The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-12-04
Two Men Come to Grief in
a Forty Foot Mys-
terry.
1T IS RUN BY GAS AND ELEC-
TRICITY.
Speculation as TO Where It Came
From-The Owners Very
Reticent.

An airship built of galvanized sheet
steel, forty feet long, caused much excite
ment among the people on the Mission
hills last evening. They saw it sail over the
Twin Peaks and then getting out of order
In some way it made wild plunge into a
guIch 200 yards south of the Corbett road,
near what is known as Stanford Heights.
Its two occupants were turned out OF
the cockpit in which they stood and
landed badly bruised in the bottom of the
gulch.
When seen late at night by two CALL
reporters the huge metal affair presented
pitiable appearance.
The propeller was twisted and bent; one
elevating fan was ripped off and lay on the
ground, while the other was badly twisted
from the force of the shock.
A large hole in its side permitted the
escape of sickish smelling gas. The
steering apparatus, rudder as it was called,
which had been on the bow was also
broken off,
AS stated, the machine was about forty
feet long and was of cylindrical shape.
with both ends cone-shaped.
Near by stood one of the bold, but un-
lucky aeronauts, J. d. de Gear of 538 Full
ton street.
He looked woefully at the wreck, and
thanked his lucky stars that he was still
alive. The other man, the inventor, had
disappeared as soon as he found that no
! bcpas were broken
Dr. Gear positively refused to reveal the
name of the inventor.
DR.. Gear upon being pressed told in sub
stance the following story of the airship
and the accident:
II am a tin-roofer and metal-worker,
and the inventor who has the money is
well-educated man. Some time ago we
decided to build an airship, and we built
this one in the Mission. We put it to-
gether up the hill back OF here in a clump
of trees
"This was our first attempt to make
fight. The hydrogen gas used is made
from muriatic acid, and the fans and pro-
pellers are ope rated by electricity.
This evening the inventor and l started
out from the hill up yonder to see how it
would work, but after we got started we
failed to rise over ten feet from the
ground, as the metal of the fans was too
thin for the work they had to do.
''In short time we saw we had trouble
we went.
81 can't describe the sensation better
than to say it was feeling similar to that
one has when he had a nightmare and
dreams that he is falling.
you see we started high up the hill so
our downward fight was very long, or so
it seemed to US. But we were in for it and.
did not have very long to wait
when we struck we struck hard in the
soft ground, and the force of our fight
carried US over and into the gulch, where
we were thrown. to the bottom of the
ditch.
s'No, / will not tell who the inventor in
nor where it was built. We are not dis
couraged, for we know we can fly when
this is perfected. 1t needs Strengthening"
'sIs this one of the ships seen over the
City with electric lights etc. ?" was asked.
mo, it is not. We don't know anv of
the people connected with the airshina
the papers have mentioned
..This is a private enterprise. D. the
luck" and he scraped chunk of mpd on
his coat.
The first news of the unfortunate airsh;r
was obtained from Emile H. Lanlaca WIZ
has a milk ranch on the Corbett road
about 200 yards from whore the airsb;n
Les. In his words ne said:
81 was about to go to bed when heard
a h OF a noise down the pasture. It