The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-01-21
The ST. Louis Flying Prizes.

80 ~
reserved Tor expenses connected with
the competition and exhibition, $780,
ooo Will be given as a grand prize to
the exhibitor of the most perfect We
hicle shown in the form of an airship,
and $50, 900 will be awarded in smaller
prizes TO other inventors.
The competition is open to ali com
ers without limitation as to the power
used or the mechanical principles in
vol'cd, but no one will be admitted
who has not already made a fight Of
at least n mile and return. a course
has been prescribed within the expo
aition Enclosure which must be fol-
lowed for not less than ten or more
than fifteen miles at a speed Of at least
twenty miles an hour.
The trials will take place between
June and September 80, 1904. Vari-
Gus prizes are offered for other CON
tests, which are open to balloons, air
ships and other a~cronautical vehicles
of any type.
Five thousand dollars for the great
est altitude attained.
Five thousand dollars for the long
est time in the air.
Five Thousand dollars for the long
est distance travelled in any direction.
Five thousand dollars to the man
who starts from ST.. Louis and lands
nearest the Washington Monument,
in the city of Washington. =
The management Of the contest will
be in the hands of an international
jury, which will be made up of famous
men of science. Already notice has
been received that fifteen entries have
been made, including all of the most
advanced airships yet known. Pro-
lessor Alexander Graham Bell, .hc
inventor Of the telephone; Pro-
fessor Langley, of the Smithsonian in
stitute; DR.. Maxim, who has devised
many remarkable guns; Santos Du-
mont, the Brazilian, who has taken
the big prizes in France; Octave Cha
mute, MIR. Stevens, an Englishman;
Professor Laurence Rotch, Of Blue
Hills, Mass. Count Won zeppelin, a
Bavarian, and other aeronsuts in Eu-
rope and America have already enter
ed or are expected to enter. The
competition is creating more interest
on the other side of the Atlantic than
here.
The largest sensation in the way of
a flying ship has been constructed by
Count Won zeppelin, who has been
experimenting all summer from a float
anchored in Lake. Constance, Switzer-
land, where he has a large open space
without distractions. AS his float
swings with the wind the longitudinal
axis OF the airship is always in the
line of the direction of the wind. His
ship is a 24.sided polygon, cigar
shaped, 40 feet long and 80 feet in
diameter.
The framework is composed Of six.
teen rings of aluminium. 26 feet apart,
fastened to a central rod by wires
%radiating like the spokes Of a wheel.
The framework is first covered with q
netting Of ramie fibre, remarkable for
toughness and tensile strength, then
with a gas ard water-tight rubber
composition, and further protected by
an envelope of tough cloth. The
cylinder is divided into seventeen
compartments like a steamer, each of
which is filled Independently with gas,
so that if the ship meets with a col.
lision only a portion of it will be in
jured. It has q capacity Of $50, $50
cubic feet of hydrogen gas, is propell-
ed by four benaine motors and steered
by four aluminium propellers, two at
each end below the central axis. The
cylinder rests upon two cars of alumni
mum, % feet long, six feet wide and
three feet high, and is connected with
the axis by coiled springs to break the
force of a fall upon the ground. If
the car should descend in the air, the
weight Of the lower works would keep
the wheels beneath it, and the springs
would prevent the cylinder from being
mashed by contact.
Prof. Bell was experimenting in
Nova Scotia last summer, and there
have been reports of successful flights
by him. Prof. Langley has also been
engaged with his flying machine, but
they are not yet prepared to disclose
what they have accomplished.
The St. Louis people have received
many curious suggestions. One man
writes that be Is training teams of
buzzards, eagles and other big birds to
haul a car through the air, and in
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