The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-07-17
WAR AND AERIAL SHIPS
POSSIBILITIES REGARDING FUTURE
FLYING MACHINES.

6thNA1 -sfssSSNetItNI-sS.
How vast Navies and Expensive Land
FortiacatIons Might Be Rendered Use
Iess-Antiqnity of the Idea OF Flying.
Some sehemes OF the Ancients.
Regarding the rate of propulsion of the
future flying machine, Professor J. Elf
teth Watkins, the distinguished mechani-
cal expert, declares that it simply depends
upon the size of the propeller used and
the rate at which the fans are revolved.
In his opinion the old theory that the at
mosphere was too tenuous a medium for
propeller to act upon has been demon
strated to be nonsense Sufficient resist
ance is offered by it to render possible an
enormous speed, so that it would not be
too much to srrmise that a properly con-
structed air ship might accomplish the
distance between Chicago and New FORK
/ within an hours time.
I Necessarily, however, there would be
limit to rapidity of fight, inasmuch as a
propeller ceases to propel after a certain
number of revolutions per second has
been reached. 1t is open to any ones OBJ
servation that a vessels propeller. oper-
ating in the water, often revolves much
faster when the craft is moving slowly
/ than when it is going fast.
I Attention was called by Mr.. Hazen to
the tremendous revolution which the in
I PRODUCTION of practical air ships would
! work in the methods of offense and de-
fense in war Fortifications, on which
I it is suggested tnat Uncle Sam shall ex-
! pend $50, 600, 900 as soon as possible,
would be of little use against flying ma
I chimes that could drop dynamite and
1 other explosives from aloft. Likewise
ships of war, however heavily armored,
would be at the mercy of hostile aerial
navigators.
COSTLY GUNS RENDERED USELESS
In such a case batteries of atdescrip-
4 ton altogether new would have to be
devised for shooting vertically. and the
general defending position on terra
firma would be obliged to assail the
4 winged foe with volleys of bombs di-
4 rected upward, as one would shoot
4 ducks on the wing. Should such a state
of affairs come to pass, it seems likely
that the conflicts of the future between
4 nations will have to be fought out in the
air between squadrons of flying men-of-
war. About that time one would imag-
inc. IT would be considered that the
period had arrived, SO long looked for
by military thinkers, when there could
be no more fighting because it would be
too vastly destructive.
/ Having achieved the conquest of the
4 waters, it is natural that man should
/ likewise desire the mastery of the air,
4 and thus in all ages the human race has
been ambitious to fly. The earliest at
tempt in this direction recorded by ira
dition is the mythical account of D@-
! Aolr1c xxyhn hou 0Onsfr11ofod fbo colo.
brated labyrinth for Minos, king of
Crete, was so unfortunate as to offend
that monarch, and being imprisoned,
escaped with the aid of wings made of
feathers cemented with wax.
Another ancient story of Archytas, of
4 Tarentum, who constructed wooden
pigeon that had power to fly, so nicely
was it balanced by weight and put to
motion by inclosed air. If there is any
truth in the account, it seems probable
that Archytas was fakir and worked
his bird with string, as is done On the
stage. The ancients, generally speak
ing, made no attempts in the direction
of aeronautics, believing that the power
of fight could only appertain to the
most powerful gods.
~ OLD SCHEMES FOR FLYING.
Four centuries ago an ingenious gen.
tleman named Lauretus Taurus pub
lished a statement to the effect that
swans eggs filed with quicksilver, when
exposed to the sun, would ascend in the
air, but it is not recorded that the ex-
pertinent was ever subjected satisfac-
torily to scientific test. In 1870 a Jesuit
Francis Lana, proposed to make four
copper balls, each twenty-five feet IL
| diameter and only four one-thousandthi
of an inch in thickness, from which tbs
air was to be exhausted
II To these balls a basket was to be at
tached, with a mast and sail, and The
calculation was that the contrivanc'
' would carry 1900 pounds. Unfortunate
7 ly it was discovered that the excessive
thinness of the copper spheres woul'
cause them to be broken when vacuum
was created inside of them by the press
ure of the atmosphere from without
Nevertheless. this suggestion ap
preached more nearly to practic;N j
idea in aerostatics than any other offere'
. up to the time of the invention of tn
. balloon in 1888 by the brothers Mont
: golfer. So late as l775 Joseph GalieIl
!. q Dominican friar and professor i
g philosophy, contended that it would b
+ possible to collect the rarefied air Q
r some lofty mountain top and inclose
! in huge vessel mile in. diameter
+ which would carry ffty-four times a
81 much weight as did Noah's ark.
Il Funnily enough. nearly all the earl
y theorists on this subject imagined tina
the atmosphere merely covered. tn
earth like shallow ocean, on which th
aerial vessels they had in mind were IL
d tended to float, like ships in the SCI
a with their upper portions in the dlffus
d ether that lay above.-W Washington Sta