The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-22
PROBLEM IN AIRSHIPS
DISCUSSED BY
MAXIM
Sir Hiram, Writing to st.
Louis Exposition Authori-
ties, Speaks Of His Expert
ments With Engines of
Great Power and Light
Weight.

| ST. LOUIS, Mo, Jan. 21.-Sir Hiram
Maxim, the inventor of world wide
reputation, has accepted an invitation
to visit St. Louis in August or Sep
TENDER. From the first announcement
of the air-ship contest for a prize OF
100000 Sir Hiram Maxim has in va
rious ways manifested his deep inter
| est in the matter. He has given the
the exposition mana cement much valu-
able counsel upon the conditions of the
contest, and his coming at this time
| was prompted by his desire to look
over the ground for himself and to
consult further upon plans for the
tournament.
Sir Hiram Maxim has written at
considerable length his views, which
have been received by President Fran
els, and are now made public. The
fact that Sir Hiram Maxim has eX-
pended some $4,000 upon experiments
In aeronauticS, emphasizes the i'm
pOrtance of these views. The letter
addressed to the president of the
Louisiana Purchase exposition is as
| follows:
I'm regard to the St Louis Exhibi-
ton, l should say that the geographical
position Of St. Louis is all that could be
desired, and have no doubt that the ex-
hlb1tlon itself will prove IL very great sue
cess. 1 see by the papers that practi-
cally all the nations of the world are dis
cuSSlng the question to what they
| should send. In regard to the aeronau-
teal part Of the exhibition, ] should say
that as you have about 1900 acres you
| will be able TO appropriate fairly large
piece of ground for this purpose. At
| Baldwyn's park, where 1 conducted my
experiments, l had a clean run of 1900
feet, Which, however, l found to be al
together too short, in fact | was quite
unable TO hnlsh my experiments there on
account of the limited space at my dis
posal and this Notwithstanding the fact
that had 40 acres of ground
Shelters Needed.
IF there is to be an aeronautical exhi-
bltlon 1t will be necessary to have certain
buildings erected as shelters. These build
| be useful either for flying machines or
balloons, and l should say if they had a
clean width Of so feet, a length of 100
| feet, and a height of 60 feet. that would
be quite ample. Each building should be
provided with a pair of doors to open
| outward in such manner that when they
are open they form a kind of air shield
Tor protecting the apparatus against the
| WIND as 1t emergeS from the building. 1t
| VIII be understood that the doors are in
| the end of the building so that when they
are open the balloon which fills the whole
! or the interior may be drawn out These
| buildings could be placed at one side of
the park with clear run free from trees
and distractions in front, the larger the
better. [ understand that a great num-
| Der Of eXperim enters are now a work on
aeronautical apparatus to be shown at
the ST. Louis exhibition, but as to whether
the aeronautical part of the exhibition
VIII be successor not is altogether an
other question.
"A true flying machine large enough to
carry one man has not yet been made,
although vast sums of money have been
spent on experimental work As far as
dlrigible balloons are concerned the
French government has already spent a
vast sum, and has found that it is
CCI n 1ll lS1.icr I1oI
loon which will make Roadway against
even a slight breeze.
Santos Dumont's Achievements.
'SantosD umont has perhaps done bet
ter than the French government expert
mentors, and think perhaps he has gone
as lar as IT is possible for anyone to go
IN the direction OF dirigible balloons. Still
II we look the matter sQuarely in the face
think we shall see that even Santos
Dumonts balloon is not able to travel
fast enough through the air to hold its
own against even d slight breeze So | am
OF the. opinion that if there is an exhibit
ton or dlr1gible balloons at st. Louis that
very few of them will be able to return tC
the point of departure. 1t will be found
hlnk' that when these balloons ascend
they will travel with the wind just exactly
like any other balloon, no matter which
way they are pointed, and that they will
descend to the earth just like other bal
looms, and have to be dismantIed and sent
back to the point of departure by some
means of land conveyance
L
the question again myself or not. How
ever, IN any case shall be pleased to send
one or my steam engines to st. Louis
which think is the lightest steam engine
Ior It's power ever made in the world.
Lfghtest Heat Machine.
Charles Parsons, the inventor of the
steam turbine, in a lecture some wears
: ago. said that the lightest heat engine thai
has has ever been made in the world in pro-
portion to the power developed was I'M
doubtedly the Maxim gun, which 1 think
he said weighed sixty pounds and devel-
oped twenty horse-power energy. Next
! to this he said he would have to place
| my flying machine engines and steam gen
crater, which weighed about twelve
; pounds to the horsepower AS a matter
: OF fact however, the engine that 1 should
send to st. Louis weighs 800 pounds-this
does not include the boiIer-and is one
= Of pair that | employed When this en-
CINE was run with sic pounds Of steam
as a compound engine it developed 181
horsepower If, however, it was used as
a simple engine both cylinders being con-
l nected direct to the boiler with high press
ure in both cylinders, it would develop al
least 500 horsepower If | had given the
l power to these engines in the ordinary
J way; that is, from Indicator cards. il
! would have been considerable more thar
lSl horsepower. The power given was
actually that communicated to the screw
and delivered by the screw
think it will be admitted that my
steam engine and boiler We're very light
and effective but they required a vast
] quantity OF water; indeed the quantity
of water was so great that even If nv
engines and boilers had not weighed any-
u, thlng at all the machine could not have
been considered a success. At first if an
peared to me that | should be able tC
condense my steam. l entered into careful
mathematical computations as regards the
power and lifting effect, basing my cal
culatIOnS altogether on formulate which
. mad obtained from experiments made
with a very much smaller apparatus AND
! also from the formulate of Prof Langley
however 1t was found that very large
machine was not anything like as efficient
as the small models l had expected ir
the first instance that l should only re.
qulre IOO horsepower while l found by
f experiment that | could condense all my
steam when | was running at a velocity
( of forty-two miles an hour
Could Not Condense the Steam,
When, however, I ran my power up tc
go horsepower, it was quite impossible
to condense the steam. In regard to con.
! denSers, l found that with extremely thir
= oval tubes driven SideWay through the
: air at the rate of forty-two miles an hour
t the steam for one horse power could bt
condensed with one pound of copper. the
temperature Of the air at the time being
6Z degrees Fahrenheit. AT the time
made my experiments the steam engine
appeared to be preferable to all others
| Since that time, however, I should say
that fully Ell, 000, coo sterling has beeT
spent in the various countries Of The
= / world in experimental work on petrole1nr
motors for driving motor cars and thesf
experiments have all been in the direction
OF great power and extreme Iiehtnacc
! Inc eXneIlmenter on aeronallf:-.S5II ~
chlnes. fts.cs Ht6f : las an advantage now
!. ''--Icn none had a few years ago HI
can take the engine where the motorn1ar
! mas left 1t and refine it still more in the
direction of lightneSs at a comparative
small expense. The quantity of water re-
. CURED for keeping the cylinders of a gas
motor cool is only one-seventh as much as