The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-10

nism That May Make Aerial Navi-
cation a Certainty in the Near Flu
ture.
From the Philadelphia Press.
London, Aug. st is reported that
Hiram Maxim has at last made sue
cessful trip with his flying machine, or,
rather, aeroplane, he, with two others,
having Travelled some five hundred feet
in it.
II has long been known that it was
only Mr. Maxims extreme carefulness
and his desire TO test everything that has
prevented a similar announcement hav-
ing been made some time since; for his
aeroplane has passed the experimental
stage. For long time Mr. Maxim has
been content to run his flying machine on
a long track at his wOrkhouse, and in
stead of trying to let it fly, which it al
ways wanted to do with the full spread
of wings he prevented this by never put
ting all the aeroplanes into play, but &C
cording to the London dispatch, he seems
at last to have felt all was ready for
test, and so has really taken Fly" with
all the aeroplanes set.
Mr.. Maxim's flying machine, simply
speaking, consists of a,framework which
supports an engine and propellers which
are intended to send the machine along a
track horizontally With this are ar
ranged number of sails to act as aero
planes, which it is believed, and is prob
ably proved now, will lift the machine
from the ground as soon as a certain num-
Der Of revolutions OF the propellers per
minute is attained. The framework is
built of steel tubing and is so
light that length of it taken in the hand
gives the same shock of surprise as does a
piece of aluminium, which Mr.. Maxim con-
siders far inferior to steel for purposes of
strength. All the ropes and ties are of
the best steel also, capable of standing a
strain Of 200 tons to the square inch. The
body of the machine is practically oblong
in shape, with the forepart cut away like
a waterchute boat, and long counter at
the stern, over which the propeIlers re-
volve.. 1t has canvas stretched all over
it, and wooden grating TO walk on. Four
strong Hanged wheels run on a pair of
oad-gauge rails.
USE OF THE AERoPLANEs.
So far the description might have
served for a skeleton locomotive. What
transforms it into flying machine is the
aeroplane. This is made of fine balloon
cloth. High overhead, like a gigantic
awning, is the main acceptance tilted to-
%
and stretched taut. The area of this is
100 square feet. This is increased by
side wings to 200 square feet, the total
width of the umbrella being 150 feet. But
besides these there are side aeroplanes
arranged in three tiers, and large aero
planes in front which are pivoted, and
serve for vertical steering.
When moving on the rails on the lever
the machine runs with almost incredible
swiftness. When going full speed the en-
gines give 425 revolutions per minute to
the gigantic propellers that drive the
machine along. These are in appearance
like two-bladed marine Dropellers, except
that they are square instead of rounded
at the ends, and are broad and thin.
They are built up out of overlapping
strips of American pine, planed smooth
and covered with glued canvas. The pro-
pellers weigh 1856 pounds each the length
of the blade is close on Is feet, the width
at the ends 81 feet, the pitch
is 16 feet and the maximum thrust they
give is ABOUT 1000 pounds measured on
dynamometer. They are carefully stayed
by steel wires TO their own shafts, or the
first revolution would snap them short
of. The propellers are by no means the
least wonderful part of this wonderful
machine and were evolved out OF endless
experiments. Arranged as a trophy in
side Mr.. MaXim's house are no less than
thirty-two different models of propcllers
of every sort and shape, which were used
i'll making the experiments.
INGENIOUS MACHINERY.
The machinery for developing and APP
plying power is one of the most ingenious
bits of steam engineering to be seen 1t
consists of a novel water-tube boiler,
built of asbestos cloth at the sides and
the thinnest sheet steel on top The
water is contained in about 1900 bent
copper tubes only three-eighths inch in
diameter, heated by over 1000 gas Jets
arranged in rows. The fuel is naphtha
or gasoline, which is stored in liquid
form and pumped into a vaporser which
transforms il into gas and supplies it at a
high pressure. All manner of cunning
lodges are associated with this fuel
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