Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-08-05
The Coming Air-Ship.

The fate of the air voyager, Pro-
! fessor Hogan, is not to be classed
with that of the senseless person who
jumped into eternity from lofty
bridge, or the other senseless person
who rode through the Niagara whirl-
pool in a barrel. Aerial navigation
has been the dream of the thoughtful
for half century. A generation has
passed since the Poet Laureate
s'Saw the heavens filled with commerce, argosies
of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with
costly bales:
Heard the heavens filed with shouting, till there
rained a CHASTITY dew,
From the nations airy navies graphing in the
central blue
Though the dream is yet dream,
though the object of so much endeav-
or has not yet been attained, still for
years past the true question has been,
not whether air voyages were possible,
but whether the means had been de-
vised for making them with economy,
certainty and safety. For great
progress already attained the world
owes much to those who have tested
hundreds of appliances, made thous-
ands of Journeys through the air, and
recorded with more or less scientific
accuracy their experiences and circum-
stances. A few have sacrificed their
lives in these voyages of discovery,
and to them also the world owes it's
tribute.
For the object is we'll worth all the
effort and genius which have been
devoted to it. Aerial navigation
would create new world, as truly
as steam navigation on land and sea
have created a new world within the
last century. If the air can be trav-
ersed at all with certainty and safety,
much greater rates Of speed are to be
expected than have been attained on
land or water, though perhaps not
with bulky or heavy loads. For the
movement of passengers with the
greatest possible comfort and enjoy
ment, and for the swift transporta-
ton of letters and packages of small
size, the air path will be preferable
to any other. The oceans and lakes
will cease to divide nations, even as
little as they do now, for with ordin-
cry fortune voyage across the At
lantic might be made in two days as
easily as it is now in six, and proba-
bly, with far less chances of disaster,
if the problem was once solved at all.
Given the power to travel through
the air in any direction at will, to
rise above a storm or drop below an
opposing current of air, and to pur-
sue the journey at higher or lower al
titudes as the comfort of passengers
may prompt, and the whole world
would be revolutionized.
Many of the great inventions of
late years seem to place mankind
even nearer the desired success IN
navigation of the air. The electric
motor supplies power in many re-
spects better adapted to the purpose
than any other; in fact, as long as
the problem was now to support pas
sengers and steam-engine of sufficient
power TO give speed, with the neces-
sary fuel, it seemed well-nigh insolu-
BILE. The discovery of aluminium, and
of economical processes for its pro-
duction from common clay, is anoth-
er step toward success, the combined
lightness and strength of that metal
rendering it peculiarly adapted to the
purpose. When it can be produced
cheaply, and fashioned into desired
forms, the air-ship of the future will
not be far away. But it may prove
that the world need not wait for fur
ther developments. Inventions and
ingenious constructions already in
existence seem to approach so near
the desired result that no one will be
much surprised if, almost any day,
the ''pilots of the purple twilight
should begin to traverse the air.
Tribune.