The San Francisco call., 1896-11-23
AN EXPERTS OPINION.
Lieutenant George NJ Chase
y. s. A., Talks of the Won
derful Discovery

u. s. A., Talks OF the Won
derful Discovery.
Lieutenant George N. Chase, U. s. A.,
the inventor of an "aerodromic system of
transportation, was seen yesterday on
the subject at his residence III Oakland
Mr.. Chase has spent many years in in
vestlgating the subject of aerial naviga-
tion, and is thoroughly conversant with
the practical and theoretical difficulties
in its way. He has written q pamphlet
setting forth his ideas, and outlining a
sort of compromise between aerial navi-
CATION and the present system of trans
portation. which many engineers have
accepted as in the highest sense practical.
He said yesterday: II have read some
of the accounts of the alleged 'airship.'
One in a morning paper yesterday was
rather confusing. The attorney for the
inventor in his statement says that it is
$50 feet long, and that the inventor
moved some of the mechanism and
thereafter he saw it rise, the wings flap
ping to height of about 80 fest, making
series of circles, and descend, etc. He
says also: There was no motive power.
so far as could see.' For a pstent attor-
ney who made the application for the
patent and drew up the specifications
this is remarkable statement. He says
that his client has 'forsaken the ideas of
Maxim and Langley and yet atates that
1T is built on the aeroplane sy STEM the
only system ever advocated by either-a
system which showed in my plonogra pn
published in st. Louis in 1894 was the
only possible one. AS said then:
Experiment has demonstrated the fact that
1T is possible to construct a vehicle possessipg o
the ability to arise in the air, carrying a con-
siderable load, and capable OF being propelled
The obstacles that have SO far bsffied mans
ingenuity are his ability to control the ma
chine even under the most favorable circum-
stances and his failure to provide energy
enough to propel 1t to any considerable dis
tance. This latter difficulty cannot be over
come by any known method of storing nm No.
tential energy in structure which is designed
to sever all connection with terra frma and
in which levity becomes OF primal import.
ance. Flight is not function of
levity but of weight and power Man If he
ever fly must closely initiate the fight of
birds. The iedgeling, after one or two abor-
tive attempts, adjusts its motions successfully
and naturally to the accomplishments of per-
feet flight. The rate of vibration of its wings
and the inclination of their surfaces to the
varying direction of the wind to the line of
fight are instinctively changed with the ra-
pidity of lightning. Giuen a machine which
is capable of performing all the essential
functions of a bird in flight it is extremely
doubtful if the coolest human intellect could
ever be trained to control it safely under all
the conditions and circumstances which. sit
must inevitably encounter.
while I said," continued Mr.. Chss Sc,
"that the conditions seem too many, or,
rather the unknown quantities are at
present too few. for satisfactory solution
of this problem pure and simple, still it
must be conceded that considerable
progress has been made since that was