Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-04-04
FRIDAY. APRIL 4, 1902.
AERIAL Hum BUG.

The New York Herald is one of the
greatest of dailies, and we modestly pay
it respect and render it homage for its
extraordinary enterprise in gathering
and presenting news from the uttermost
parts of the earth; but like many great
men the Herald is, unfortunately, |
troubled with cranks now and then. We
do not mean by the visits of outside
cranks, but by impersonal cranks devel-
oped within it. Controlled to more
or less extent by proprietor who
has been for many years resident of
the capital of France, making only spas
modic trips to this country to stir things
up" in the Office it has long been cranky
in the exaggeration of the Importance of
matters which interest the volatile Gallo
mind. The latest development of this
idiosyncrasy is the exploiting by the
Herald, in columns of space, of the abor-
tive attempts of a crotchety aeronaut,
named NJ. SantosDumont, to rise in a
balloon. travel around the Eiffel tower,
and return to the starting point-in
other words to steer an airship. Stimu-
lated by the offer of a large prize, this
navigator of the empyrean made several
trials, and once, owing to favorable shifts
of the wind, not to any special skill of
his own, or merits of his sol disant steer
ing apparatus, nearly succeeded, but did
not comply with the conditions closely
enough to earn the guerdon, if memory
serves us. He did succeed, however,
through sheer carelessness and misman-
agement, in getting couple Of tumbles
for himself, and graphic reports of these
little accidents were displayed in the
Herald IN much greater space than was
devoted to the South African or Philip
pine wars.
And now recent issue of the Herald
announces, with glaring headlines, that
NJ. Santos-Dumont has accepted an in
vitatiOn from the st. Louis Fair to come
to this country, and that he intends to
organize in America a series of trials on
large scale and to build suitable bal
looms of great capacity, capable of carry
ing passengers long journeys. Further
more, the dauntless mind of this aerial
Gaul has conceived the project of Great
ing race course in the air, the track
marked out by captive balloons held at an
elevation of several hundred yards, and
the competitors to make the course GER
tain number of times, after which the
prize will go to the first to reach the
starting point. The New York Herald
seriously ventilated this absurd scheme.
We do not wish to be pessimistic, and
are fully awake to the fact that one who
predicts that anything cannot be accom-
plished in this age of progress is liable to
display his own ignorance. But when it
comes to aerial navigation, there has
ton that steering an airship is possible
and least of all by NJ. Santos-Dumont,
whose elaborate experiments have been
a succession of failures. The science of
aerostatics is one in which the generality
of mankind takes the utmost interest, be-
cause it appeals to their Imagination, and
of the fascination which attaches to the
adventurous and apparently dangerous
but it is one upon which, in the words OF
the late Joseph Warren, they have
accumulated great amount of iguor.
ance." They see a balloon ascend, they
appreciate that il rises because lifted by
power lighter than air, and that it is
carried whittier the wind lsteth; beyonC
a.. l. s,,1r -.
nauts, and students of the subject witt
knowledge gained by considerable eX
perience in vOyaging the empyrean, as il
the case with the writer, know more, Blu
not very much. They know that ballas
is to the balloon what fuel is to loco
motive, and rs long as the ballast last
the air ship can travel; they know tina
when one is hurtling through space a
the rate of an hundred miles an hour tn
passengers are not conscious of motion
except as they note the changing position
of objects on the earth, and that rose
leaf would not jostle on the edge of tn
basket. so TO speak. and from this the,
learn that they are travelling in a VERT
able thing of air." and they soon fin
that divers currents of wind operate il
strata above that particular one mani
tested to grovelers beiUw. Further tine
learn that by ascending through the ex
penditure of ballast, or descending
through the release VI So, :. cu,Iont ma,
be found that will change an unfavorabl
to favorable direction, but its discover.