Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-10-09
NEW AIRSHIP.
Navigates the Air, Sea, or Glides
Overland.
THAT is WHAT is CLAIMED FOR 1T.
This Latest Ambitious Inventor Would
Copy the Flight of Birds-Con-
trolled by a Motor.
HAT is WHAT is CLAIMED FOR 1T.

The anci ent astronomers who named
the consultations were but prophets of
later age. They placed wagon in
the heavens, and the strange, smor.
phous creation which strikes the reader
is confirmation of their poetic fore
sight.
1t is not intended to represent the IA
nous wooden horse of Troy, nor the
hybrid gods of ancient Babylon or
Nineveh. Neither is it taken from
some geological treatise-the recon-
structed remains of some extinct
species of a remote period. No, Won
dering reader, it constitutes an idea
for a universal motor vehicle, designed
to skim along the ground, to wing its
way through the air, and to navigate
river, lake or sea as occasion may re-
quire. This is the cherished scheme
of learned natural philosopher and
inventor, who for many years has been
studying the problem of aerial flight
and terrestrial locomotion.
The inventor believes that previous
Investigators in aerial navigation have
erred in adopting as their prototype in
nature the fish instead of the bird.
They have been trying to build air.
ships propelled by screw propellers and
similar devices, or to utilize balloons,
which expose large surface of resist
ance to the wind and are, therefore, at
its mecry. The bird. on the other
hand, goes with or against the current.
The little gosling can teach the phil
osopher valuable lesson in land loco
motion, for even before it can fly
through the air, it accelerates it's prog
ress in the water and on the land by
the use of its wings. Yet up to the
present time no stu udent of the motor
vehicle problem seems to have thought
of applying mechanical wings to the
propulsion of vehicles
So, disoarding all previous theories,
this inventor begins by making an in-
dependent study of the wings of insects
and birds, with the object Of determin-
ing how they fly, and what is the pre-
else sustaining power of their wings.
In looking over the winged kingdom
his attention was arrested by the duck.
which waddles on the land, swims in
the water and flies in the air. The
whistle winged duck in particular is a
wonderful example of wing power
Though its wings are comparatively
smaller than those of other fowls, they
carry its body at very high velocity
at the ratio of about three to five
pounds of sustaining power to each
square foot of wing surface. Some in
sects' wings show even more remark
able sustaining power than this. The
duck, seeming to afford the best ex-
ample for a universal vehicle, the in
ventor takes this fowl as his model.
elongating the body somewhat to suit
it to his purpose.
The length of the body of the vehicle
represented is twenty feet, the breadth
four feet and the height six feet. The
weight is estimated at 400 pounds, and
it is intended to carry four persons. In
front is the elevated outlook, from
which the pilot can govern the move
ments of the vehicle, and back of this
is passageway for ingress and egress.
Five pairs of wings, four to five feet
wide and five to seven feet long, CIV
ing total of about 275 feet of surface,
extend along the upper part of the
machine. These wings have an alum
mum frame work supporting prepared
palm leaf or other like material of ex-
treme toughness and lightness, and
each wing are eight or ten
parachute valves or oval underfaps.
acting like the feathers under a birds
wing, which give momentum when
the wing is raised, and buoyancy with
when the wing is lowered.
Oscillating shoulder joints. with in
clining air-cushion pivot joints near
the shoulders tor active propulsion, at
tach the wings to the body of the ve-
hicle. From close computation of
the wing surface, and comparison
with the buoyancy of bird and insect
wings, the inventor concludes that the
vehicle would sustain weight of from
/ 900 to 400 pounds.
But the wings are not the only Gu
rious thing about this modern Pegasus,
if such it may be called. Passing
over the three Wholesome in front
and two behind-which are provided
for land travel, we come to the three
vibrating and revolving fins-two at
the rear and one in front-to propel
and guide the vehicle in water and
also in air. These fins, which are
modelled after the fins of a fish, are
made of flexible metal and are about
three or four feet in length. When
not in use-i. e., on land-they are to
be folded up against the body of the
vehicle, but in the air or water they
drop below the body, and are actuated
sideways by the same power that
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