The record-union., 1896-11-20
AIR FANCIES.

AIR FANCIES.
Considerable amusement and no hit
tie speculation has pervaded the COM
munfty for the last three days concern
Ing a supposed flying machine, which
1t is alleged passed over the city on
Tuesday night, operated by four men,
whose voices, say several witnesses,
could be heard. Hundreds of people
agree that a strange, strong light was
seen floating in the heavens for half
an hour, rising and falling, and moving
slowly. But there appears to be but
two or three who hold that they saw
the machine, and but one Of these gives
any rational description of it.
The story goes that the machine was
built near the city, and broke from its
moorings while being experimental
with, and that the riders were unable
to control the direction of it's move
ments. We take no stock in any OF
these stories for two sufficient reasons,
namely, that no such machine could be
built here or near here, and the matter
be kept a profound secret; secondly, II
any such machine came from anywhere
else the news -gatherers would have
learned Of it; besides there is no rea-
son why any inventor should be par
ticularly secretive about such thing.
The truth certainly is that strange
light was seen slowly floating above
the city and pursuing a rather erratlc
course Beyond that there is nothing
definite, and a light in the sky as de-
scribed is to be accounted for in sew
eral rational ways, disassoclated from
any flying machine. People are very
apt to, by the repetition Of tales, to
permit them to grow out OF all pro-
portion to the truth.
There was, we believe, no flying ma
chine In the business. The most Skilled
enthusiasts In aerial transportation
have been at work upon flying ma
chimes and navigable balloons for CEN
tury. In 1884 a fight Of eight miles
was successfully made by machlne
carrying several people who had IL un-
der perfect control, and made 1t rise
and fall at will Many other tests OF
ability to navigate the air have peeh
made. and some of them with fair sue
cess, but mostly with i'll and sometimes
fatal results to the experimenters.
In later days the experimenters have
nearly all settled down upon the prln-
cfpIe OF the areoplane, abandoning the
use of inflated spheres to sustain the
weight Of the navigators. They are
nearly all agreed that if man is to De
foated in the air it will be done on the
principle upon which the birds proceed
to mount
It will not do to laugh at the idea or
aerial navigation. 1t has been accom-
plished in a small way; it may be mace
practical in a large way. In this day
and age we should smile at scarce any
of the efforts of man to overcome the
laws of gravitation. But that there has
been anything new invented and OPP
Grated for aerial navigation in or near
this city and the people kept In pro-
found ignorance of it is absurd Bal
loon flights we have had in plenty, and
in them there is nothing novel.
No one went flying through the air
on Tuesday night on machine with a
powerful electric light. Nor were the
voices of the navigators heard. Those
who think they heard them were de-
ceived. Viewing the light above them
as it passed along they might very
easily associate sounds Of the human
voice heard near the locality of the
floating light, whether it was that of a
hot-air balloon, or was indeed gas
ballon sent up by some one, and which
is not uncommon as an amusement.
On the basis Of what is known, the
practical joker has probably built the
fanciful stories which filled the air Of
rumor and have led one San Francisco
paper to give q picture Of what the
so-called air ship looked like, and of the
means used to propel. The light was
seen; all else ts fancy or Joke, or i'm
aTination and joke combined.