The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-10-28
FLYING THROUGH AIR.
An Involved Problem Flying VIA.
chimes and Air Ships.

fAAx
chimes and Air Ships.
People not familiar with the subject of
aerial navigation would be surprised to
know how much thought and ingenuity
has been given to this matter in all past
ages, and how it has continued to the
present day to absorb the interest OF in
ventors. It wa only a few years
ago that a man with a flying machine
made an experiment from the roof of the
patent office. He wanted to demonstrate
to a skeptical examiner that his inven-
ton was practicable, and ne made it a
condition that if the machine did not
fv to Pennsylvania avenue that he
would consider the experiment a failure.
After he had gathered up the fragments
of his machine from the front steps of
the building, where it had fallea like a
stone, he expressed surprise that the ma
chine had acted in that way, and said it
was owing to a defect which he would
soon remedy. He went back to Eng
land to get workmen to assist him, and
the examiner is still waiting for him to
return and make the second attempt.
Another less sanglline inventor a few
years ago committed suicide in this city
upon his application for "a patent being
rejected.
The files of the patent office furnish
much valuable and curious information
about these inventions. and if any one
doubts tina taerial navigation is not a live,
practical question of the day, he had
better go to the patent Office and ask a
few questions. He will find, as Mr..
Oscar Woodward, who was formerly ex-
aminer in charge of this branch, told a
Star reporter, that the applications for
patents or improvements in patents
already granted for aerial navigation
averaged two each month. The number
of patents already granted is very great.
awe no longer issue patents Tor de-
vices to enable men to fly through the
air." said Mr.. Woodward, "becausc the
thing is impossible, and the Office some
years ago made a rule not to issue pat
ents for impractical inventions. The
whole idea about a mans being able to
propel himself through the air is founded
on a ~misconception of the strength of a
man as compared to his size. A fly is
stronger than a man, and birds are much
stronger. The various devices for sus-
tanning a mans weight in the air are, of
course, practical, but when it comes to
manipulating any kind of wings or pro-
pellors against the currents of the air ne
is unable to do it because of lack of
strength. The inventive genius OF man
is, in these days, not so much occupied
with this feature OF aerial navigation as
it is with the air ships, which are pro.
posed to pillow through the ocean of
the air much as the steamships pillow
across the bosom of the deep. The idea
in these airships is the evolution of the
balloon. It has taken q great many
years to work out a system of air naviga-
ton from the first made balloon of the
French experimcnter. Montgolfier, in
1884, to the Inventions of the present
day.
As every one knows" continued Mr..
Woodward, "the difficulty with the
balloon is the impossibility Of controlling
it in the currents of the air. There isno
difficulty in sustaining the balloon in the
air, but the trouble lies in managing 1t.
Very much like a baiky horse, you may
harness him to a carriage and drive him
some distance, but at any moment you
are liable to lose control of him. TO
correct this defect in the balloon there
has been and there is to-day a great deal
of time and money spent on inventions
Of various sorts. For instance, here IS
q drawing of a patent already issued
which does away with mere mechanical
devices, rs indeed all the more recent
inventions do, and substitutes hydraulics.
As you see, here is q gas space, oval in
shape instead of rounded, as Offering less
resistance to the air than the rounded
surface of the balloon. Beneath this
gas space is. q place for q small engine
and boiler, which are used to work the
propeller, which are at each end. The
gas space is light enough to carry upinto
he air the weight Of the engine and
boiler, and then the propcllcrs are en-
ployed to advance the vessel in any d.
r%ection. There is also a steering appar-
atus. AS I have said, q great many
patents have been issued, but none of
these great ships have been made, be-
cause Of their cost. Some of the invcn-
tons provide for the lower portion Of
the gas space to be hollow, and fitted
up with accommodations for passengers,
with cabins and an outside promenade"
"What do these cranks expect to &C.
complish?" asked the listener.
"Iou must not call them ccanks," was
the reply, ''fol that does them an injus-
ticc. Several of the recent %patentees are
not only men of ability but men Of
wealth. They believe that air ship navi-
cation is a feasible project, but they do
not seem inclined to risk their own
money. Of course, I do not pretend to
say whether this idea is capable of being
put into practical shape or not. 1t is
enough to say that scientific men are of
the opinion that the idea that promises
the best results is that which is suggest
ed by the movement of bodies in the air.
For instance, YOU throw a piece of slate
or single in the air.. You will find that it
sails along with its edge to the wind,
now going up as if sliding UP hill en- the
air and then going down in the same
way, until finally gravitation brings it to
the earth, the initial force being OK
haustcd. A bird flies in the same man
ner. New inventors propose 10 con-
struct a fat surface Of silk or some light
substance, which is stretched upon a
frame. An engine is suspended from it,
which works propellers on the top of
this flat surface. In motion this arrange
mcnt is made to initiate the piece of
single and dips %ob.iquely when going
up and down so as to slide along or the
air, as it were. The propcllcrs keep it