The Washington times., 1901-09-01
A NEW FLYING MACHINE

| Yesterday I paid visit to the balloon
| works at Aberdeen Park. Hiehbury. to
learn something about the airship they
| are making for British inventor to COM
! pete for the Deutsch prize of Paris It
will be remembered that to win the e4,eOo
| the airship must sail course of twelve
| miles, round the Eiffei Tower IN half an
| hour. NJ. Santos -Dumont, the Brazilian.
| has done the journey In nine minutes over
| the stipulated time, but Mr.. Buchanan.
| the Hampshire inventor. whose machine
| is now being constructed, is confident of
winning the prize by doing the journey in
| less than the half hour.
MIR. Buchanan has been working at his
invention for twenty years and has spent
several thousand pounds on experiments
His place at Close Woods Denmead. near
Cosham, is hidden in the wilds of Hamp-
shire, miles away from anywhere, and
hitherto he has been exceedingly jealous
of publicity and has kept representatives
of the press at arms length The ma
chine has been in course of construction
by the inventor and Messrs. Spencer for
three years and Mr.. Buchanan has al
most come to the end OF his financial re-
sources in completing his airship. And
now to come to a description of the ma
chine. The piles of oiled silk and other
materials which / saw at Messrs. Spen-
GERS give little idea of the new airship,
so l was bound to fall back on photo
graphs and drawings to form an idea OF
the completed structure.
To begin with, it is not an aeroplane,
nor balloon with hanging car, but
great fish-shaped balloon, with the cabin
and the machinery of the propellers in
side. The fish will be eighty to a hundred
feet long, and in front it will have a sort
of birds head with a projecting beak.
From this point it will gradually swell
until at its middle the creature will be
nearly thirty feet deep, then gradually
tapering off to a point with tail about
eight feet high constructed to act as
rudder. Thus the whole shape will give
a minimum of resistance to the air.
Internally there will be sort of canvas
deck, dividing the animal from head to
tail into an upper and lower half. The
upper half will be flied with gas, and will
contain about 45, 900 feet, not quite suffi-
cient to lift the machine from the ground,
as its movements will be dependent on
the propelers. The gas used will be pure
hydrogen. This gas costs four times as
much as coal gas, but thousand cubic
feet of hydrogen will lift seventy pounds
weight, whereas the same quantity or
common coal gas will only lift forty
pounds, and If the gas is enriched for IL
Illuminating purposes in the modern fash
ion with oil vapors, it is even worse for
ballooning, and will only lift about thirty
pounds The extra lifting power gained
by using pure hydrogen Is useful in two
ways. 1t either enables greater weight |
to be carried, or by making the balloon |
smaller greatly diminishes the air resis- |
tance, and so the amount of power need |
ed in the motors.
The lower half of the fish-shaped crea-
ture will be divided into three compart-
ments. Those fore and aft will be used
simply as air chambers to fill out the |
shape. and may be inflated with common
air or with hydrogen If necessary. The |
central chamber will be the cabin. state |
room, larder. engine house and fuel bunk |
er. 1t will contain all the weight, and SO |
will at all times prevent the airsnfp from I
turning turtle" 1t will have a door at |
each side, and portfolios giving a view |
fore and aft and from its sides will pre-s
ject the two propellers. These Will each |
be in shape something like the four- +
bladed screw of great steamship but, or /
course, made of an exceedingly light sub |
stance. Each blade will be about five |
feet long by three in width, and an i'm |
portant feature of the invention is that |
the propellers are to be covered with |
minute grooves running diagonally out !
ward, resembling on a small scale the /
bends in corrugated iron roofing. These |
grooves are said to increase the grip OF /
the prcpellers on the air. and to give |
much greater thrust" Experiment with |
srOoved and ungrooved propellers at yari-
ous speeds of rotation has shown that
the grooves make a considerable differ
ence. The angle of the propellers can be |
altered to raise or depress the machine.
Oil motors will be used, and, being in the
abin with the traveller, will be well under
his control. The framework and exter-
nal covering will be of bamboo and the
usual balloon fabric. lc 2.-.is s.4S
1t now only remains. to be seen whether
the machine can be completed by Septem-
ber 10, in time for the trial If so, Mr..
Buchanan is confident of success. Mr..
Percival Spencer thinks the machine Of
fers the greatest proba biiity of success of |
all inventions SO far made public
nrldnri DAILY, NexrS |