Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-23

his signal corps upon a footing relatively
eminent. The balloon house will be con-
structed of corrugated iron and will be sur
mounted by an arched roof. 1t will be 100
feet long, sixty feet high and fifty feet
wide. generous door swinging inward
from the front will allow space forty feet
colossal occupant. This substantial dragon
pen will be lighted by electricity. Because
of the danger of ignition and explosion of
escaping gas. no open lamps will be per-
United in or near the structure.
Telegraph and Phone Combined.
The administration building. adjacent to
the balloon house. will contain offices,
laboratory and quarters for a new school
Of military aeronauts and signalers In
the laboratory will be tested cables and
wires needed in the manipulation Of the new
airship. balloon and field telephones, tele-
graph instruments and various new devices
For the Dragon especially there will be
perfected here an ingenious apparatus
whereby the observer aloft in Its basket
may be kept in constant telephone and
Geographic connection with officers below
The observer, while managing in one hand
his powerful field glass and surveying the
outmoSt edges of the horizon herewith
will utilize in the other an instrument COM
bining in one piece of mechanism the func-
tons of a receiver and transmitter, both
telephone and Geographic. From saucer
shaped mouthpfece held before his lips will
rise handle like that of a dipper, having
an earpiece at its upper extremity. Grasp
ing the handle of this continuance the OBJ
server will rest his finger upon an electric
button, with which he may telegraph in the
dot-and-dash code. dispatching down the
connecting wire a peculiar buzzing whistle
audible to the receiver below. This unique
method OF telegraphy will be relied upon
IN an emergency forbidding use of the sim
pie telephonic powers of the device. A
reel, controlled from the ground will un-
wind $500 meters of insulated cable con-
Meeting this instrument with its exact du-
plicate on the ground.
In the school department OF the new ad-
ministration building Major Stevens will
supervise regular courses of instruction IN
aerOnautics, gas generation, signaling with
flags. lanterns, photographs and electric or
acetylene lights. balloon photography.
telegraphy, telephony. construction of per-
manent and battlefield telegraph and tele-
phone lines, use and care of batteries, dyna-
mos and motors and repair of Instruments
and equipment. 1t is further proposed to
pursue some novel experiments bearing
upon the accuracy with which high explo-
sives, such as dynamite prepared in hand
grenade form, may be dropped from war
balloons during varying degrees of wind
velocity and In the presence of other en-
vironmental conditions. The Dragon will
be equipped to exhibit signal flags over
mountains. forests and other high obstruc-
tons.
Dragons Keeper n Parachutist.
Eight officers and 900 enlisted men will
be needed In the signal corps newly organ
lied central station, with its balloon house.
schools and laboratory. The practical man
of the establishment and Its chief aeronaut
will be Sergeant Ivy Baldwin who has
been balloonist for twenty years. Pre-
vlous TO his entering the signal corps OF
the army he pursued his perilous profess
sion, here and abroad. for exhibition pur-
poses. He has assembled high as three
miles In ordinary balloons and has made
parachute jumps Of 10000 feet. With the
aid of his wife, who stitched 1t together
with her own hands, he constructed the
now famous Santiago balloon, and TO him
will fail the honor of being the first human
freight of the great Dragon when il is
launched with due ceremony into the peril
Gus currents Of the upper air
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS JR