Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-11
SOME GERMAN A1RsH1ps
A Curious Story OF Successful Aerial Ex-
periments in Switzerland.

| Curious Story Of Successful Aerial EX
periments in Switzerland.
New York volks-Zeitung.l
The rumor of mysterious airships which
were seen lowering over the Russian frontier
few months ago receives some sort of con.
nrmation from rather unexpected quarter
| According to the official report of the De
partment of Public Traffic in Switzerland,
which has only been published recently, the
problem of manageable airships seems to
nave been solved, and the secret is in the
possession Of the Prussian War Depart
ment
Nearly year ago, according to this re-
port, the Swiss Embassy in Berlin trans
mitted petition to the Home Department.
FOR Pubic Highways and Traffic. in which
the manufacturing firm OF Klienstrotr in
few aeronautic experiments in Switzerland
The manufacturers explained that they had
mage mage an apparatus initiating the fight of
ment was willing to pay 1000, 600 marks in
case the experiments were SO successful
that the machines could be used at once
These experiments, however, could not
be conducted on German soil, because the
danger of detection by foreign spies was too
great; whereas the misty atmosphere of
Northern Germany on cloudy days made the
tafns OF Switzerland offered far greater ad-
vantages, particularly in late autumn, when
the valleys and plains are shrouded in mist,
while the peaks Of the mountains stand out
IN clear, cold sunlight, high above the sea Of
clouds. rolling beneath them. Thus the in
yenter of the new air-ship, Herr Won
fr1gaidsky, hoped to conduct his expert
ments unseen, on 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 soul. The Prussian
officers and the inventor selected for a
locality the two peaks of the Napf and
SAINTS, in the comparatively little visited
sung in his romance Of the monk Eckehard.
On september % the apparatus was taken
up the mountain side, bridge-lflxe structures
OF wooc were erected on either peak, and
connection bv wires was established The
experiments began on October 2, a windless
DAY, when the country below was hidden in
IoS. They were viewed by Herr Won
Prigaldsky, the two officers of the aero
mantle corps of the Prussian army, and by
Two civil engineers of the Swiss Govern
ment. The official report of the latter is
couched in suspicicusly vague terms:
1.-The functions of birds flight have been
so successfully grasped and reduced to their
most simple elements, the influence of grav-
1ty mas been so accurately weighed and con.
slanting surfaces of the propellers has been
used to such advantage, that the success OF
the new aeronautic process is but question
OF time. This is due chiefly to the use of alum.
substance, which has hitherto remained un-
noticed In the manufacturing of similar
machines. Thus it has been possible to
manufacture electric accumulators for this
machine, which, relatively speaking, are
almost three times as light as the lightest
accumulators that have ever been produced.
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 lS minutes. In the begin
ming the aeronaut had some trouble in MAX
ing the ship RISE but after he had succeeded
In this he was able to continue his way with
great rapidity. On the following days the
time of the flight was considerably reduced,
so that In the end they could cover the dis
tance between the two mountains in almost
as short time as a carrier pigeon. All in
all, from October to October IA, the flight
was performed 1S times, until one of the
propellers got out of order, and certain re-
pairs became necessary which had to be
done at the works in Breslau. How to make
q propeller which is sufficiently powerful
without going above a certain weight still
remained a problem. It seems when the ex-
periments were discontinued.