Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-28
AIRSHIP MAN AGAIN.
Mr. Pennington and His Hobby Bob
Up Serenely at Washington.
HE is AS CONFIDENT AS EVER
That BE Has Solved the Problem So Many
Hundreds Have Wasted
LIVES AND BIG FORTUNES TO MASTER
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH. I

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATCH.1
WASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. 27.-E. j..
Pennington, the inventor of the famous air
ship that bears his name, is in the city. For
the past nine years he has been engaged in
studying the problem OF aerial navigation,
and is confident that he has solved it. Mr..
Pennington to-day talked to a DISPATCH
reporter. He said that company COM
prising some of the wealthiest and most
progressive citizens of Chicago had been
organized with paid up capital of $50, ,0Ooo,-
600 to build the airships.
"We are engaged in constructing several
small ones," he said, sat ourworks at Mt
Carmel, Ill, and ere long will proceed to
manufacture ship with which to cross the
Atlantic and capable of carrying 90 passen-
gers. The last will require about a year to
complete. AS soon as it is finished will
cross the ocean IN it. In fact it is perfectly
feasible to travel in 1t all over the globe.
Two Hundred Miles an Hour.
'eWe will be able to 60 through the at
mosphere at the rate of 200 miles an hour.
A man can go to sleep in New York and
wake up in London. There is hardly any
limit to the uses to which it can be put. A
farmer living 100 miles from a city could
load up lot of garden truck, carry it to
market, and fly home-all in two hours
time. The mails could be carried from
New York to Chicago in five hours. Freight
and all kinds of articles could be let down
into buildings by means of chutes connect
ing with the roofs. Carrying the mails will
be one of the prime uses of the air ship"
"What is your ship to be built Off"
aluminium, that marvellous metal whose
peculiar properties make it specially
adapted to aerial machines. 1t is as light
as water, or nearly so. A sheet of the
metal will float, though solid chunk will
sink. The buoyancy chamber, car, propel-
Ter, engine, and entire machine will be
made Of aluminium.
1t Goes Against the Wind.
Mr.. Pennington's machine will fly against
the wind, and thereby solve a problem that
has hitherto baffied all inventors. The en-
tire scientific world has become interested
in his experiments, and he has had corre-
spondence with several leading European
Governments about his airship. He says
that Maxim, the famous inventor of i'm
proved guns, is at work on flying ma
chine, in which he is essaying to initiate
nature, taking bird as his model. Mr..
Pennington thinks that Maxim will sue
ceed to a limited extent only, though he
does not doubt his ability to produce ma
chine that will navigate the air.
So far from injuring the business of rail
roads, Mr. Pennington is sure that they will
be called on to do more traffic than ever.
The telegraph did not cause people to cease
writing letters. He contends that his air.
ship will be infinitely safer from accidents
than railroad or steamship locomotion, and
travel will be greatly cheapened, seeing
that no roadbed will have to be kept up and
no wear and tear of machinery.