Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-08-11
@ ERMAN AIRSHIPS.
A Curious story of Successful Experiments
in SwitZer Iand

The rumor of mysterious airships which
We're set n lowering over the Russian from
TIER few M 1uThs ago received some sort
OF continuation from a rather unexpected
quarter.
According 10 tie off ial report o. the
department &C public fra fiji in Swltz r.
land, which has only been published re-
Gently, the problem Of manageable air
ships seams to have been solved, and the
st cret Is IN the possession of the Prussiau
waT department
Nearly year ago, according to this re-
port, the Swiss embassy in Berlin trans
mitted a petition to the homo department.
for public highways and traffic, in which
the manufacturing firm of Kleinstolf of
Breslau asked TOR pei mission to conduct Il
few 6e 'Onautlc experl ments IN SWlIz 9rland
The manufacturers explained that they
had made an apparatus initiating the
flight of birds for which the Prussiau war
department was willing to pay 1000 ,L00
MARKS IN case the experiments w4re 50
successful that the machine could be used
at once. These exp -riments, however
could not be conducted on German soil, he
cause che danger of detection by foreign
spies WAS too great; whereas the misty
atmosphere of Northern Germany on
cloudy cay made the OK ,eriments alb blt
impossible. The mountains of Switze1-
land (tfered tar greater advantages, par.
tlcularly IN late autumn, when the valley
and plains are shrouied 10 mist, while the
peaks of the mountains stand out in clear,
cold sunlight, high above the sea or clouds
rolling beneath them. Thus the inventor
of the new airsh p, Herr Won PrigaIdsky,
hoped to conduct his experiments unseen
Oh some remote mountain peaks.
After some diplomatic delay the Swiss
government decided to permit both the
preliminary and the final experiments to
take place on their soil. TIE Prussian
officers and the inventor selected for a
locality the two peaks Of the Napi and
Santls, IN the comparatively little visited
region near st. GalIen, of which Shsffei
has sung in his romance of the monk
Eckehard. Ga Sept. % the apparatus
was taken up the mountain side, bridge
Ike structures of wood re erected on
either peak, and a connect by wires was
established. The experiments began on
Oct. 2, MINDLESS day, VIXEN the country
below was hidden in fog. They were
viewed by Herr Won Pigaldsky, the two
Ulcers of the aeronautic corps Of the
P. ussian army, and by two civil engineers
OF the Swiss government. The official re-
port Of the latter is couched is suspicious
ly vague terms:
The functions of a bros flight have
been SO successfully grafp3d and reduced
to their most simple element, the influence
of gravity has been so accurately weighed
and considered. while the the force of the
wind on the slanting surface of The pro-
p2llers has been used to such an advant-
age that the success of the new aeronDau
tic process Is but question of time. This
IS due chiefly to the use of aluminium in
connection with another metallic sub
stance, which has hitherto remained un-
noticed In the manufacturing Of similar
machines. Thus it has been possible to
manufacture electric accumuators for this
machine, which relatively speaking, are
almost three times as light as the highest
accumulators that has ever been gro 1dced
Nevertheless, the weight of the whole ap-
paratus. which can seat eight persons at
most. is $50 kilogrammes.
The first flight from one peak to the
other took an hour and eighteen minutes.
In the beginning the aeronaut had some
trouble In making the ship ris., but after
nc udu SuCCetuSu III ILLS Nc was dDi6 W
continue his journey with great rapidity.
On the following day the time of the flight
was considerably reduced, so that in the end
they could cover the distance between the
two mountains in almost as short a time
as a carrier pigeon. All in all, from Oct.
2 to Oct. IL the fight was performed
eighteen times, until one of the propellers
got out of order, and certain repairs be
came necessary which had to be done at
the works in Breslau. How to make pro-
peller which is sufficiently powerful with
cut going above certain weight will re-
main problem, it seems, when the ex
periments were discontinued
The Swiss government 1sends to
acquire TIE patent from the inventor,
and has already ordered two airships,
which are to be used for purposes of pub
lie trafic only.