Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-11-21
CONQUERlNG THE AIR
sANTOS-DuMONT CERTAINLY AC-
COMPOSITES THE FEAT.
AND TELLS ABOUT 1T
One Trip That Almost Had a Fatal
Endinq-Aeronaut Now After
Greater Weight-carrying Power
Everything About Aerial NaViga-
ton Vet New.

The story OF the almost fatal bal
loon Journey of NJ. Santos-Dumont
around the Eiffel tower is told in the
inventors own words in the Century:
you know what the end of my No.
was. In the early morning Of Au-
gust 8, 1901, having called together
the technical committee of the
Deutsch Foundation, | navigated from
St. Cloud to the Eiffel tower in eight
minutes and fifty seconds, turning
round the tower in 40 seconds more,
and was just reaching the Bots on the
home stretch with 18 minutes to the
good, when the catastrophe happened.
The balloon had already begun losing
gas before reached the tower
Had | not been making a kind of
official trial, ] should have returned
to the shed to examine the balloon.
Going round the tower it was mani
testify Debated; but had made such
good speed that l risked continuing.
had not been four minutes on the
home stretch, however, when the la.
loon began swinging like an elephants
trunk, it was so fiabby. l felt myself
falling, and was about to switch the
motor-power to the air-pump 20 stiffen
it out again, and so come 70 earth as
gently as possible, when the aft ropes,
losing their rigidity, caught in the
propeller. 1t stopped the propeller in
stantly. The rapidly emptying bal
loon now obeyed nothing but the va
grant winds. | came down, without
much of shock, between the roofs
of the Trocadero hotels, the balloon
ripping up with the noise of an eXplO,
sion. The new keel saved my life.
It's two exit entities rested on the two
roofs, one lower than the other; and
there | hung, suspended by the keel,
until / could be pulled up to the high
er roof by means of a rope
do you know the cause of the &C
cident?" | asked
81 am not certain of it yet" he an
swered, though / suspect the auto
matte valves, whose reacting on each
other is very delicate affair. Or it
rlay have been the interior air-ballOOn
that refused to fill out properly. Yes
terday Lachambre's man came to me
for the plans of the air-balloOn for NY
No. 6. From something he said
gathered that the air-balloOn of No.
5, not having been given time for its
varnish to dry before being adjusted
might have stuck together or to the
side of the outer balloon. Next time
we shall be more careful, although
with so many things to think of, and
all new, it is scarcely human not to
overlook something"
'Tn what will No differ from It's
predecessors? l asked.
ut will be longer, thicker, and con
sequently of considerably greater gas
capacity than No. 5, and more closely
ellipsoidal in form. In it | shall try
to take advantage of all past expert
ence, even the most unpleasant
which is not always the least valua-
BILE"
$50 far you have done everything
alone" | said. "Shall you be pre-
pared to take up a passenger in No
81"
IL want more welgnt-Carrying power
in order TO take up more petroleum
and a passenger,-that is to say, an
aid. There is q great deal Of work
really too much fCf one man, and VI
in the air. whatever must be done
must be done promptly. But | shall
not want a nervous passenger, a fear.
full passenger, or even a useless pas
senger. Also | want more motive
have obtained a more complete mas.
terry of the air-ship I shall wish to be
gin the great battle with the wind
But, as a model, | consider my Nos.
and already perfect The rudder
which was the last part to persist in
giving trouble, now works beauti
fully"
Suppose you buy o new bicycle OF
automobile" he says. you will have
a perfect machine to your hand; but
1t does not necessarily mean that you
will go spinning with 1t over the high
ways. You may be so Impractical thai
you fall off the bicycle or blow up the
automobile The machine is all right
but you must learn to run it. This is
what | am doing with my air-ship."
This is what the crowds of Partisan:
who have been following NJ. Santos
Dumont's aerial eyolutions take bu
imperfeCtly into account; and tn,
readers of the daily papers in far-of
lands, who hear of his trials and mar
row escapes only by way of garblec
and hurriedly written cable dis
patches, are still less likely to appre
ciate it. Everything about the navl
cation of the air is new; newest of al
is the art-practiced only by this daI
ing youth-of diving and mounting
obliquely in the air by means of hi
and novel task of putting an air-shi
through its best PAGES, much mus
necessarily be at the mercy of cnanc
details. Thus trial trip whose star
and finish were witnessed by scraceI
25 persons was much more satisfat
tory than the succeeding days ofticis
trial before the technical committee {
the Deutsch prize foundation an
brilliant tout-Paris assemblage.
On this occasion (the morning {
July 10, 190D, NJ. Santos-Dumont spe
straight through the air above ives
ern Paris to the Eiffel tower, turne
round it, and returned to his startin