The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1891-06-09
AN AIR-BICYCLE.
An Invention Which VIII Navi-
gate Against the Wind.
The Product of an Aeronaut Who Has
Been Experimenting for Twelve Years
to Accomplish the Present
Result.

or twelve years, this being the con-
struction of balloon or airship which
should become navigable and of some
practical use. His experiments evolved
the curious hybrid machine known as
the ''air bicycle"
Briefly speaking, says the New York
I Recorder, it is compound of the bal
/ loon and the bicycle. The mechanism
is small and almost hidden from view
/ when the rider is seated. 1t was orig
inally in the form of wire chair, but
has since been modified into the or
! binary saddle of bicycle. From this
depends a fork, ending in two pedals, like
those of a bicycle, the fork having head
and cross bar with two handles, as
usual. Down the center of the fork is
hollow tube in which there is cog
wheel and ratchet attachment, which is
operated by the pedals, the handles, or
both at once. This gearing furnishes
the motive power of the machine. Thus
the power applied can be varied ac-
cording to the speed desired, and the
hands can rest the feet, or vice versa,
without interfering with the Roadway
of the machine or decreasing its speed.
Ill LULU VI GllC ACdQ VI GllS AdCuluC
there projects horizontally light but
strong steel shaft, which fits into
steel sheath. This sheath is rigid and
firmly fixed to the head of the machine,
while the shaft inside of it is cogged or
ratcheted into the. mechanism acted
upon by the chain attachments of the
pedals. At the extreme end of this,
furtherest from the rider, are four rigid
arms, the end pair of which are rigidly'l
fixed ON the sheath, so that they oc-
cupy position exactly parallel to the |
body of the rider; the other two are rig |
idly fixed on the revolving shaft,
couple of Sits being cut in the sheath to
permit of their movement. These arms
are about three feet long and the end
pair are each about four feet distant
from the two nearest the rider. On
them is spread sheet or sail of light
but strong duck. in size six feet by four.
which is set edgewise to the rider, and
when at rest hangs quivering and shall
ing with every breath of air, like the
sails of ship in the doldrums.
Behind the rider there extends long,
slender bamboo rod, and close behind
the riders back rises wire stay which
supports the hydrogen spindle" This
is the scientific name of balloon
the shape of both a needle
and a sphere, long, circular body,
shaped like the wooden block which
boy calls 'tip-cat," except that the
spindle is slightly fattened under
neath making it look like boat turned
bottom up. This spindle is filled with
hydrogen gas, generated from water,
and is covered with the ordinary bal
loon netting, which is guyed to the
bamboo rod, and the steel shaft, much c
the same as the balloon, is attached to
,he car. The whole apparatus weighs T
fifteen pounds, and is steered either by
'he fan arrangement at the rear or by
hitting the center of gravity as is a
bicycle.
The principle may be most clearly de- :
ined in simple words as that of the
hild's air balloon-it will not rise by
tself, but blow under it and it scars to
he clouds. That is the case with the
ir bicycle. The rider takes his seat,
r rather he stands with his seat be-
ween his legs, his hands holding the
andes. STOPPING a little, he springs
pward into the air, and bya quick pull
t the handles brings the seat right up
} him SO that he involuntarily sits r
own, his feet falling upon the pedals. A
larp, decisive pressure on them sets the
hahn and cog-wheel attachment whirl-
lg, and this causes the steel shaft in
ont of the head to half turn, first to
lie right and then to the left, the two II
1u,y,
rms attached to the sheath remain I'M
owed the extended duck is swung into
right or a left-hand helix, varying in
lpidity with the action of the pedals =
Id producing backward current of
r similar to that experienced on the
ont platform of a swiftly-moving car, a
lily that the current from the helix
ows upward and strikes the flat lower
rface of the hydrogen spindle" bel
ing it inward, and SO still more in
casing its resistance to the powerful
eeze, which slowly raises the whole Is
achine into the air. The helix at the tne
me time grabs at the air in front, as F
were, and sucks it back. In this way bes
action is the reverse to that of a D
ip's propeller, which gives momen- "
m to the vessel by its peculiar shape v
essing against the water. The air a.
,ycle progresses by similar action to
At of the propeller when the engines
, reversed and the ship steams back
Ird.
No steering gear is actually necessary,
hough the machine carries ruddcr. =
will steer by the principles of gray
ton; if the rudder leans backward it
ends, if forward it descends, if to the -,
hit it goes to the right, and if to the III
turn to the left is the result. An
pection of the tilt of the spindle will
nonstrate this clearly. The most
oortant point of all is this: With this
que machine head wind becomes a Hol
tor of propulsion, thus solving the