Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-12
AIR SHIPS.
The Problem Of their Construction
Receiving Great Attention.

From the Railway Master Mechanic.
The problem Of air navigation is receiving
more attention now than ever before. Nor is
it 'cranks'' only who are working at it. Me-
chanical engineers of ability and reputation are
devoting time and thought to its solution.
That some one will work it out at q not very
distant day is not at all impossible. nor even
improbable 1t 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 assert
ing that such increase is impracticable. The
solution OF the problem may be found in i'm
proved engines and boilers, or in new fuels or
in storage batteries, or in some yet unex-
plored part of the field Of electrical force. It
would be rash to predict just how success will
be reached. but it would be still 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 com
pared with its strength, but yet many times
heavier than the air which it displaces. The
mechanical skill which has produced that mar
vel OF hghtness and strength. the modern bicy-
Gle, will not find the task OF designing such q
structure too difficult.
Attempts to navigate the air by means of gas
inflated receptacles have beer persisted in
through hundred years, but no real success
has been reached. Such devices, in spite Of
all efforts to make them dirigible, are but as
feathers in the wind. All such attempts are in
the wrong direction. bird can fy-not be-
cause it is comparatively light in weight (for it
Is not), but because it is strong. Its breast
muscles. by which its wings are operated. are
OF immense proportionate size, and the rapid
circulation OF its blood supplies these mus cles
with abundant stores of energy. Of all liv-
ing creatures the vital energies of the bird are
the most intense, and it is therefore, able to
produce the power required to sustain its body
in and propel it through the air
A western inventor proposes to solve the
problem by means of an immense cylinder
$40 feet 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 cylinder would
weigh about $50 tons. Add conical ends,
each extending $50 feet. and it would be
Theoretically possible to pump out abo1t
200 tons of air. But the cylinder itself
made OF quarter-inch steel without any ia
ternal bracing. would weigh at least l. 200
tons. Compared with this the weight of the
air is Insignificant hardly more than that of
the food IN pigeons crop compared with
the weight Of its entire body. And as
to exhaust the air from the cylinder would
at once subject it to a pressure of consider-
ably over 5000. 600 pounds from the out
side atmosphere the scheme appears rather
wild. Much less open to outside criticism is
the plan suggested by Mr.. Z. c. Stedmsn
years ago in an article published in the then
Scribner's Monthly Magazine, which was to Il IL
all the hollow spaces in tho proposed air
ship with hydrogen gas. This gas. at nor
NAL pressure, would sustain the pressure Of
the atmosphere, while its weight is only
one-fourteenth that OF air.
The notion that aluminium, because OF it's
lightDess. may make aerial navigation 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 successful airship will not be bag of
gas nor an exhausted receiver, but q structure
having the strength OF steel. and carrying
machinery OF comparatively little weight but
capable OF developing enormous power. II will
lift itself from the earth and hold level flight
through space because of the tremendous force
with which the air is beaten by its huge whirl-
ing oars, or the blades of its swiftly revolving
screws. 1t will be able to maintain its course
against those currents of the aerial sea. the
winds. And it il not unlikely that the first
successful voyage through upper air will mark
the farthest limit OF mans achievements in his
struggle of the ages to subdue the realm OF
nature and bend to his own uses its most un.
tamable forces. There will then be 10 new
field for the mechanical engineer to conquer.