Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-12-04
Aerial Navigation.

- '''iN ilAtlC N'luDl i'll lllll
the realm Of the air will he the next
field for scientific discovery, and that
before another decade the principle of
aerial navigation will be well under
stood and the reflective mind filled
with wonder that the problem had re-
manned 81 long unsolvcd. This j. Ow-
ing mainly To the fact that scientific
discovery runs in cycles. The bent of
inquiry has been running the past age
in the line of electrical possibilities.
One invention t. utilize this occult
force, has led to others, and there has
seemed to be absolutely no limit to
the wonders that have been brought
within the range OF practical utility.
The stimulus thus given to this
branch of inquiry has led to q cores
ponding neglect OF other fields, and
the wide range OF possibilities in aerial
locOmotion has suffered from the
withdrawal of inventive ingenuity and
its concentration upon the popular OBJ
ject of research.
1t seems, however, that such limits
have been reached in electrical discov-
cry that it is almost impossible to find
new objects to he subserved by further
advance, and attention is now becom-
ing concentrated upon some means of
navigating the air.
The latest and most successful de-
vices depart very radically from the
balloon-shaped receptacle for the lift
ing power, and consists mainly in cyl
inders containing the gas, or aero
planes placed at an angle which will
lift the machine Oh the principle of
the propeller-blade when motion is
impaired by some continuance under
control of the navigator.
One of the most remarkable inven-
tions of this nature is q cigars shaped
receptacle for the sustaining power,
constructed of thin sheets of alumni
mum, lately patented by S. B. Battey,
OF New York. A car is suspended ac-
commodating a dozen passengers.
The most remarkable thing about the
machine is its manner of propulsion,
which consists of series of explosions
of nitro-glycerine. At the rear end is
a sort of cup that opens rearward,
into which pellets of that explosive
are dropped at the rate of six a min
ute, out of tube controlled by clock
work. Each pellet in falling closes
in electric circuit developing a spark
which ignites and explodes it. The
explosion cup, besides imparting mo-
mentum, is turned to the right or left,
for the purpose of steering.
In this connection, we reproduce
the champion story of the season,
which, if true, leaves but little more
to be desired for covering all the es-
sential qualifications for an aerial mo-
tor. 1t is told by John A. Koran, an
electrician in the employ of the Elec-
trio improvement Co. of San Jose,
Cal. Koran is himself an inventor
and he went to San Francisco, last
week, to exhibit an electric platinum
speaking apparatus to the inventor of
the air-ship. He says:
We went OH horseback to a point on
Sandy Beach, where the airship was, got
aboard and rose very high. The height
was registered by meter on the ship.
The inventor does not count the dis
lance by miles, but by degrees.
After leaving the starting point
Thursday afternoon, Nov. 25th, we trav-
eled westward, and before daybreak the
next morning saw lights, The inventor
said they were the lights of Honolulu.
We turned east and about Saturday
evening at dark landed near where we
started.
"The airship arose by means of two
propellers, the movement being noise
less and swift. The inventor is As years
old. l cannot now tell any news, but
the motive power is not steam or cleo
tricity. 1t is a wonderful machine and
can be stopped and made to stand still
in the air anywhere ami comes down
lightly as feather"
The San Jose paper from which this
extract is made, vouches for the fact
that Koran made trip to San Fran
cisco on Thanksgiving day, and that
he is handwriting, sober man, who
sticks to his narrative with remarkable
persistency.