Evening star., 1901-09-07
M. Santos-Dumont Will Again Com
pete for Prize.
RIVAL INVENTORS WILL TRY ALSO
To Prove Whether Machines Must
Be Lighter or Heavier Than Air
THE MILITARY BALLOONISTS
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star

Special Correspondence OF The Evening Star.
PARIS, August 26 1901.
While NJ. Santos-Dumont' new balloon,
to take the place of that destroyed on Au-
gust 6, is being rapidly constructed. to the
exclusion of all other work at Lachambres
celebrated establishment, all Paris is talk
ing about the conquest of the air as an ac-
complished fact. Two minutes before he
met with the accident which caused him to
lose his hydrogen gas so quickly and IA
tally there was not spectator who would
not have bet more than even money on the
complete success of the young inventor $
latest and most brilliant attempt to win
the Deutsch prize for aerial navigation.
Now that a months respite has been given
to his rivals. they are hurrying their prep
arations. NJ Santos-Dumont's new airship
will be ready in the second week of Sep
tember. Even should he still manage to
get ahead of them-for the young Brazilian
is wonderfully expeditions-the stipulation
of its foundation would divide the Deutsch
prizes 100000 francs among all the sue
cessful competitors of the same year, in the
proportion of their respective speeds. The
most curious fact is, therefore, not the
haSty emulation to which NJ. Santos-Du-
mont has stirred up his rivals, but rather
the existence of these rivals with their in
ventions so near to completion. 1t shows
that the time was ripe.
They fall, as everybody knows now, into
two camps, the partsans of machines
heavier than the air. and the partisans
of machines Tighter than the air." 1t is
true that there are variations Of "a little
heavier than the air. and "a little lighter
than the air." but all go back in principle
to the two great types named in Jules
Verne's story, the aeronefs and the aero
stats. 1t is true also that a bird is liv-
ing aeronef. and that Jules Verne made
this er-than-the-air type win in the
struggle; yet up to the present time it is
the areostats that have triumphed in the
person of M. SantoS-Dumont. Paris has
had it's Santos-Dumont week. 1t is now to
have its RoZe week, and the partisans of
"a little heavier than the air. expect great
things from IT..
AerOstat or AerOnef.
1t ought to be we'll understood from the
beginning that the aeronef Of NJ. Roze
which is set down for trial by the techni-
cal committee of the Aero Club during the
first week of September, is an application
of the principle Of the Berrube plano-aero-
stat. which the French minister of war
has been commencing and encouraging
with promises Of trials ever since 1887.
Ever since that year the philosophical in
ventOr Berrube has been offering his plano
aerostat to the various ministers of war;
receiving in return, from time to time the
most encouraging reports from examiners.
The theoretical plan of the plano aerostat
may be described in a few words. There is
a cigar-shaped balloon, much like that Of
M. Santos-Dumont, with a keel below it
containing motor and screw propeller
This propeller Is. however, not a pusher
but a puller, being placed at the keePs
stem. At the stern is placed the rudder
This disposition was experimental with by
NJ. Santos-Dumont in 1900 He has since
abandoned 1t.
How 1t is Operated.
The operation Of navigating the plano
aerostat may therefore be described as
follows: O To quit the ground the navi-
gator will put the ascensional propellers
in movement. and without any other aid
the plano-aerostat will mount into the air
as high as he pleases, without the use of
ballast. (2) Then, being at the height de-
sired, he will go horizontally in any direc-
tion desired, by the simple maneuver Of
putting the prOpulsive screw in movement
In order to obtain any speed desired, the
navigator will have only to change the
uniform movement of the system without
weight into accelerated movement by COM
pletely stopping or slowing up the ascen-
sional propeller. The weight of the now
falling body (nO longer sustained by the
ascensional propeller) acted on by the
force of the propulsive propeller equal to
the force which had lifted the body into
the air) will give the plano-aerostat a COM
blnatlon OF movements, onward and down.
ward, at great speed-almost any speed de-
planed' or fallen diagonally downward
so far that it becomes necessary to raise
1T in the air again by force Of the ascen-
sional propeller. The propulsive propeller
Will be stopped and the ascenSional pro-
peller will lift the plano aerostat straight
into the air again, when the maneuver will
be repeated. And so on. The flight of the
plano-aerostat will therefore resemble very
much that of bird. 1t will mount straight
into the air, and then scud diagonally
downward-aided onward by its own weight
until it mounts straight into the air
again, to begin scudding down diagonally
again. The excess weight of 176 pounds
| being not very great, in relation to the
considerable surface of the pIano-aeros
the diagonal downward speed-aithough a
| combination of propulsive force and falling
troll of the navigator. Indeed, the great
surface OF the plano-aerostat will serve as
a parachute when it is desired to land.
In Roxe's Workshop.
NJ. Roze has his workshop at Bois-Co-
| lombes, suberb of Paris, on the Western
railroad, which passengers take for Havre.
He has spent great deal of money on his
adaptation of the plano-aerostat. which is
composed Of two cigar-shaped balloons,
| each 148 feet long, coupled side by side by
means OF rigid armature Of aluminium,
which also sustains the keel. This latter
Is divided into two stories the upper for
the machinery, the lower for passengers,
being fitted up luxuriously. Indeed, NJ.
RoZe often goes out and sits in it of an
afternoon, to mediate or read the paper.
He has been doing this for years.
NJ. RoZe calculates that his two ascen-
sional propellers will lift him into the air;
once in the air two propulsive propellers
will aid him to scud as already described.
For greater security however, he has ad-
ded most ingenious parachute composed
of parallel frames. Once at the desired
| height this parachute can be spread out.
True. its effect will be to detract from
the downward force Of the diagonal scud-
ding; but then, 1t looks as If NJ. Roze' 9
apparatus will never be too light
During the first two weeks Of September
events will show whether Mr.. Rozes con-
struction merits guying or a share Of the
Deutsch prizes 100000 francs. Meanwhile
the military balloonists of the Chalais-Meu
don establishment after having bitterly at
tackled NJ Santos-Dumont as mot a man
| Of science, but an aerial sportsman" sur
| rounded by "maladroit friends who do him
harm by their exaggerated accounts of
| his ascensions," now show that they have
| been stirred up to emulation. They there
| fore announce the rapid construction of a
new airship of their own, expected to Of
/ fer great resistance to the wind" and to
| be capable Of facing any kind of weather"
Theory Of other Inventors.