The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-07-19
The Air.shtp Of the Future.

Professor Graham Bell Is not tke
some pedantic wise men who talk as if
they believed that the end of knowl-
edge in their particular line has al
ready been reached. On7the contrary.
this distinguished inventor is con-
vinced that the discovery and inven..
tions of the past will seem but tfiviai'
things when compared with those
which art to come. Nor does he think:
the day ofman 8 greater knowledge is
very fardistant. -, :,
III have not the shade Of doubt
these are his own words, spoken to- me
quite recently at WashingtonA"that
the problem IF aertel Navigation.
will be solved within ten; years. That.
means all entire revolution in the
worlds methods of transportation and
of making war. I am able, to speak
with more Authority on this subject
from the fact of being actively associ-..
ated witf{ Professor Langley, of the:
Smithsonian Institute, inhisresearch-
es and experiments. | am not at lib;
erty to sreaksin detail Of these expert
ments, biit Will say that the ealcula.
tiohs Of scientific men in regard to the
amount Of power necessary to main
tain an air-ship above the earth have
been strangely erroneous; l may say
rediculously so. According to these
nature would have given the birds and
insects muscular force vastly greater
|. and superior in its qualities to that
bestowed upon man. That seems un-
reasonable in the first place, when one
reflects. that man is at the head of cre-
alton, and we have found practically
that such is not the case, The pow
ef required to Life, and prupel an aif.
shipsis very much less than, has been
supposed !; indeed Professor Langley
concludes that when the air-ship has
once been lifted above the earth
to the proper height, it will be posi-
bic to maintain it there with proper.
tionately no greater effort than that
expended by hawks and eagles in sail
ing about with extended wings. The
air strata will do the bulk Of lifting,
if small propelling power is provided.
Of course, greater power will be me-
,cessary to lift the air-ship originally,
and it may be some time before the
sart. Of: managing an air-ship is discov-
zered :: BUT the final result, am con-
vinced, will allow men to sail about in
she air as easily, and as safely as the
h;ria d. t nreditt that we shall see
the beginning of this modern miracle:
by. the end of the nineteenth century.
"Of course the air-ship of the flu
ture will s,e constructed without any
balloon ,:ettachment. The discovery
of the balloon undoubtedly retarded
the solution If the flying problem for
over hundred years. Ever since the
Montgol6srs taught the world how to
rise in TIL, air by means of inflated gas
bags, the inventors working at the
problem If aerial navigation have
been thrown on the wrong track.
Scientific men have been wasting their
time trying. to steer balloons, a thing
which in Gle nature Of the case is i'm
possible 70 any great extent, mas
much as balloons, being lighter than
the resisting air, can never make
headway against it, The fundamen-
tai principle Of aerial navigation is
that the air-shipmust be heavier than
the air. 1t is only Of recent years
that men capable of studying the prob
lem seriously have accepted this as an
axiom. Electricity in one form or an
other will undoubtedly be the motive
power for air-ships, and every advance
in electrical knowledge brings us one
step nearer TO the day when we shall
fly. TT would be- perfectly possible,
to-day, to direct a flying machine by
means of pendant electric wires which
would transmit the necessary current
without Increasing the load to be borne.
Perhaps e, feasible means Of rropelling
such an asr-ship would be by kind Of
trolley system where the road would
hang down from the car-to the stretch
ed wire, instead Of extending upward.
This is ar idea which I would recon-
mend to inventors. "-C7eueland Mof-
EFT, IN Mczure's Magazine: