The San Francisco call., 1897-06-19
nBUILT Like A
BIRD, " THEY SAY
A Steel : Tubed Fledgling
Provided With Wings
of Silk.
Two Local Inventors Believe
They Have a Real Fly.
ing Machine.
BuSily at Work on Their Inven ntion
Almost in the Heart of
the City.

A flying machine built like a bird, as
its inventors declare, is in an advanced
stage OF construction in temporary work
shop at Killip's stockyard on Market
street, opposite Eleventh. Little remains
but for silken wings 10 sprOut, under the
careful direction OF the mechanic in
charge, and then, ''if everything is all
right" the birdie ought TO fly.
Leonard E. Clawson, the Market-street
tile and pipe dealer. and Adam Beck. a
contractor of this City, are the parties
interested in the flying machine. Four
months ago they applied for a patent on
their invention, and since then much of
their attention has been devoted to their
STEEL to bed fedgling. The machine con-
sists essentially of four parallel rods, each
twenty feet long, working on ball-bearings,
and being supported on a steel-tubing
frame braced with bicycle wire.
A series of double wings is arranged on
each of the parallel rods, the wings being
so placed that when one is rising closed
1be other is descending open. Thus at
any instant half the wings are pressing
downward while the other half Is rising,
but not pressing upward. In case of ac-
cideht the entire wing-surface immedi
ately forms parachute.
The wings will consist of a framework
of steel wire covered with silk. The rods
which form the axes of these wings work
on ball bearings and only turn partly
around. The wings are adjusted at
angle TO the longitudinal plane of the ma
chine IN order to secure forward move
meut. The steering apparatus is a rudder
arranged so as 10 give direction up or
down, 20 the left or right
The power fo- working the wings is sup
n ed hNra in ha Ga orl- N la
connected by wires with the framework of
the wings. These treadles are of ash and
extend longitudinally with the direction
OF the machine. The weight OF the whole
machine will be about 100 pounds. The
greatest measurements are: Length, %
feet; wild. h from tip 10 tip of the wings, I5
feet; height, about 10 feet.
The builders expect to be ready for
their trial trip within several weeks. They
have kept the machine securely locked up
from the curious eye in the workshop on
Market street, and few have SUSPECTED
what was going on in the innocent-looking
shed in kIiliD & Co. s yard. The two in
ventors have visited the shop often and
directed the work personally. Several i'm
provements have been made upon the
original design and the inventors are conf
dent that they will be able to soar heaven
ward with the machine when completed.
The only thing necessary said L. E.
Cla wson yesterday, sis 10 get sufficient
power without too much weight and we
think we have obviated this difficulty.
We have copied nature all the way
through. When birds wing is going up
the feathers are turned so the air can pass
through, and similarly in our machine
the wings, when rising, admit the passage
Of the air through them. A greet m any
attempts have been made at flying ma
chimes with rigid wings, but, of course,
the resistance to these "a they rise coun-
teracts their pressure as they are forced
down.
I'VE are not in this as business ven
tGre-we have no company nor sny shares
of stock TO sell. 1t is an experiment we
are both interested in, and we are putting
up our own money for il. OF course, if the
machine Is q success we shall manufacture
more, and when made in quantity the cost
ought not to be much over 500 piece"