The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-18
UP-To-DATE IDEAS.

People familiar with recent attempts TO con-
struct practicable flying machine regard
Lawrence Hargrave of Sydney, n. s. W., as one
OF the most intelligent and progressive expert
menters OF the day, says the New YORK tribune
Not only has he made about q score OF small
devices, which will actually fly when launched
but he has also given mnch attention to the
perplexing question: How shall an airship,
Dig enough to carry human passengers and
susceptible of being navigated safely when
once ahoat, make its start and effect landing
without injury to itself or its occupants? One
OF MS solutions of the problem is to have some
large Kites, suitably anchored, kept flying
from stout ropes and use these latter as hitch
lng-posts, both at departure and on arrival. 1t
would De an easy matter to hoist the machine
from the earth in the former case to such moor
lngs and to lower it gently therefrom in the
latter.
The sort of kite which he devised for this pur-
pose he designated as Cellular" He began
three or four years ago with two square card
poard boxes, without top or bottom, tipped up
on one side and mounted one behind the other
on night stick, so that one cell was at short
distance from the other, and one could look
right through the two, when one end of the
thing was presented to ones gaze. The whole
1aorlcatlon weighed only few ounces. The
string was attached TO the connecting stick,
sometimes at the middle, but usually quite
close to the one cell; and the kite foated end
wise, almost horizontally, in the air, its rear
extremity sagging only little. The top and
bottom OF each cell was then an aeroplane
which, when at small angle with the wind,
would be lifted thereby. Several notifications
OF the original design have been made, but
without changing the principle. Mr.. Hargrave
now reports, in letter to Engineering, an ad-
dltlonal step in his investigation. With several
cellular Kites of greater size, strength and lift
ing power than were sought at first, he has
been able to lift himself up in the air fifteen or
twenty feet; and this achievement inspires
him with greater confidence than ever in the
ultimate practical success of aeronautic
science.
In the new kites the atsurfaces are of cheap
cotton CLOTH American redwood was used for
the ribs and other parts of the frame. Two
rods, instead of one, connected the cells And
the contrivance was put together so that it
could be collapsed and rolled up for convent
ence IN transportation. The four kites used in
the recent experiments varied in size ana had
the following dimensions Height, from 2 to
~ feet; breadth, to feet, and length, from
to feet The open space between the cells
was much narrower in proportion than in his
earlier kites. The distance between them was
about the same as the fore-and-aft length of a
single cell. The string by which the kites were
flown was manila clothesline and was at
tached to the under side of the frame about
one-fourth of the distance from the forward
edge The kites were sent up tandem, at inter-
walls OF forty or fifty feet the smallest one first
Exactly how they were connected is not stated
but 1t seems probable that the rope from the
uppermost came down diagonally through the
open belt OF the second, and that short cord