Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-03-08


 ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATIONS WITH BE
 sIEeED FORT.
 If the wind is stronger I simply allow myself to be lifted from the point of the hill and to sail slowly toward the wind. At the climax of such a line Of fight 1 sometimes come to a standstill for short period, so that am enabled while floating to speak to gentlemen who are photographing me, relating to the best position for taking the picture. I have made thousands of experiments with in the last five years, and have had no accidents whatever, excepting a few scratches
 MT. Means says that the Liiienthal machine is to flying what the wheel of 1916 was to the pneumatic safety biz cycle of 1896. The Lilienthal machine seems likely to lead to important things, yet there are men who say of the inventor: file cannot fly up. he can only fly down. he is a parachutist, flying squirrel, he has not solved the great problem True, he has not solved it, but he has given a. partial solution. It is not unlikely that men of 1916 regarded the wheel of that day as some now regard the Lilienthal soarer. They probably considered the 'bile" a good thing for coasting down hill, but not practical for travelling as one could not climb hills with the things. Lilienthal flies not only down, but also up. His course as a whole is downward. The only reason that his course is not as whole upward is that he has not yet completed his apparatus for giving constant energy.
 Although quite a number of steam flying machines have been constructed. and many of them have been furnished with both light and powerful engines, they have nearly all failed from one or more of three causes; imperfect control of the angle at which the surfaces were presented in flight, improper balancing or unstable equilibrium.
 A. M. Hern,ing says that he construct ed in 1891 model provided with a set of compound steam engines, supplied with an aluminium tubing condenser, exposing about nine square feet of sur face. The engines, with their pumps, circulator, shafting, boiler, boiler covec- ing furnace and tanks complete, but not including the condenser, weighed less than one pound, and delevoped a little over ? 1-10 horse power. The con- denser, with it's joints and connections complete, weighed only a little more than three-fourths of a pound. The total weight of the apparatus was five pounds, and the surface was IA square feet. The machine succeeded several times in raising itself from the ground, with it's fuel and supplies, and without any outside aid whatever, even in start ing, and MT. Herring succeeded in get ting it to little over 240 feet. It sus- tained trifle more than 30 pounds per horse power, and had it not been de- stroyed by the explosion of it's regulator would have enabled the model to carry at the rate of 30 to 60 pounds per horse power. Mr. Herring believes that the air will be navigated by steam long be- fore man will be able to soar like the birds in aeroplanes.
 MT. Hiram s. Maxim, the inventor of the famous gun which bears his name, and who has devoted much time and thought to the question of flying ma- chimes, contributes some interesting facts to the literature bearing on this subject. He spent about three years in studying the habits of birds, especially soaring birds, with the view of applying 4<>4 4J,. tion of a flying machine. He says:
 "The first experiments which con ducted were with an apparatus which travelled around sl circle 200 feet in cir and by mounting somede1i- cate anemometers directly under the path of the apparatus ascertained that after it had been travelling at a high velocity for | few seconds, there was a well defined air current blowing down. ward around the whole circle, so that my planes in passing forward must have been influenced and their lifting effect reduced somewhat by this downward current. Ny late experiments are the first which have ever been made with an apparatus on a large scale moving in a straight line. A flying machine to be of any value must of necessity be large enough to carry at least one man, and the larger the machine the smaller the factor of the mans weight. Moreover, it is possible to make machines of say from 200 to 400 horse power, lighter per unit of power than very small en- zines from one to two horse power"
 WILLIAM E. BRY ANT.