Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-07-22

Another event of interest in the
field Of aerOnautics will be the trial Of
the machine invented by John S.
Praul, q model of which has been
built for the inventor by the Baldwin
locomotive works. A test made with
the model is said to have shown a
lifting power OF twice it's own weight.
This machine, unlike that Of Prof
Barnard, does not use aerOplanes, the
only approach to planes being two
wide vanes attached to either side for
steering. The machine is an exact
cylinder to within a very short dis
lance OF its ends, where it tapers to
blunt points.
P1aul will use hot air and LIQUID
fuel, though the machine shop test
was made on the pipes used in testing
locomotives. His largest machine will
be built in few months. 1t will be of
nickel steel and Observation-Disclosures,
wings, vanes and all. The cylinder
will be fifteen feet from tip to tip and
three feet in diameter. The wings,
two at each end, will be fourteen feet
long and four feet wide, tapering at
the ends like a birds. The lower
framework, under the cylinder, in
which the engineer and pilot will work,
will give the machine a total height,
from working platform to top of cylin-
der of eight feet The engines, one in
each end of the cylinder, each operat-
ing one pair of wings, will have about
100 horse power, and will give the
wings about 400 turns a minute With
nickel, steel and aluminium, Praul de-
clares, the machine will have total
weight Of not more than ten pounds to
the horse power.
Though Maxim and Langley both
succeeded in holding in air 40 pounds
per horse power in laboratory tests
ana sixty or seventy pounds in actual
practice, Praul has built his model and
will build his flyer on a basis of only
thirty pounds per horse power, and
this, with 1000 pounds allowance for
the machine itself, will let him carry
2,000 pounds extra weight.
The wings on each end of the ma
Sl~lhC SlNS d LII Wdlu lllOI1OIl duu
slightly upward; the influence of the ,
steering yanes turns the forwards to
upward or sideWise movement. The
front and back wings, while both in
clined to give forward push, move
in opposite directions and are geared
through the cylinder, SO that they
make an equal number of revolutions.
hn n OF
speed, but have a beat like that of
birds wing. The circle they describe
is divided into two parts, one-quarter
and three-Quarters, the smaller one
being directly above the center. The
down stroke is the driving one and is
given with three times the speed of
the return. That is, the wing on the
left travels the whole of the lower arc
while the one Oh the right moves over
the shorter arc. The shafts pass di
rectly through the center of the engine
and at the Otner side are attached to
an eccentric. The governor keeps the
| two wings in the thTee-and-One rela
| ton, both as to positiC n and speed,
controlling on same shafts the stroke
of the engine. The engine has two pis-
tens. They do not plunge in a cylin-
| der, but revolye in it, both round the
same center. Speed is cont oiled by
! the generator under the cylinder
! There is no need for a brake, the re-
sistance Of the air serving for that
need. Praul denies that a motion
; varying 50 in speed and changing 400
times a minute will rock his machine
or strain it. The air, he declares, will
act through the wings-as a cushion,
softening the shock of the rapid alter
nations of speed. He has been build
ms engines for twenty years, hoping
to produce one that would suit a
flying machine. His generator is on
the same principle as that of the
Duryea motor carriage and the Bray
ton engine of England. He believes
that, aside from even horseless car
1iages and flying machines, the COM
ing motor is the hot air engine.
The car will be steered by vanes on