Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-19
NOW IT Is ANTHEXIS
That Is to Shoot 600-fon Iron Air.
ships 800 Miles in an Hour.
A BOSTON LAWYERS DISCOVERY.
Jumping, Flying and Rowing Are Philo-
sophicslly Analogous.
FLIGHT WITH MoT1oNLEss WINGS

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.l
An ambition to navigate the atmosphere
may be laudable enough, but - yet there
does not seem to be any foundation under
the scheme. This, however, may be due to
the very nature Of the case, which admits
of no foundation in the ordinary sense of
the term. With this problem, the past and
the present, ignorance and science, poverty
and capital all have grappled, and any one has
made about as little headway as any other.
Balloonists there have been and will con-
tinue to be; we may have them ever with
us, but to dangle from an inflated sphere or
vessel Of any shape at the mercy Of the
wind Is not aerial navigation, and
is no more feat now than in the
time of the Montgolfera The newspapers
gravely tell rs how the Germans sail over
Poland and reconnoiter the Russian fortif-
cations from their airships, how they hold
their ships at stationary poise, after the
manner Of humming bird when it sips the
nectar from flower, and how they sail ct
will against the wind, so high that rife
shots cannot reach the aerial sailors and too
high to permit of their flying mechanism to
be studied.
Statements That Are Amusing.
This may all 60 down'the general man of
the multitude of yokels and 60 unmasti-
Gated. but those who have some conception
of the physical problems that must be
solved before aeronautics can be more than
dream, can only be amused at the naive
way these ingenious chronicles tell their
capricious story. As idealistic romancing,
as purely unscientifc fiction, as foundation
less mechanical poetry, of the Jules Verne
or Herbert D. Ward order, as a strike of
fancy against fact, it will do; but it is much
more of hindrance than help to the ac-
complishment of flying through the air.
And now comes disciple of Blackstone,
a Boston climb of the law" who lays aside
his briefs to announce that he has "a dead
sure cinch"-in fact, 'shas invented .
system of aerial navigation that will permit
vessels Of any size and weight to 60 through
the air with the greatest ease and rapidity
| If constructed on his principles"
While there are still some traces of the
opaque in his description, he is as happy
over it as lark in the morning. 1t appears
that he has "discovered' an unyielding
state of the air which he has christened
''anthexis," which is from the Greek and
means that which sustains force without
yielding. Great things are predicted Of,
and are predicated on anthexis. However,
it Is Just possible that all that this attorney
whose name is Loeber, has discovered, Is
only new term to apply to an old fact.
There's Plenty Of Anthexis.
There is good deal of "anthexis" lying
around loose which can be found without q
search-warrant The earth is full of it.
Water has . goodly quantity, as is evil
denced by its capacity for sustaining iron
ships, and the boy that upends board on
the edge OF 4 mill-pond and brings 1t, with
all his force down on the smooth surface,
can hear In the report that follows what
NAV be termed an anthexical outcry.
Yes, the air has some of this property.
The air is something; there need be no mis-
take about that. 1t is accommodating and
generally yields the right of way, but it
always first insists on a place to 60 and
mediate before it will bulge an inch.
Confine it in tight quarters and it will insist
on getting out before another substance goes
in, otherwise it will bold the fort as reso-
lutely as would lead in the same space
When dynamite or nitro-glvcerine is placed
under stump and exploded, it is the
anthexls of the atmosphere that assists in
the job of loosening the stump's hold to the
earth, as the very suddenly expanding gases
find enough resistance in the air, so that
the counter pressure may act on the object
aimed at. It is virtually the atmospheric
anthexis that forms sort of back wall for
the expanding gas-a foot-hold as it were,
while it gets in its work on the stumn
This then, 1t seems, is what Mr.. Loeber has
discovered and he has devoted quarter of
q century to it, and in the meantime, when
not busy in the court room, has also in
vented an airpump. This also, is in his
favor.
But at the end of 25 years of scogitation
on his air machine, he finds that to float it
will cost $50, 900, and this sum of money, he
says, is q large sum to some men, and in
this he gives evidence of having also some
ideas and observation on finance. If he is
as sound on all his other views as on this
financial proposition, be ought to have NO
trouble in sailing his ship. But alas!
He's Delightfully."- Indefinite.
To reportorial pumper, he e1uded as
follows:
II were to detail to q thorough scientist.
the strongest kind Of q personal friend, In
1ne tSsss Toud enser s
of it An element Of doubt, because it Is op-
posed to all the present ideas Of aerial nayi-
cation. The air is power substance, but its
power Is occult and made manifest only by
the use Of means. The balloon is the means
to obtain two opposite vertical air columns
and the excess, Of the lower over the upper
tube is the means TO- obtain the full pressure
force of one air column. A third means
which l have discovered brings forth an
thexis. Anthexis is the foundation and
embodiment Of my invention Of the afr car.
otn s,y no moro than this ut present.
Now what Is to be done in this extreme
exigency? Here is legal luminary in the
throes Of great mechanical, aeronautical,
pneumatical. and anthexical deliverapce.
Let the reader re-read the above quotation,
commencing where he starts in about ''the
balloon" ETC., and If such reader be endowed
with any appreciation of critical situation.
he or she must concede that this case is most
pathetic.
But here is description of the still unde.
livered airship. 1t is to be made of steel or
iron, ''to prevent fire." its extreme length
shall be 70 feet; mean breadth. q feet;
height, 50 feet; length and breadth of wings,
feet, and its net carrying capacity shall be
600 tons 1t is to sail up above the cyclonic
ranges of the atmosphere and the minimum
unyielding air suppdrt-otherwise anthexis
underneath the wings, he says, will be
1,18S tons
Questions for the Inventor.
Itwould be worth while to consider the
amszing surface TO be covered by this pro-
posed wing action, but as nothing further il
given there is nothing to commence on. 1t
would be interesting to know how the
meeting of anthexis in the upward stroke is
to be avoided, SO as not to press the ship
down just as much as the downward stroke
is to buoy it up.
But 1t must be terrific wing-sweep that
shall cleave the air with sufficient force TO