Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-05
AIR SHIPS.
The Problem of Their Construction Receiving
C-nnt Attention, nt r,rnront

The Problem of Their Construction Receiving
Great Attention at Present
The problem of air navigation is receiv-
ing more attention now than ever before,
says the Railway Master Mechanic. Nor
is it q cranks' only who are working at
it. Mechanical engineers of ability and
reputation are devoting time and thought
to its solution That some one viii
work it out at a not very distant day is
not at all impossible, nor even improba-
BILE. it is simply question Of increas-
ing power without Increasing the weight
OF the apparatus by which the power IS
developed. Just how much the
ratio OF power to weight must be
increased we do not venture to say
but there are no sufficient grounds
for asserting that such incTeas e is i'm
practicable. The solution OF the problem
may be found TO be improved engines and
boilers or IN new fuels or in storage bat
teries or in some yet unexploTed part of
the field of electrical force. It would be
rash to predict just how success viii be
reached, but it would be much more
rash to insist that it never will be
reached.
The successful air ship will, it is safe
to say, be a large structure, very light in
weight compared with its strength, but
yet many times heavier than the air
which il displaces. The mechanical skill
which has produced that marvel of light
dess and strength, the modern bicycle,
VIII not find the task of designing such a
structure too dificult.
Attemps to navigate the air by means
Of gas-infiated receptacles have been
real success has been reached. Such de-
vices, IN spite Of all he-efforts to make
them dirigible, are but as feathers in the
wind. All such attempts are in the
the wrong direction. A bird can fy-not
because it is comparatively light in
weight (fOr il Is not) but because it is
strong. Its breast muscles by which its
wings are operated are Of immense pro-
poTtionate size and 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 it is, there
fore, able to produce the power required
to sustain its body ia and pTopel it
through the air. =
A Western inventor proposes to solve.
the problem by means OF an immense
cylinder 500 feet long and 100 feet in di-
ameter, from the inside Of which the air
is to be exhausted in order TO tighten, it.
The plan viii not bear Investigation.
The air in such cylinder would weigh
about one hundred and. fifty tons. Add
conical ends, each extending $50 feet,
and it would be Theoretically possible
10 pump out about two hundred tons of
air. But the cylinder itself, made of
quarter-inch steel without any internal
bracing, would weigh at least 1900 tons.
Compared with this the weight of
the air is usignifCant-hardlY
more than that of the food III
a pigeon 5 crop compared with the
weight of its entire body. And as to ex-
haust the air from the cylinder would
subject it to 4 pressure Of considerably
over three million pounds from the ont
side atmosphere, the scheme appears
rather wild. Much less open to adverse
criticism IS the plan suggested by E. G.
Stedman years ago in an article published
in the then Scribner's Monthly Maya
zine, which was to. fiji all the hollow
spaces in the proposed aiTship with hY-
drOCen gas. This gas, at normal pres
sure. would sustain the pressure of the
atmosphere, while its weight is only one
e fourteenth that Of air.
The notion that ALUMINIUM, because Of
us Il1uIitSS. may ildht ava ESih LltLl
possible IS mistaken one. That metal
has only about oue-third the strength Of
steel, and no special advantage could be
gained from its use.
The successful air ship " i'll not be bag
of gas nor an exhausted receiver, but q
structure having the strength of steel and
carrying machinery of comparatively lit
tie weight, but capable Of developing
enormous power. IT will lift itself from
rhe earth and hold level flight
through space because Of the
tremendous force with which the
air is beaten by lis huge whirling cars or
the blades of its swiftly revolving screws.
is VIII be able to maintain It's course
against those currents of the AERIAL sea,
the winds And it is not unlikely that
the first successful voyage through upper
air viii mark the faFthest limit of mans
achievements in his struggle of the ages
10 subdue the realm Of nature and bend
10 his own use the most untamabIe force.
There VIII then be no new field for the
mechanical engineer to conquer.