St. Paul daily globe., 1891-06-29
Hiram S. Maxim. the Gum
maker, Completes a Truly
Wonderful Invention.
A Machine to Move Through
the Air at 100 Miles
an Hour.
It Is Constructed to Drop
Dynamite Here and There
as 1t Goes.
Screw Propellers to Move a
Monster Frame Of Steel
and Silk.


lar, man sat beside table in bedroom
in the Murray Hill hotel. New York,
talking to a reporter of the Sun. He is
one of the great men of the age, and if
what he was talking about come true it
will be difficult to see why he will not
be regarded as the greatest man of his
time. He is Hiram S. Maxim. the in
ventor, the head of the great gun-mak-
ing house of Maxim & Nordenfeldt. the
electrician, the Yankee who has gone
abroad and built works in half dozen
countries, one of them all but rivaling
the great works of Krupp. He is be-
yond fifty years of age, white-bearded
and with only shading of dark in his
white hair, slightly deaf, still carrying
hints of his Connecticut origin in his
speech. He has made his own fortune,
and princely one.
While he has been travelling about
taking orders for guns in Italy. Russia,
Spain, France and England, something
entirely different has been turning over
and over in his mind during the last two
or three years. This is his experimental
flying machine, with which he expects
not only to revolutioniZe warfare but
the earth; to alter mans relation with
man in thousand respects, in short.
Farther on he tells in his own way how
he conducted the experiments that have
led up TO the building of the machine
which now awaits his return to England
before it shall be actually tried. But
as his language is more or less technical
it may be best to say in few words
that it is simply flying machine
upon which he has been at work. In
form the machine is huge kite of
silk, to which will be hung platform
carrying the engines and the screw pro-
pellers, which they are to move and
which are to force the kite through the
air. He believes that he has mastered
tile secret of Initiating the action of the
birds in the air, and, unlike most men
who have interested themselves in the
study, he is an eminently practical, hard
headed Yankee, in this world to do
something and to get money for it. He
is no dreamer. He expects his machine
to make 100 miles an hour or better, and
to carry great loads of whatever you
please, passengers or freight in peaceful
times, or dynamite with which to pepper
the habitationS and works of an enemy
in time of war. He has gone at the
business scientifically and in cold blood,
figuring every step with pencil and
paper. taking nothing for granted, and
always reckoning on unseen and un-
thought-of hindranceS that may obstruct
or retard his success. Having invented
guns that Will automatically load and
fire 1000 shot by machinery set in mo-
ton by the mere kicking or recOil OF the
explosions. he knows what difficulties
lie in the path of successful invention.
Having led Edison and co-operated with
Weston IN the untrodden paths that led
to the successful establishment of cleo
trical illumination, he knows how it
feels to cut loose from precedent and
fight new problems in strange direc-
tions.
Some vials of what looked like black
pepper were at his hand on the table as
he talked, and in an interval he said:
"Ihese are smokeless powders. Did
you ever see them burI?" He burned
a little heap and talked learnedly about
what makes the new powders smoke
less: But that is not the point.
"Ihe question governing the prob
lem of flying has always been how to
get minimum of weight aud a maxi.
mum of force or power" said he. You
know that. For long time the amount
of strength or power eXerted by birds in
their flight has been variously
and more or. less ridiculously
estimated. Two centuries ago
French mathematician calculated
that goose in flying eXerted force of
200-horse power. Afterward another
French mathematician proved the
goose's force to be 100-horse power; still
another estimated it at 1O-horse power,
and finally the last of his race made the
calculation at 1-20 of a horse power,
which is nearest the truth. Richard A.
Proctor, writing for British magazine,
discussed the science of the art of flying
in thorough manner, which aroused
great deal of comment because he be-
lieved that the force eXerted by birds
was much less than others had at
tempted to prove it. In Florida,
after careful study of the turkey
buZZard. he again wrote a treatise, in
which he went on to prove that the
actual amount of force required was far
less than had been supposed. and in
which he said that the flight of the buZ-
Zard could not be accounted for on any
other hypothesis. Prof. Thurston, of
Cornell, in another magazine article,
has pointed out that the amount of
power required is considerably less than
any one has previously asserted. Prof.
Langley, of the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, tried series of expert
ments with elaborate apparatus, and
coul be lifted at the expense of
one-horse power.
ANY observant person OF any
thoughtful one must admit that the
estimates that have been made of the
strength exerted by birds must be
ridiculous, for it can't be possible that
a bird eXertS more strength in flying
than is required by jack rabbit in run
ming up hill. The president of the
Society of Civil Engineers here in New
York has declared it to be his opinion
that under favorable circumstances a
machine might be made to fly if it
weighed no more than one ton and pos
sessed a force equal to four-horse
could be done, in his opinion. You OBJ
serve that this is all purely theoretical.
Thus far there has been nothing given
out to the world upon the subject that
has not been theoretical.
II began two years ago to experiment
for the production of flying machine.
l hired, didn't buy, a large park at
Begley, in Kent. 1t is called Baldwin's
park, and its Tease being in my control,
[ have become the lord of the manor.
However. as there are no manorial
rights, that doesn't matter. put up
an enormous wooden shed and provided
myself with every requirement for con-
ducting my experiments. These were
not in the realm of ballooning, but were
on the aero-plane systemic propel
plane set at an angle so as to ride upon
the air as fast as the air yields. and so to
keep up an approximately level course.
II put up steel column. like an up
right post, with long wooden arm ar
ranged to rotate on tor of the column
an arm pivOted, fixed to the column,
simply to swing around and long enough
to describe circle exactly 200 feet In
circumference. This arm was stayed in
every direction so as to be perfectly
stiff. and it was as sharp as knife, so
as to offer very little resistance to the
air. To the end of this arm l attached
what might be called small flying ma
chine, arranged in such manner that
power could be transmitted to the ma
chine through the post and arm.
1.-THE machiue had steel shaft that