The evening times., 1896-08-24

the ship was at that altitude.
Had it not been foT this break Mr.. Lam
sou wouli have sent up a man to navigate
his snip. AS il was, ". A. E Idly OF Bayonne,
y j., an authority or aerial experiments,
declared that Lamson's achievement WAS
the greatest step toward solving the prob
lem OF aerial navigation o, the age. Two
records, at all events, Lamson made. He
flew the largest kite o. airshp ever float
ed. lie carried by means of this kite the
heaviest weight TO the greatest altitude on
record.
SHIP SAILED SKYWARD.
Mr. Lamson has been an experimenter
in kite flying and construction for a long
time. He has been in constant correspond
ence with LilIenthal and other noted au-
thorities for many years. The kite which
made the flight is an invention OF Mr.
Lamson, and is called the Lamson air
ship"
The kite, when in the air, resembles two
large oblong boxes parallel TO each other
ald attached to each other in the middle
1t took fifteen men to carry the kite or
ship into the field from which it was 10
be sent up.
The retaining cord was a large braided
window cord tested 10 a pull OF 500
pounds. This was made fast tu a huge reel
and four men attended 10 it About 400
feet OF the rope was run out along the
ground, and at IL signal from Mr.. Lamson
the ship was released. 1t quivered a mo-
ment and then steadily rose skyward-
Seated onthe car Ofthe ship was dummy
weighted to so pounds. The ship carriedit
without any pertceptble jar. II rose to an
altitude of 600 feet. and was rising stead.
lily when with a sudden gust OF wind snap
went the rope, showing what a tremen-
| dous pressure was brought upon 1t by the
soaring of the ship.
The ship iloaIed out half nile and de-
| scended as easily and gracefully as Z went
up Had man been in the car he would
not have been harmed in the slightest
OLD IDEAS FOLLOWED.
Mr. Lanison i'll the construction Of this
| ship has followed some Of Mr.. Hargrave's
ideas. The point OF similarity between this
! kite and HarCrave's is in boxing the
ends and making II double, that is, with
| tive boxes or cells" as Ha rgrave calls
| them, with space letween. This style of
kite has great stability when in the air.
and when floating freely always settles
gently. like parachute.
Mr. Lamson built his airship after Har-
| graves general plan, but added improve
! ments OF his own to make it more manage
able in the enlarged form. In the first place.
the rear cells were hinged on pivots near
the center, so that Their angle OF inclina-
ION n reference to the wind and to one an
| other can be changed at WILL
The passenger, by manipulating lever,
1 ga N ba "a irSb bff m N ey.pn E.spl ka
it rise or fall and direct its course in COM
ing down. Lateral stecrin:; can be accom-
plished by changing the weight to either side
of the center, tie aerial vessel then turning
toward the side where the weight is greatest.
Each pair of wings is like the wings OF
bird. They are also ribbed fore and aft,
and covered so that the stream of air can
have its full lifting effect following the
curve from front to rear, and preventing
all shaking or Tapping of the fabric.
THEIR EXPECTATIONS REALIZED.
i Mr.. Lamson's plan OF jointing the aero
planes or aerocurves makes it possible to
attach the lying cord on a bowsprit- This
makes it much easier to float the great kite
than by Hargraves' plan. Mr. Clayton, oi
Blue Hill Observatory, estimated that the
kite would pull at least 500 pounds if it
were hung as Hargraves advises. but by Mr..
Lamson's arrangement the strain on the
cord is greatly reduced so that few men
can handle it in ordinary winds.
A heavy windlass loaded with sand-bag1
held the 1000 feet OF cord. All that was
necessary to raise the airship was to raist
its forward end a little and take short run
when it sailed up into 8le air like balloon
The ship presented n novel and beautiful
appearance as it scared gracefully above
the heads of 800 people, who stood gazing
with open mouths at this strange monster OF
the air. Nobody, tosee the kiieon theground
would ever imagine that it would ny in
mid-air, but Lamson demonstrated the fac
that II would. Mr.. Eddy and other authori
ties said that the performance exceeded
. anything that Lilienthal orr any formerlead
er in this work had done.
Mfr. Lamson was disappointed at the col
lapse ofthe rope, but was pleasedat the sue
cess OF the experiment. He said:
DEFENDS UPON THE BREEZE.
'The performance of my airship sat
sfies me beyond all question that the shiI
in its present form will always ascend in {
fair breeze and will remain flying an.
length of time under favorable atmosphere
conditions; that a kite of this kind will sus
tain and carry man all night, and that TIL
latter can regulate the direction OF the kit
in the air and descend.
II do not mean that hecanpropel the kite
This renains to be discovered. butI meal
, that. taking advantage OF the air currents
he can guide the ship to a very large extent
} By means OF the guiding lever he can regr
) late the course up or down, and by shiftin
!. his weight hs can curve TO the right or left