The daily journal. (Salem, Or.) 1899-1903, 1903-10-23
San Francisco Man
Has the Best Ma
chine Made
Makes a Successful Flight
With Small Power, Will
Make Another Trip
Soon

Ns
Since his trip over the bay in his air.
ship and his astonishing manipulation
of machine that was lacking in the
necessary motive power to give the
inventor perfect control over its flight
he has been beset with people who
are anxious TO know all about the
flying machine and the man who con.
structed It, College professors. men
of science, newspaper men and the
speculative business man have fern.
ed a constant stream Of visitors to
his Eleventh and Market street head.
quarters.
The inventor is quiet unostenta
tious man, a student as well as a me.
chanic who for fifteen years has
made a study Of dirigible balloons and
has frequently made balloon ascen.
tions at Paris and London Six years
ago he started work on the model OF
the airship that astonished the people
Of the country by its performances
last Sunday. Like most models the
thing was easily governed by means
OF a ground motor and scared high
over the buildings and was steered
at will But there was the great prob.
lem to face that aerial navlgators
have always weakened before; the
model was receiving from the ground
motor twenty times as much power
as It would be possible TO produce
from a motor that would. II placed in
the ship itself, weigh down the bag
of gas and prevent the machine from
leaving the earth.
Greth went to work with a will to
overcome the fault He llghtened the
framework of his model and reduced
the power of atmospheric resistance
by changing the shape Of his silk bag.
The double set Of propellers was in.
troduced and after all was ready a
greatly reduced power was turned into
the motors. The model acted beau.
tifully, but showed a disposition to
drift with the wind despite the fan.
ming OF the propeller and the usO
OF balancing weights. However
enough was accomplished TO convince
Greth that he had partially solved the
mystery and he put his wits TO work
TO devise means OF raising money with
which 10 construct a real airship that
would be capable OF carrying the
weight OF machinery and man. He
was not received with much encour.
agement by spectators for at that
time investors had been badly bit
ten by a number Of fake airship en-.
terprises and the public was very
skeptcal Greth formed a corpora.
ton and got Professor Baldwin the
inventor F. II. Hutchinson, a ma,
chinist and b. "a SaXby, aeronaut, in
terested. Mr.. Moss, OF the firm OF
Moss 4 Co. brokers, helped 20 organ
ize a company and a sufficient amount
OF money was subscribed 20 carry out
NANNh p HAaAns
Ten days ago Greth Airship stock
was being offered at a low figure
about the streets. but everybody rldi-
culed the idea Of Greth ever being
able TO n.y. Have you seen the ship?"
the inventor would ask. The answer
was usually mo" "Then you know
nothing about t." / have been work.
ing this problem out for years and
I have nearly arrived az the point
where / will say that have achieved
success Walt TIN Sunday the 18th.
and then you may Judge for yourself
whether the ship will fly or not"
so little faith was put In Greths pre-.
diction that when the date for the
test arrived no one thought OF him or
his airship either Out IN the vacant
lot, surrounded by dwellings and a
high board fence. four enthusiastic
men were working like beavers. GOV.
cred with oil and Crime and smelling OF
anything but the pure air Of a two
thousand-foot elevation. Then came
the hard start described IN prior news.
paper dispatches and finally the as.
cent
The people could scarce believe
their eyes. The motor worked well
for the first few minutes OF the trip
and the machine moved slowly toward
the Preside, leaving thin tral OF
smoke in lis rear. The population Of
the city was startled. Few knew that
an airship was anywhere near the
town and visions Of the famous Sac.
ramento hoax Of several years ago
appeared 10 them But they rubbed
their eyes again and wiped out the