Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-11-14
KULPARKER'S BALLOON.
BY LUKE SHARP.

Some time in his life every man in
vents flying machine, and it is well If
he gets safely through this mania while
he is yet boy. If the fever takes him
later in life he is certain to lose money
and reasonably sure of breaking his
neck. 1t is said that there is no law to
prevent a man making a fool of him
self, but in this case there is, and it is
the law of gravity, which was passed
previous to the time this country took
to making statutes, and it has never
been interfered with by Legislative
amendments, nor has it been overturned
by the action of q higher court, except,
perhaps, in the case of Elijah.
Most men who go in for ballooning
take tumble before they get through
with it, but Kulparker came to disaster
through remaining on the ground,
which was a unique experience in the
aerial business. l met Kulparker at a
health resort. He was there, he said,
for his nerves. His nerves had gone
back on him. He read to me an article
from Smiley's Microscopical Journal,
which article said that if you killed
bundle OF nerves and then got them to
die, you could see them through any
well-regulated microscope. 1t was
evident that Kulparker was now as
much interested in tho subject OF
nerves as he had formerly been in bal
looms.
MY nerves went wrong a few weeks
ago." he told me, land by the irony of
fate the doctor informed me that l
should go to Malaga in Spain and that
place would put me all right"
"Why the irony of fate?" l asked;
sand why didn't you go to Malaga in
stead of coming to this place"
\ He sighed and said it was all on &C
count of the Kulparker automatic bal
loon. When he said this was in the
unenyiable position of the questioner
who wanted to know how the other
man lost his leg, and was informed that
1t had been bitten off. / naturally
wanted to hear about the balloon, and
Kulparker was good enough to oblige
me, the account he gave being at once
an explanation of how he lost his nerve
and why he dared not go to Malaga.
Some men invent flying machines
merely because they want to fly; 9TH
ers, however, have humanitarian OBJ
jects in view, desiring to confer great
benefits upon their fellow beings. Kul-
parker belonged to the latter class. He
not only wanted to bestow lasting ben
efits, but also dynamite, upon his fell
low creatures. 1t would be little
rough on humanity at the beginning
even kulparker admitted this-but, as
1t would ultimately abolish war, he
Thought the experiment worth trying
as long as the dynamite did not fall on
his own head. Inventors are some
what prone, while benefiting the spe-
Tcies, to take good care that they do not
themselves come in for any of the dis
advantages. Such was KuIparker's in
tention, but it missed fire
The Kulparker automatic was very
much like other balloons except that it
had propeller attached which was
worked by compressed air. The COM
pressed air scheme was very ingenious,
IL understand it Alright. Ifwhat Kul-
parker says is true you can, with proper
machinery, compress something like a
continent of air into the size of drop
of water. This drop you can put into
a strong but light aluminium boiler, if
i may call it SO, and the drop expands
into a workable compressed air that
will run motor. If, therefore, you
have a bottle full of drops of COM
pressed air, and an automatic arrange
ment that will allow a drop to escape
into the boiler as needed, you have Mt
your disposal q tremendous amount OF
energy stored in small compass and OF
eomparatively NO weight ct all. which