Evening star., 1902-03-15

race between arships entered upon the
tablets of the worlds history. At Paris,
Santos Dumont. In his famed aeroStat,
raced against time, but had no other con-
teStant.
Aerodromania.
The files OF the patent Office offer the best
hint as to the extent to which aerodro-
mania has taken hold of inventors. Yes
ferday l ransacked the records and count
ed the letters patent granted to flying
machine inventors since 1914. That year
the first American airship patent was
awarded to one Muzio Muzzi. an Italian.
His device was a spherical balloon with
movable side aeroplanes for changing the
direction of the craft from vertical to
q horizontal plane.
Two hundred and one flying machine
patents have been granted by our govern
ment up to date within fifty-seVen years.
Fifty of these. or one-fourth, have been
obtained within the past six years, which
Indicates the extent TO which the stimu-
lus has been increasing.
1t would indeed he jolly sight were all
of these POL patented airshipS entered at
the races scheduled for the aerostatic con-
gress But II might not be wholesome
feast for the eyes Of the sunerSttious and
unwarned. Were all the inanimate things
of earth to suddenly take life fit and
founder through the air. the vision would
not, at first glimpse, appear less natural
with monsters - which the widest dreams
of the fauna Of all distant habitable worlds
of infinite space could not compare
Sausage-shaptd. shuttIe-shaped, cubical,
conical, turtle-shaped. fish-Shaped, cylin-
6rical. globular, hoat-Shaped, car-shaped,
ring-shaped. pyramidal, clam-shaped bug
shaped, screw-shaped. in the form of the
cross. pan-Shaped. pear-Shaped. Shapeless
and indescrbable they are with paddle
wheels, turbine wheels. screw propellers.
bat wings bird wings. bee wings. fins, fish
tails. swaliow-taiis. rudders, oars aero
planes, parachutes, cable grips. steam en-
gines. dynam0S. gasoline motors, bicycle
pedals, air jets, steam Jets and stern guns
whose explosion against the air furnishes
3oComotion.
A jolly flock Of big game And were you
TO shoot a mortay up into 1t haphazard
sou would be sure to bring down freak
and wing few more
The great race for the ST. Louis cup
would have 10 be arranged in many heats.
in fact. each Of these patented airships
would properly demand an individual heat
for Itself Fire the starting gun. ''4hey re
off, And what motley nliX-up. 'Tis the
strenuous life a-sky. The denZens OF the
whole Of creation would profit well to
gather round the aerial course.
The Pathetic Side
But there Is the pathetic side. An alienst
would fnd a fertile field In the patent
Offices "aerodynamics' file 1t used to be
the perpetual-mo crank who filled the
freak list OF the office Today it is the
aerodromaniac.
A Frenchman some time ago obtained
from the government n patent for a system
Of propelling aerodrOmss by means OF birds
harnessed to horizontal wheel TO be
turned by a pilot. according to the desired
direction of flight Then there have been
several Darius Greens given the sole right
to manufacture and sell within the limits
OF the United States attachable wings
wherewith To dart through space. An in
ventor who for several years remained a
familiar habitue of the patent office re-
oeived sole rights for elongated. pencil
shaped airship Of aluminium which, II
poised upon end, would have had the di-
mensions OF the Washington monument.
Claims were granted this man for interior
cabins as capacious az those of ocean
steamships and steam engines OF ponderous
weight
Then, too. there are geniuses among
these airship pa,entees. The great Count
Zeppelin has received letters Eatent pro-
tecting In this country not only his far
Famed airship, but whole train OF cigar
shaped balloons coupled. vestibuled and
drawn by an aerial locomotive. But Mr.
langley. to whom the fruits OF commercial
tsm have never appealed has applied for
no patents. Santos Dumont's aerostat Is
not patented In this country: neither are
the experimental airships of Maxim.
Today patents are not granted for air.
ships not provided In the specifications with
balloon attachments. Formerly patents
were granted for airships without any
question as to their operativeness, none be
ing thought operative. Now those without
buoyant gas compartments are objected tC
because not believed to be operative. A
statute now demands that all patented in
Mentions be useful"
Most Recent Ideas.
The most recen. ideas in this line of In
Nention may be obtained from glance a,
Oetents issued within the past few mont bs
The latest granted to a Washingtonian, Is
for "a combined balloon and aeroplane, Sc
constructed that 1t can be readily convert