Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1892-06-02
Aerial Navigation

The inventor, Hiram Maxim, writes
as follows to the April Century:
"Since my article on Aerial Naviga-
ton. The power Required appeared
In the October number of The Cen
turyl +, have received large number
Of letters on the subject. Those receiv-
I'd from France and England have been
Of congratulatory character, while
two written in the United States have
been OF a depreciatory character.
The apparatus described and
shown in my article was not intended
rs a complete flying machine, as some
Df your readers seem to imagine. 1t
s simply an apparatus which | de-
signed and constructed for the sole
purpose OF asCertaining how much
power was actually required to per.
orm flight with screw driven aerop-
ane.
THE apparatus was provided with
avery requisite for accurately deter
mining the energy required, and fur
lished me with data which | could
aot obtain ut that time from any
other source. My article related
wholly TO this apparatus.
"SOme OF your readers lay great
stress upon the impossibiity of such
machine moving straight through
The air, saying that it would be quite
impossible to preserve the angle OF the
plane as relates to the earth's surface,
Dr. to anything else, and if the machine
was cut loose from the arm that guild
I'd it around the circle, it would run
up a steep incline and fall back to the
ground.
"In the machine which / am build
hg, and which is intended for free
Fight, the most intricate part of the
whole thing is the apparatus for keep
ing the machine on an even keel while
dying. This apparatus does for the
machine what the brain does for the
bird. The least detection from pre-
determined angle instantly applies an
enormous amount OF energy to the
planes OF the machine, changing the
angles OF some in order to maintain
The angles OF others.
1.-The machine consists OF one very
arge plane with smaller ones attached
to it. do not anticipate any insur-
mountable trouble in the direction of
maintaining the principal plane OF my
machine at any angle desired. My APP
prehensions at the present time are
altogether ofanother kind: Will my
engine be strong enough"
with the data and formule which
have at hand, it would appear that
they are; and with a large margin OF
energy to spare; but the machine is
very much larger than any that has
ever been made before, and possibly
there may be another and an Un-
known factor-the factor OF size"
The Invention OF the Street. car.
Modern inventions do not change
human nature, but they do change
human affairs. When the Lord put it
into the mind OF someone ito pave
the roads with iron bars"-as Emer-
son hath it-a new epoch began, that
OF the railway system, which, although
but sixty years old, has changed the
lace OF the world.
Rapid transit in cities was born
about the same time, when, in 1884,
John Stephenson, OF New York, in
vented the horse-car to run on tram
ways, or fiat rails, laid in the streets
OF our cities. For this his name is
worthy to be placed beside that other
Stephenson who found the locomotive
toy and left it perfect machine.
We are now just beginning to see
the far-reaching effects OF this simple
invention. 1t has solved the problem
OF city life. 1t is fast abolishing the
horrors OF crowded tenement. 1t is
shortening the hours OF labor. 1t
makes the poor man landholder.
1t is doing more to put down social
ism, in this country at least, than all
other things combined.
One of it's effects is giving great
trouble. The better the service OF
street railways, the faster does the
city population grow, the more do
the people ride, and the greater is the
eongest ion OF traffic, and the louder
the complaints OF the public The
demand for rapid transit facilities in.
creases faster than the supply.
Everybody thinks that their own