The evening world., 1889-02-12
AMUSEM ENTS.

OF about f~ourteen-horse power giving a rapid
ity of at least six feet q second.
In this struggle of inventors endeavoring
to discover a light and powerful motor the
Americans came nearest to attaining the de-
sired combination. An electric apparatus
based on the use of n new battery, the COM
position of which was as yet unknown, had
been purchased by the Weldon Club from
the inventor, a chemist of Boston, Calcutta
tions made with the greatest care and dia-
grams executed with the greatest exactitude
demonstrated that with this apparatus, driven
by n propeller of suitable size. a speed of
from eighteen to twenty feet a second might
be produced. This invention was extraor-
binary.
And it is not dear" Uncle Prudent had
remarked, us he looked at the receipt
for the last instalment of 800, 600 that
he had just paid the inventor. The
Weldon Club Immediately applied itself
to work. Whenever money is needed to
develop a matter of practical utility the
American pockets are quickly opened, and in
this case the und was quickly subscribed.
Three hundred thousand dollars came
promptly from the members Of the club Mt
the first call. The work commenced at once
under the supervision of the most cele-
brlted aeronaut of the United States,
Harry w. finder, immortalized by the
three most daring |nscensions on record. In
the first of these he had risen to a height
which almost doubled that attained by either
Gay -Lussac, Coxwell, Sivel, Tissandier or
Spinelli. In the second he crossed the
United States from New York to San Fran
cisco, SURPRISING the trips made by Nadar,
GODDARD or any one else, excepting John
Wise.
The third trip had been terminated by a
frightful fall of fifteen hundred feet, which
only resulted in a slight sprain, while De
Roster, less fortunate, only fell from a height
Of seven hundred feet, and, landing on his
head, was instantly killed. The Weldon
Club pushed the work forward vigorously,
and in q short time a monster balloon 1oated
in a field in the suburbs of the city. The
operation of testing had been performed by
filling it with air, under a strong pressure.
and it stood the trial nobly and proved
worthy of the title monster. The balloon
owned by the celebrated John Wise had n
capacity of twenty thousand cubic feet and
the Clifford balloon twenty-fiy thousand feet.
Compare these two balloons with that of the
one just constructed by the Weldon Club, con-
tanning forty thousand cubic feet, and you
will admit that Uncle Prudent and his col
leagues might be pardoned for swelling with
pride.
This balloon was not intended to explore
the highest strata of the air, aud consequently
was not called Excelsior, " n name which
stands high in favor among the Americans.
1t was named the go Ahead, +" and all that
remained was for it to prove itself worthy of
the name by obeying every command of its
captain.
In six weeks the $50 Ahead" would take
its first flight through space. 1t has been
seen that ali the details of the mechanism had
not as yet been thoroughly decided upon.
Meetings of the CLUB had been called to dis
cuss. not the shape nor dimensions of the
propeller, but whether it should be placed in
the rear Of the apparatus, like that used by