Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-18

before very long be reduced to one-half that
figure, so those who know assert At that price
an air ship can be bull. for $3.50, 600 Allow 800
day for fuel. ESQ day for the crew, 300 q
day Tor interest on the investment $50 Q day
Tor incldentals and you have considerably less
than 81 900 expense for each voyage Of 5000
miles, which would carry you from New York
to San Francisco or across the ocean. Suppos-
ing that the rate Of speed did not exceed that
OF the regular transcontinental railway trains
Passengers expense for the trip would
not be S25. leaving meals out Of
more costly up in the air. To cross the conti-
nent by rail costs nearly four times as much.
1t has been suggested that for short distance
passenger traffic an air vehicle might be pro-
PEELED over routes of 100 miles or less by cleo
triciiy. sliding along double lines OF wires at a
height Of 20 feet above the ground and driven
by an electrical motor similar to that employed
In the overhead street Car system. Such an
arrangement would best suit the requirements
OF territory thickly populated.
A REMARKABLE FLYING MACHINE
The most remarkable be
cause the most successful
flying machine ever in ~
vented is toy, pure and ~ ~
simple, which is PLAYED with
in France by children. 1t ~
looks like big butterfly, =,
perhaps Is inches across IT.
from zip to tip of the wings.
and has two things which
might correspond 20 the feelers Of tho insect
though the latter are expanded into little fl MS
cleft stick serves for the backbone of the
illl,atlon bug ana half dozen thin
rubber bands are stretched from one end of
the stick to the other. To describe :he
apparatus in detail, simple though it is would
require great deal of space 1t is enough to
say that the rubber bands are twisted cork
screw fashion round and round by turning tho
rubber band has moro power reserved in il.
weight Tor weight, than tho finest steel spring.
Consequently. when the thing is let CO. IL flies
up IN the air like bird, the little fans serving
as propeiiers and the wings providing the
necessary horizontal plane. II toy can be
made 20 fly, why cannot something that has a
really useful purpose?
Many OF the facts stated above were gath
cred from an interview by STAR reporter with
Mr.. j. Elfreth Watkins curator of tho division
OF Interpretation and engineering in the Smith
sonian Institution, who though he ventured
no confident aaticipations, admitted that he
would not be surprised if within ton years from
the present time aerial navigation should be-
come an accomplished fact.
There is in the National Museum at present
the original machine invented by Thos. String
fellow, which took the first prize at the exhi-
bition of the Aeronautic Society of Great
Britain in 1864. The continuance weighs thir-
teen pounds and is equipped with big wings
and propeller wheels. Sliding upon horizontal
wires it was made to fly with great rapidity
from one end of the Crystal Palace in London
to the other
As for the shape Of the coming air ship
nothing very positive can be predicted. The
most successful ono ever exhibited was shown
IN 1888, being cigar-shaped reservoir of gas
with a propeller. With this machine two men
succeeded III going up from q given point in
New York state and returning to the same
point after travelling about for some miles in
various directions At present, however. it is
recognized that for practical purposes balloons
in any form are useless. machine of me tai,
run and sustained by propellers and fans, is
the future.