The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-05-23
MAxIM,s FLYING MACHINE.
When He Makes a Bigger Oue He is
Going to Revolutionize the World.
From the Ne,v York Sun.


From the Nel1 York Sun.
WASHINGTON, May 19.-"If ! can rise
from the coast of France, sail through the
air across the channel, and drop half a ton
of nitro-gly cerine upon an English city
can revolutionize the world. believe |
can do it if live long enough. If die
some one will come after me who will be
successful where failed.n
The man who made this prophecy was
Hiram j. Maxim, the famous gunmaker.
He has built at his workshop, near Kent,
England, a small flying machine with a
wooden screw as Its motive power.
"It is not necessary to initiate the flap
ping OF wings in making a flying machine"
said Mr.. Maxim. Suppose Stephenson had
said that as horse was the most perfect
form of locomotion over roads and field, he
would make his steam engine walk. What
speed would he have securedl He might
have made his engine walk as fast as three
miles an hour. By using wheels he obtained
continuous motion, and that is why / use
the screw. But the screw has to revolve
with great rapidity-all the way from 1, 600
to 2 500 revolutions minute. You cannot
make sufficient impression on the air with
anything less"
"What is your machine like.
MY first machine was small one. IL
four feet wide. and set edgewise against the
air. ! balanced it Oh an arm about thirty
feet in length revolving in 3 circumference
OF 200 feet The arm was movable, so that
it would rise and fall. When the machine
Travelled at the rate Of thirty miles an hour
it remained on the same plane. When the
speed was increased to thirty-five miles it
began to rise. At ninety miles it pulled its
guy wires with such force that it broke
them, and now we have to keep it chained.
All our experiments were conducted with
the greatest accuracy. Delicate machines
measured the speed per minute and per
hour, the push and lifting power of the
screw, the horse power of the motor, and
every other factor.n
''But this little machine can hardly be of
practical use?"
Every true, but now am at work on
large machine. built of silk and steel, that
will do on large scale what the other
machine does on smaller scale. We found
by experiment that one horse power would
carry 1873 pounds at a rate of seventy five
miles an hour. We proved also that our
screw would easily lift forty times as much
on plane it propelled as it could push.
have built motor weighing 1900 pounds
and which pushes LOCO pounds. 1t will
therefore lift 10000 pounds. The weight of
my engines, generator, condenser, water
supply and petroleum and of two men is
5000 pounds. So you see what a margin
have left"
what is the size of your large ma
chinep'
II will be ITO feet wide and 40 feet long.
1t will be propelled by two immense wooden
screws, nearly eighteen feet in diameter
looking very much like the screws of ocean
steamers, only with broader blades. The
steam is generated by heating copper BY
petroleum, and is condensed after being
used, so that we get along with two gallons
of water. The boiler is OF the finest Whit~
worth steel, and we shall use about forty
pounds of petroleum an hour"
"How are you going to test the ma
chineln
ut will be placed at an angle Of about
one foot in eighteen inches on a railroad
track twelve feet wide. At thirty miles an
hour it will barely skim along, the pressure
OF the air underneath it being then equal to
one pound for each square foot, or Just
sufficient to lift it. At thirty-hve miles an
hour it will begin TO rise, and as the speed
increases it will mount higher and higher.
When you want to descend you will slacken
speed, or if you wish to proceed in a
straight line at a certain hight you come
back to thirty miles an hour. 1t can be
| already upon it, and | did not enter upon
the work until | was convinced that the
idea was practical"
But suppose you should tip overw
30, no." said Mr.. Maxim with a laugh.
"You may be sure that that is one contin-
genoy we are bound shall not occur. 1t
will be impossible for the machine to fall
forward, to sink backward, or fall over"