The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-12-06
ANOTHER WORLDS FAIR.
1T WILL BE HELD AT ANTWERP,
BELGIUM, NEXT YEAR.
One of Its side shows VIII BE n Real
Castle I'm the Air, Attached to
Captive BaIIOOn-An Ingenious and
Interesting scheme.

Another worlds fair or international
exposition will come off during the forth
coming year, 1894. 1t will take place at
Antwerp, Belgium. A great many of
the European goods exhibited at Chi
cago during the worlds Columbian ex-
position held there this year that had
been shipped there and are now sent
will be exhibited again at the latter
city during the new fair stated.
Antwerp is the chief seaport and COM
merciai city of Belgium. 1t is situated
ON the right bank of the river Scheldt,
| ffty-two miles from the North sea.
which, at its southern END, by the Strait
of Dover and the English channel, is
connected with the Atlantic ocean, and
twenty-seven miles north Of Brussels,
the capital of Belgium. The river
Scheldt is thirty feet deep and 1000 feet
wide at Antwerp and offers excellent
facilities for navigation. The harbor
there, as to docks and warehouses, is
one of the finest in the world. The total
tonnage of vessels entering the port Of
Antwerp amounts to about four million
| tons annually. Forty regular steamer
lines start from that city to all parts
of the world. The merchants of that
| city are enterprising men. Besides, the
| railway system there, the Scheldt and
eleven canals, intersecting the city, give
| communication with other Belgian towns.
Antwerp is both a commercial and a
manufacturing city. In connection with
| this subject it may be stated that Bel
| GUM is one of the most thickly settled
countries of Europe, and that an i'm
| menSe amount of manufacturing is go
! ing on there, the country being very
| rich in coal. Antwerp imports products
| of various kinds. It's chief exports are
! flax, sugar, iron, wooden goods, metals,
| glass and tallow. The manufactures Of
| the city consist of sugar, white lead,
| wooden cloth, cotton goods, embroidery,
| lace, linen thread, sewing silk, black
| silk stuff, ribbons, cordage, leather, OIL
J cloth, paper, wall paper and other ar
| ticles. In addition. there are manrfac-
| turers of tobacco in that city and the
| cutting Of diamonds and other precious
! stones may be named Shpbuilding is
| an important business there.
The chief public Institutions of that
| city are an academy OF sciCrceS, an
| academy Of painting and the fne arts,
medical and surgical school, a gym
| nasium (college), picture gallery, an
| art museum, a public library and a
| botanical and a geological garden There
| are monuments of the painters Rubens
| and Van Dyck, and of the novelist Con-
| science at Antwerp, Of whom the two
| latter were natives Of that C:t.. while
| the former spent a great many years
| of his life there.
| The city is strongly fortified AT the
| census taken there in 1891 it had o2T, POS
| Inhabitants. Those Of hem who belong
| to the upper classes OF societY sreak
| Vx-h no
| Flemish
The international exhibition which
! will be held at Antwerp next year will
| doubtless become a success, although
IT will, of course not reach the dfmen-
! SlonS of the late worlds Columbian eX-
! position held at Chicago Like the late
] Paris worlds fair had its Eifel tower
and the Chicago worlds fair its Ferris
wheel as famous side shows so the Ant
| werp exposition viii have an ingenious
| and interesting side show in the shape
! of real castle in the air. attached to
| a captive balloon. Bold indeed. is the
| idea of that undertaking. that has taxed
| its authors attention and energy for
| years. and bold. indeed. will be the eX-
| ecution of the plan The name of the
| man who has conceived the idea referred
! to is Tobiansky. He is a civil engineer
| Of the city of Brussels, Belgium. He is
! doubtless man of genius and enter
! prise. For more than four years he en-
tertained his plan and, although he en-
! cOuntered a great many obstacles
! thwarting 1t, yet he did not give up his
| aeronautic and technical studies relating
/ thereto. After he had both theoretically
| and practically considered and examined
| every pro and con, and after he had be-
! come completely convinced of the safety
and usefulness of his invention, he Sub
mitted his plan for the execution of the
| same to the committee of the Antwerp
! exposition. That committee appointed a
/ commission of scientific men for examin-
| ing the matter and for an opinion there
on The report of the commission was
q favorable one. In consequence of 1t
| a joint stock company has formed,
| furnishing the necessary means for car
| rying out the scheme, for which purpose
a capital of 100000 francs ($1OO,OOO will
| be required
For the construction of the proposed
| real castle in the air only light but dur
able and flexible material, as rif1ed steel
tubes and aluminium tubes, cane and
so forth will be used. Covers of Chinese
silk on top ana gauze wlre-cloth at the
| sides will give the frame the appear
| ance of compact structure and at the
same time afford a free passage to the
wind. Also the floor of the castle, sus-
pended in the air, that will be thirty
| meters long and seven meters wide,-the
area of the floor will be 200 square
! meters, or 2,153 square feet,-will consist
| of Mannesmann tubes and bamboo. The
| captive balloon, which will be above the
| building and hold the latter, will be
/ composed of two hemispheres and be-
| tween them of four cylindrical parts
(the whole being in a horizontal posi-
| tom and consist of completely gas
| tight double Chinese silk. Every one of
| those six parts will have an eXpanse of
about $1,000 cubic meters (529, 740 cubic
| feeO and form a balloon by itself SINH
| lar to the compartments of ocean steam
ers. Strong silk stuff, surrounding the
! six balloons, will render them a unit
and hold at the same time by it's lower
end a very strong horizontal steel tube,
| to which the castle or building will be
| attached by five ropes, every one of
| which will have a carrying capacity of
| 25, 600 kilogrammes C55,115 pounds. The
! upper part of the balloon will be covered
| by a silk net, from which sixteen ropes
of steel wire will go in a diagonal, not
| vertical, direction to the ground, where
they will be securely fastened by braces.
! 1t is expected that the diagonal direction
| of the ropes will prevent fluctuations OF
| the balloon in case of a strong wind.
| For the sake of still greater safety also
from the steel tube to which the build
/ ing or castle will be attached wire ropes
| will go to the ground, where they will
be securely fastened Thus the building,
! even i'm case of a considerable fluctua-
! ton of the balloon, will remain per-
/ fectly stable. In case of a great, un-
foreseen disturbance of the atmosphere
il will be possible, by a combined sys-
tenn of nineteen steam wind