Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-14
A new AERIAL ROUTE.
How DR.. Bausset Proposes to Fed
crate the World by Means of
AN AIR LINE TO THE NORTH POLE.
The Electric Air Ship in Which a Vacuum
Replaces Hydrogen.
A Long BUT PLEASANT TRIP PLANNED

BOSTON, April 13.-M. de Bausset, a
French scientist now in Boston, proposes to
"federate the world by scheme of aerial
navigation that seems to combine at once
the widest flight of scientific romance and
the soberest truths of scientific reality. In
all its practical details, the great problem
of modern times, according to M. de Baus-
set, is already solved: He says:
son June intend starting on a voyage
of discovery to the North Pole and Arctic
regions, travelling in my new air ship. A
months time will suffice for the voyage to
and from the pole, allowing ten days or two
weeks for scienti fic observations of Arctic
phenomena. The air ship will be capable
of carrying 200 passengers, and among them
1 hope to number, beside representatives OF
the press, accomplished observers and oper-
ators in such branches of science as astron-
omy, geodesy, hydrostatics, hygrometry,
photography, etc., with such instruments
and apparatus as they may wish to carry.
The Arctic Explorer will be built and
equipped under the auspices of the Trans
continental Aerial Navigation Company of
Chicago, Ill.
''The starting will be from New York
City, and the route will be as follows: From
New York to Philadelphia, Washington,
Toledo, Chicago, Omaha, San Francisco,
Yeddo. Pekin, Constantinople, Rome, Paris,
Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, ST. Peters
burg; from this last city directly, via Nor
wegia, Iceland and Greenland, to the Arctic
regions. The stopping at each place will be
one hour, 10 take on the scientific commits
sions, having subscribed at least three
months before the 10th of June, 1889. At
Paris and st. Petersburg we shall stop II to
"a hours, to take on subscribers and an ad-
ditional supply of water, provisions, ETC..
Subscribers will please send their names
and addresses, with the place chosen by
them for embarking. Each subscriber to
the building fund to the amount OF s, 900 or
over will be entitled to passage for him.
self or representative. A receipt for the
amount subscribed will be forwarded with
the round trip passage ticket"
THE NEW AIR SHIP.
NJ. de Bausset discards balloons for rea-
sons analogous to those which induce elec-
tricians to dispense with the galvanic cell
alter they have invented the dynamo. The
new air ship will be built wholly of metal,
and the ascentional power will be gained by
vacuum, instead OF by means of hydrogen
gas. A balloon rises, as is well known, be-
cause of the superior lightness of the hydro
gen it contains as compared with the same
volume of air, the ascending power being
determined by the difference in weight be-
tween the two volumes; so that the less the
gravitating tendency of the contents of the
air ship as contrasted with the same volume
of air, the greater will be the force of
ascent, and, as vacuum represents an ab-
solute lack of gravitating tendency, it will
also, the inventor holcs, represent the high
est possible degree of ascenslonal power.
This use OF vacuum as the means of ascent
involves an immense pressure on the exte-
rior of the receptacle, but NJ. de Bausset re-
CARDS steel plates LA of an inch in thick
ness as perfectly capable of withstanding
the resultant strain. It is, moreover, not
proposed to completely exhaust the air ves-
view to diminishing as much as possible
the external pressure; also to admit or ex-
cldde air as means of varying the eleva-
ton of the air vessel.
Comparatively few people," says DR..
Bausset, understand how and why a bal
loon weighing from 1 pound to 100 tons is
| able to rise in the air. Ii the weight of the
air be as above stated, then cubic meter of
air will weigh nearly 1.3 Kilograms, or a
quart weighs 81 grains, or 13 cubic 1eet of
air weighs very nearly one pound. Hence,
if we take hollow sphere of 10 meters in
diameter, each meter of its surface weighing
two Kilograms (nearly So feet diameter and
weight OF surface z "a ounces to the square
foot), we shall have, translating the French
measures into their English equivalents, the
! following: Spherical surface, 1888 feet;
weight, 1856 pounds; volume, 1920 cubic
feet; weight of air it displaces, 1, 1921
pounds; atmospheric pressure on the surface,
about 8, ,575 tons; and the weight of the gas,
which is IA times lighter than air, 103%
pounds.
HOW IT WORKS.
Taking the sum of the weights of the
balloon, and its filling of hydrogen gas
from the weight of the air that is displaced,
gives an ascensional force OF about fmr
pounds. This is sufficient to lift the bal
loon few feet above the surface, where it
would meet lesser air density. 1t would,
of course, have no carrying power Sup
pose that, instead of an aerostat constructed
OF canvas or silk, to which we are obliged to
give volume capable of displacing a ouan-
tity of air necessary to lift it from the sur
face of the earth, we construct our aerostat
OF metal, with the same diameter surface
and volume, with the same superficial
weight to permit a certain quantity of vac
uum. Suppose we leave 65 cubic feet o
air in the machine for the purpose of pre-
venting a collapse, by aiding to resist the
pressure from without, the difference will
give us an aseensional iorce OF very nearly
10 pounds. That is, il our balloon was con-
structed with the proportions above named.
we could cause it to ascend like an arrou,
into the higher regions OF the atmosphere.
The Arctic Explorer when completed will
have length of 654 feet and bredth of 144
feet, and may weigh without its car 26O. 600
pounds. The vessel as designed presents
the form OF cylinder with two conicaI
ends. The cylinder is divided into many
alright compartments, each of which NAV
be exhausted of its air, and, by an UNEQUAL
distribution Of this process, the vessel NAV
be inclined and projected at any desired
angle and above or below the horizontal
The exhaustion of the cylinder will be ac-
complished by means OF dynamo power, and
the aeroplane, as it is called, will be moved
backward, forward or sidewise by simple
apparatus under the control of the engi-
neer. The airship will be propelled by ex-
hausting air screws, capable of exhausting
300, 900 cubic feet per minute, and this will
give speed of &c miles an hour. Power
for driving the screws will be obtained from
an electric motor, receiving its current from
auto-accumulators sufficient to give 100
horse power.
NJ. de Baussett is at present endeavoring
to raise money with which to build the
Arctic Explorer. About $50, 0G0 will be re-
quired to construct the first ship, and this
sum is being obtained by the issue and
taking up OF the capital shares of the COM