The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-06-29
The Air Ship Again.


Report again credits Professor S. p.
Langley, of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, with having solved the flying ma
chine problem. In 1896 he managed to
fly little on the Potomac river, but
the distractions to continued flight
were such that he resolved to retire his
aerodrome from view until these should
be overcome. Now, we are told he has
utilized aluminium in construction work
and liquid air for motor power and
hopes of success is rapidly mounting
upward. This description of the remod-
eled machine is taken from a Wash
ington letter in the Times Herald:
THE machine is built largely of alum
mum, and the body or car is about
twenty-five feet long, six feet wide and
eight feet deep. The car tapers at each
end and is well supplied with windows.
Entrance is effected through two door
ways, one on either side of the forward
end of the car. These doors lead di-
rectly into the main room of the car.
For an extended trip this main room
will be fitted out with hammocks, cook
ing utensils and other articles of the
kitchen and sleeping-room that the
traveller would find necessary and con-
venient Back of this room is a second
apartment which secretly holds the
vital organism of the new aerial mon
ster. Here it is where the liquefied air
is developed which has been utilized
Inc htyT
fessor Langley 1t furnishes power to
the engine; it reduces to a liquid the
buoyant gases that are the initial lift
ing power Of the whole contrivance; 1t
supplies fresh air for the car at all
times, and is also an ever-ready re-
frigerant that will preserve fresh meats
and other foods most needed on a long
voyage in the air or on water. A linz
tied amount of this invaluable element
is stored under the floor of the car in
tanks. The liquid air not only runs the
twenty horsepower engine and per-
forms all the other services mentioned
above, but it enacts the miracle of re-
producing itself in sufficient quantities
to increase rather than to decrease it's
bulk and power.
THE engine, of course, is a wonder
in itself of lightness, compactness and
as a power producer. Though weigh
ing only forty-seven pounds, it serves to
drive the aerodrome at the speed of at
least 100 miles an hour, and can oper-
ate at the same time a small dynamo,
to which it can be easily geared. The
| current from this dynamo supplies the
few lamps required in the car with the
| lighting fluid; it also will be used for
| purposes of signaling; also for heat
| ing the cooking ranges, and most of all
| perhaps, it will be employed to reduce
| to a gaseous form those buoyant gases
| which have been liquefied in order tC
transfer lighting power into weight
Back of the engine-room is the storage.
room, having ample space for all pro.
visions and even additional freight and
gearing that would be used in a Ions
| journey. The so-called pilot house oc.
cupies the forward end next to the
main or entrance room. Slightly abaf
of amidships on the outside of the ma
| N'''''N va N'NAANi SlhN are lUt DduQlt
wheels that at 1000 revolutions pel
minute are calculated to produce tht
100 miles an hour speed. The paddl,
wheels are feet 6 inches in diameter
and are made Of aluminium, with stee
braces.
"Above the wheels and extend nl
from end TO end Of the machine in
curve that slightly droops toward tn,
rear are the wings or sails. Each sal
extends twenty-four feet from the sid
Of the car. and considering the widtl
VI the car, six feet, the total width o
the aerodrome from the tip of it's wing
is hfty-four feet. Professor Langley
after years Of study of the flight O
birds, has taken the wings of the al
batross for his model, and he has fount
by experiment that this form gives
lifting power nearly three times a
great as that of the plane surface. Il
this feature alone is found one of tn
most distinct improvements over tn
original machine, In the stern
mounted a double rudder. one operat
ing to raise or lower the air vessel