Sistersville oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1896-1901, 1898-03-30

was only stored up force or spring.
So was liquid air. What was needed
was motor which would carry man
OF journey.
When / asked Mr.. Chanute what the
utilities of the flying machine were, he
answered that they were rather few,
but he did not accept my comparison Of
the search for it with the hunt for the
north pole.
cit will be used for exploration, he
laid. Stanley could have crossed At
RIGA with flying machine in week.
1t will be used for war purposes, and |
believe it will make nations less will
ing to enter on warfare with one anoth-
er. 1t is essential to the conddct of a
battle that the commander should be
we'll protected-that he should occupy
sheltered position at one side, where
lie can direct operations without danger
to himself and send his soldiers to car
~ out his Plans His position will not
be so desirable when it is possible for
the enemy to send flying machine to
drop a bit of dynamite on him, and
rulers will not be so anxious to go into
war.
The Speed Element.
"Of course it is not possible for the
flying machine, operated on SO thin a
supporting medium as the air, to COM
pete commercially with other carriers.
The load it can bear will be at best
light, and the expense of carrying this
load will be heavy. But the flying ma
chine will be capable of attaining a
speed possible to no other carrier. Speed
is an essential element of flying. The
faster the machine goes the less, within
certain limits, is the expenditure Of
power. Man will undoubtedly reach
eventually speed of 100 miles an hour
or more in the air. The swallow, you
know, flies at the rate of $50 miles an
hour, the swift at 200. We have never
been allie accurately to measure the
weight of the motor-that is, the mus
cles-of birds to the horsepower devel-
oped, but it is something between 6
and 20 pounds"
Mr.. Chanute said, in answer to a
question, that he had spent about $1O,-
900 in his experiments-$5, 900 on pre-
lininary work aud So, 600 on apparatus.
All of this has cCp:e out Of his own
pocket. He does not expect to get any
return for it unless some credit may at
tach hereafter to what he has done for
the science of aeronautics. He says the
only persons who will make any money
out of flying machines will be the men
who make sporting machines, for he
thinks the most common use Of the fly
ing machine will be in trials of skill
and speed. The act of flying through the
air is very exhilarating, and he believes
the sport will be popular when it has
been made reasonably safe.
Mr.. Chanute's chief experiments have
been conducted on the lake shore about
80 miles from Chicago. His chief assist
ant for long time was Mr.. Herring.
Mr.. Herring has now gone off by him
self, and recently he accomplished the
longest flight that has ever been made
in America, using machine OF the
type with which Mr.. Chanute has been
experimenting. His record-927 feet
does not equal that of Lilienthal, how
ever. Lilienthal made one or more
flights of 1000 feet.
Not Flying, but Gliding.
Mr.. Chanute does not call it flying.
He says that his experiments are "glid-
ing experiments. The motor he uses is
the constant force of gravity, and his
machines have been tried always on the
side of hill. The hill was "a feet high,
but the highest point to which Mr..
Chanute has gone is 81 feet. From that
point a glide was made Of $50 feet. The
machine has travelled at the rate Of 81
miles an hour through the air.
One of the problems which seemed
most formidable when Mr.. Chanute be-
gan his experiments was the problem of
stopping at will. 1t might be easy
enough to launch yourself on an aero
plane from the side of hill. But how
about the stopping at the bottom? That
question was answered by watching the
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