The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1869-07-30
9flefteo Hlisfeuanp.



The present season seems likely to fur.
nish us With its full crop of aeronautic ex.
cursiois. Prof Samuel A. King, of Bos
ton. accompanied by Mr.. Luther L. Holden
OF the Boston journal, who had made
twelve previous ascensions with Prof
King; Mr.. Henry z Appleton, of Boston,
who had made two aseensions; and two
journalists Of Buffalo, escended from that
city on Tuesday, the 9th inst, in the Hy-
perion," and, after the usual exhilaratipg
and exciting adventures in travelling over
Lake Erie, and occasionally dipping. gull.
nike. into its waters, they rose and soafed
away over Cattaraugus Lake and the for
ests OF Pennsylvania, finally graphing,
near midnight, with Q pine tree top 60 feet
from the ground, on "Rock Robbie" Q
sort of rattle-snake park, situate at the top
of spur OF the Allegheny Mountains, on
the line of Mclean and Warren Counties
In Western Pennsylvania. After quietly
hanging, like Mshomet's coffin, midway
between heaven and earth, until daybreak,
they cut the rope which suspended them,
and, out Of abundant safety, dropped the
sixty feet 70 the earth, which they reached
with bounce, but without other injury.
The 5uffalo journalist assures us there
Wee several occasions during the trip
when any of the party would have gladly
surrendered their seats to outsiders anxious
to divide with them the fame and peril OF
the excursion.
simultaneously we learn that the trial
of The model air-ship "Avitor," at San
Francisco, on the 9th of July, was quail.
lied success-that is, that the wind blew
30 hss,1 it could not be tried in the open
'sif. but that the trial was successfully
nsde under cover. This is like the trial
of boat on land, as the wind Is the only
enemy to be overcome to render balloon
ing as safe as stage coaching Itis enough,
however, to enlist the worlds active curl
osity in the work of this unknown me,
chaDic of California, that he has produced
. an air-ship which, even under cover,
rose in the air, and was propelled back
ward and forward, guided in any desired
direction by steering apparatus" 1t is
moved by an engine and boiler weighing
less than hundred pounds. At the ex-
hibition of the Aeronautical Society #
Great Britain, year ago, st the London
Crystal Palace, the Dukes OF Argyll and
Sutherland, and other patrons of aeronautic
experiment, offered prizes of e1O0 to the
inventor of any machine, not of the
nature of kite or balloon, which would
ascend with a man to the height of 100
Feet, and $50 for asy machine which
should carry and be worked BY q
steam engine or other motive power,
and sustain and move itself in the air for
twenty minutes at height often feet from
the ground. The "Avitor seems at least
70 fulhl the conditions of the latter offer.
lfthe ship to be constructed from 1t shall re-
deem the promise of the model, the expect
alton that it would make the voyage from
San Francisco to the Atlantic States might
easily be fulfilled. The difficulty of floating
balloon was almost IS fully mastered in
17S2-S4, Immediately upon the discovery of
hydrogen gas, ss 1t has ever since been.
The thousands of experiments during the
:nree quarters of century which have
followed have made little change from the
First voyages Of the Montpelier brothers
and of Mons. and Madame Blanchard.
Perhaps very little improvement is desira-
ble in the mere matter of affecting tie
ascent and descent But if the San Fran
cisco mechanic has succeeded in bciidipg
machine which viii go tc and fro in the
same atmoephere-event though it be q tol
ersbly still one~he must have applied
some new and important principls, which
Nhoy itOIu tuc Iduk vi
a fooihardy experiment to that of ripen-
aDg and progressive art Aeronautic ex
pcriments are not only mure frequent in
the United States of late years than ever
before, but conducted with greater aver
age of safety and success. The remark.
able voyage, few years since, of an sero-
nsut from ST. Louis to the John Brown
trsct, in the northern wilderness Of New
York, distance of one thousand miles, in
four hours in safety, is both the Longest,
most brilliant and most rapid aeronsutic
journey ever made, and places our coun-
trymen at the head of ali nations in this
field of scientific adventure and expert
ment. We await with interest the arrival
of the "Avitor from San Francisco, to
know whether its inventor has ut last
solved the daring and dazzling problem of
aerial navigation. - Chicago Tribune,
July IL.