Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-08-16
NAVIGATING TIE AIR.
The Problem of Air ships and Their Construc
tion Receiving Great Attention
Railway Master Mechanic


tiOn Receiving Great Attention.
Railway Master Mechanic.
The problem of air navigation is receiv
ing more attention now than ever before
Nor is it "cranks" who only are working at
it. Mechanical engineers of ability are
devoting time and thought to its solution.
That some one will work it oDt at not very
distant DAY is not at all impossible, nor
even I'M probable. It is simply question
of increasing the power without lncreas-
ing the weight of the apparatus by which
the power is developed. Just how much
the ratio of power to weight must be il =
creased We do not venture to say, but
there are no sufficient grounds for assert
ing that such increase is impracticable.
The solution of the problem may be found
in improved engines and boilers, or in
storage batteries, or in some Yet uRtx-
plored part of the field of electrical force.
l. would be rash to predict just how sue
cess will be reached, but it would be still
more rash 70 insist tB at it never will be
reached.
The successful air ship will, it is safe to
say, be large structure, very light in
weight com pared with its strength, bat
yet many times heavier than the air which
it dispiaces. The mechanical skill which
has produced that marvel of ightness Snd
strength, the modern bicycle, will not find
the task of designing such structure too
difficult.
Attem pts to navigate the air by means
of gss-il fiated receptac!es have been per
sisted in trough hundred years, but no
real success has been reached. Such de-
vices, in spite of all efforts to make them
dlrlglble, are bat as feathers in the wind.
All such attem pts are in the wrong direc-
ton. A bird can fy-not because it is
com paratively light in weight for it is
mott, but because it is strong. Its breast
muscles, by which its wings ale operared,
are of INNER SO proportionate size, aud
the rapid circulation of its blood supplies
these muscles with abundant stores of
energy. OF all living creatures the vital
energies of the bird are the most intense,
and 1t is, therefore, able to produce the
power required to sustain its body in and
propel IL through the air.
A Western inventor proposes to solve
the problem by means of an immense
cylinder 500 feeb long and 100 feet in
diameter, from the inside OF which the air
is to be exhausted in order to tighten it.
The plan will not bear Investigation.
The air in such a cylinder would weigh
about $50 tons. Add oonical ends, each
extending 250 feet, and it would be
Theoretically possible to pump out about
200 tons of air. But the cylinder itself
made of quarter inch steel, without any
| internal bracing, would weigh at least
1,200 tons. Compared with this the
weight of the air is significant-hardly y
more than that of the food in a pigeons
crop compared with the weight of it's en-
IIl Af,l 20 1,
the cylinder would at once subject it TO a
pressure of considerably over 100000
pounds from the outside atmosphere the
scheme appears rather wild. Much less
open to adverse criticism is the plan sug-
gesteG by Mt. E. e. S5eoman years ago in
an article published in the then Scrihner's
Monthly Magazine, which was to fill all
the hollow space in the proposed air ship
with hydrogen gas. 1 his gas, at norm
pressure, would sustain the pressure
the atmosphere, while its weight is
one fourteenth that of air.
The notion that aluminium, because of
its ghtness, may make aerial nsvig alton
possible, is a mistaken one. That metal
has only about one-third the strength OF
steel and no special advantage could BE-
| gained from its use.
The sOccessful air-ship will not be bag
of gas nor an exhausted receiver, but a
structure having the strength of steel aud
carrying machinery of paratively
little weight, but capable of developing
| enormous power. 1t will lift itsse!f from
| the earth and hold level flight through
| space because of the tremendous force
with which the air Is beaten by its huge
! whIrling oars or the blades of it's swiftly
revolving screws. 1t will be able to main
tain It's course against those currents OF
| the aerial sea, the winds. And it is not
unlikely that the frst successful voyage
through upper air will mark the farthest
| limit of mans achievements in his strux
! gle of the ages TO subdue the realm OF
nature and bend to his own uses its mos
untamable forces. There will then be nc
new tleid for the mechanical engineer &c
! conquer.