allowed to
escape, and the descent begins. 1t will be lust
like the ascent, the line of least resistance will
be followed and in going down SO many miles
two, for instance-so many miles of forward
movement will be made. Having approached
near enough to the ground, another ascent
will be made, and then another descent, and
SO on, till by a succession of tacks as the sail
ors say-only in aerial navigation the lacks
will be up and down instead OF being from
side to side-the end of the journey will be
reached. al ,I
DR.. Andrews is fully convinced that
the existence of winds and current will
offer no insuperable difficulties in the way Of
his schems, since such speed of upward OF
downward motion may be impaired to the
ship that the utmost effect of storm of wind
would be to retard her motion, and not to