The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-08-10
The Flying Machine.

q have overcome" said Mr.. Ritch-
ell, the inventor of the new flying ma
chine, 9 the fatal objection which has
always been made to the practicability
of aerial igation-that is, | have
made machine that can be steered.
| claim no more. | have never pre-
tended that balloon could be made to
90 against the wind and | am sure it
never could. 1t is as ridiculous as a
experimentation machine, and the lat
ter will be invented just as soon rs the
former
1t was on Just this point that the re-
porter desired Mr.. Ritchel to express
his opinion, for an impression seemed
generally to prevail that balloon has
been invented which can be made to
navigate the air as successfully as Il
steamship sails the ocean. But the in
ventor, who is spending few days in
the city on business relating to his new
invention, is anxious to disclaim any
such pretension. What his machine
can be made to do is to rise or descend
at the will of the navigator, to sail with
and faster than swift wind, to hold
rate of from four to six miles an hour,
and to move slowly against three
mile breeze. Mr.. Ritchel is profess
sional inventor, and has taken out
nearly hundred patents in this coun-
try as well as in France, England and
Canada. His inventions have run
mainly in the direction of labor-saving
machinery, and from one patent he
claims to have cleared $4,000. "My
principal invention" he said, "was a
machine for boring holes in brushes
and cane-seat chairs, and another for
inlaying wood, which is the only ma
chine for that purpose in existence, but
my pet idea is the flying machine"
"When did the idea occur to you?"
"Well, think it was sometime in
the year 1871. My attention was turned
in that direction, and I've been think
ing it over ever since. About nine
months ago | began working on the
machine in Bridgeport, Conn. The
first public exhibition was at the Cen
tennial Exhibition buildings, on the
10th of May. | exhibited the flyer
there for two weeks, and then another
week in the city of Philadelphia. But
the first open air exhibition was at Hart
ford on the 18th of June. There were
about 10000 people there, and the
weather was perfect. The machine
went in any direction desired, and even
came back against a slight wind. In
Boston, on the 4th of July, the wind
was blowing across the common at the
rate of twenty-five or thirty miles an
hour, and | didn't want to send the bal
loon up at all; but there were 100, 600
people there and didn't like to disap-
point them. So said to Mark futile,
the navigator: Now, Mark, get her
up as quick as flash or you'll blow
against the houses He went up like
a streak, and only missed the trees by
twenty feet. The wind took him like
flash out of town, and he finally
landed at Dover. The crowd stood
there waiting for him to come back
against the wind and 90 up again, and
we couldn't explain that that was inn
possible. There were 200 refreshment
booths along the sidewalks and around,
and the owners told everyone the bal
loon would be back in half an hour.
So the crowd stood there from two
o'clock till five waiting for the machine
to come back. The man got back about
| five on the train, and | was afraid to