The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-04
REVOLUTION IN WAR.
-TAINED BY A YANKEE INVENT
OR'S MAMMOTH KITE.


Drop Dynamite on an Enemy.
From the Pittsbur0 Dispatch.
NEW York, May .2S.-A heavily built but
hort and muscular man sat beside a table
the Murray Hill hotel talking to a re-
.,rter to-day. He is one of the greatest
,on of the age, and If what he was talking
bort comes true it will be difficult to see
rbv be will not be regarded as the greatest
nan of his time. He is Hiram S. Maxim,
H. inventor, the head of the great gun
rsking house of Maxim & Nordenfeldt,
+bs electrician, the yankee who has gone
Il broad and built works in half a dozen
Countries, one of them all but rivaling the
Great works of Krupp.
He is beyond so years of age, white
boarded, and with only a shading of dark
II his white hair, slightly deaf, still carry
inc hints of his Connecticut origin in his
/sDeach. He has made his OWL fortune, and
nrincely one. While he has travelled about
baking orders for guns in Italy, Russia,
Spsin, France and England, something en-
arely different has been turning over and
over in his mind during the last two or
three years. This Is mis- experimental flying
machine with which he expects not only to
Iravolutionize warfare, but communication
|between the nations of the earth; to alter
mans relations with man in thousand re-
spects, IN short.
HUGE KITE OF SILK.
He tells in his own way how he con-
ducted 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 a few words that it is simply flying ma
chine on 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 propellers, which they
are to move aud which are to force the kite
Through the air. He believes that he has
mastered the secret of initiating the action
Of birds in the air, and unlike most men
who have interested themselves in the study
be is an eminently practical, hard-headed
yankee, in this world to do something and
| to get money for it. He is no dreamer.
Heexpects 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 to
pepper the inhabitants and works of an
enemy in times 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 aIways
reckoning on unseen and unthought of him
ORANGES that may obsuruct or retard his
SUCCESS.
He has invented guns that will automati-
cally load and fire l 900 shots by machinery
Get in motion by the mere kicking or recoil
Of the explosions. He knew what difficult
ties lie in the path of successful invention.
THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED.
The question governing the problem of
flying has always been how to get a mini
mum of weight and maximum of force or
power. said he. You know that. For a
long time the amount of strength or power
exerted by birds in their fight has been
more or less ridiculously estimated. Two
centuries ago French mathematician cal
culated that goose in flying exerted force
Of zoo horse power. Afterward another
French mathematician proved the goose's |
force TO be 100 horse power; still another |
estimated 1t at ten horse power, and finally |
tae last of his race made the calculation at |
one-twentieth Of horse power, which is |
nearer the truth.
Richard A. Proctor discussed the science |
OIL We art OF flying in a thorough manner, |
which aroused great deal of comment, be- |
cause he believed that the force exerted by |
BIRDS was much less than others had at |
careful study of the turkey buzzard, he again |
wrote treatise, in which he went on to |
prove that the actual amount of force re-
CURED was far less than had been supposed, |
and IN which he said that the flight of the |
buzzard could not be accounted for or any
other hypothesis. Prof. Langley of the
Institution, in Washington,
tried a series of experiments with elaborate
and proved that as much AS $50
pounds could be lifted at the expense of one
morse power. Any observant person OF any
one must admit that the esti-
mates that have been made of the strength
exerted by birds must be ridiculous, for it
can be possible that a bird exerts more
strength in flying than is required by jack
Iaooit IN running up hill. You observe
tnat Is all purely theoretical Thus far
1ueIe mas been nothing given out to the
Y. world upon the subject that has not been
theoretical.
HIRED PARK FOR EXPERIMENTS.
:, began two years ago to experiment for
'ue production of flying machine. hired |
iar &c park at Begly in Kent. I have up
gu. enormous wooden shed and provided my
39H Win every requirement for conducting |
NY experiments. These we're not in the
!. galm OF ballooning, but were on the eo-
9lage systemic propel a plane set at an
'Lnsie, so as to ride upon the air as fast as
re an Yields, and 80 to keep up an approx
nately level course.
put up steel column, like an upright
Wv with long wooden arm, arranged to
va o'1Ve on top or the COLUMBIAN arm riv-
.ou, Ixed to the column, simply to swing
touno and long enough to describe a circle
40 Mactl Zo0 feet n-circumference. This arm
,as stayed IN every direction, so as to be
. % tectlS stlff, and it was as sharp as knife,
= as 70 offer very little resistance to the
=. =. 10 the end of this arm / attached
. iaO might be called a small flying ma
uine, arranged in such manner that power
oull De transmitted to the machine through
le g. post and arm.
Inc machine had steel shaft that could
: rotated at any speed, aud was also pro-
lued with dynamo motor or instrument
= r;, uleasurlng force. To this shaft of the
-us machine were attached various Kinds
PlCpeHer crews-one at q time-which |
t sa II to be rotated at various speeds.
No aPparatus, when complete, was ar
'useu 20 correctly indicate the number of |
LIS per minute, the actual push or pro-
ing Iorce OF the screw and the slip of the
- w. Wnen the arm was allowed to free |
., go Sne screw was rotated at a high rate of
~ ~, Tue flying machine would travel at
'Nl Uulrty to ninety miles an hour.
HOW THE POWER is ACQUIRED.
. ne machine was also provided with a
stem or levers similar to those used in or
ia uary druggists scales, and to this was at
.oneo planes, generally made of wood
anSed In such a manner that they could |
paced at any angle above the horizontal.
carefully measuring the power required
d certain speed without any planes at