The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-04-13
AIRSHIPSI ARE MANY
sANTos-DUMONT Will HAVE pLEN.
~ OF COMPETITION AT ST.
LOUIS EXPOSITION
ALANsoN WOOD is HOPEFUL
Leo stevens Tells why He Expects
10 hand1ly Defeat the Brazilian
hermann Ganswindt Coming
From Germany to Compete.
Special to The GIoba

Special to The Globe.
ST. LOUIS, April -santos-Durnont.
the wizard Of the air. who is now en-
route TO st. Louis to confer with Worlds
FAR ofhcials on the subject of the air
snip races to take place during the prog
Iess or the Louisiana Purchase exposition,
may ma warmer competition among the
American areonauts than he anticipates
at TINS time. Many American inventors,
with plenty of money to back them up,
are laying plans to dispute the Erazilian's
tltle to being the AL of it when it comes
TO navigation in the clouds. The GirIgible
a1rship is M. Santos-Dumont' special
hobby, and his sail around the Eiffel
tower. and the later successful flights over
Monaco bay have no doubt created a gen
eral impression that he will probably
have an easy time of it walking off with
the $500, 600 prize offered by the Louisiana
Purchase exposition for this sort of fly
ing machine. That impression is an er-
roneous one. There are others and there
are Americans among them When the
airship races at the Worlds Fair are over
M. Santos-Dumont and those who expect
to see him an easy winner may find them
selves on the wrong side of the guessing
contest. They may have another guess
coming. 1t certainly looks that way al
this distance.
Wood Is Most Formidable.
Probably the most formidable contest
ant Santos Dumort will have for the b z
prize will be Alanson Wood, the Toledo
Ohio inventor who. with his partner,
made fortune in twelve short months
from his invention-the roller coaster. Mr.
Wood is now completing the detail work
on an airship with which he will com
pete for the prize at the st. Louis World >
Fair for the best dirigible airship. Mr..
Wood has been steadily at work for
months past and his plans have reached
a stage where there is, according to his
own statement, no further doubt as to his
final success.
The trial tests, Of which he speaks with
confidence, will be made in Toledo. One
idea included in Mr.. Woods airship, he
says, has been completely overlooked by
all other inventors, and it was purely
through accident that he happened across
this strange and exceedingly important
idea. 1t is the one thing necessary to
the successful operation of an airsnip.
and without having it embodied in their
models inventors can never hope to sue
coed. 1t does away with all thought OF
the lifting capacity of the airship, and
through it Mr.. Wood can lift 25,G00 pounds
with the locomotive force he intends to
employ On his ship. Practical tests given
his apparatus have demonstrated to the
inventor that his machine will be a sue
cess. He can see nothing now but the &
prize at St Louis and the wealth which
will follow the solution of problem that
has vexed men for ages past
stevens Machine Nearly Ready.
Leo Stevens is the name of another ar
ship builder who has a flying machine
within sixty days of completion. He has
his workshop on the second floor of 29l
Eighth avenue, New York city, and says
he will contest for the big prize at st.
Louis. His machine, he thinks, is an i'm
provement on the Santos-Dumcnt ma
chine. He expects to make his first
trip through the air over the tops of New
Yorks sky scrapers. nafh -~
Il had hoped to have Santos Dumont