The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-22
Practical Airship
viii Bring Uni
VerSaI Peace

When the airship dream of the GEN.
turtles shall be realized-when we shall
fly as the birds fly, with the wind or
against the storm, into the home of the
lightning above the thunder clouds
what will be the effect upon the life of
man?
The eonquering of the sea has spread
civilization and enlightenment as moth
ing else in the history of the world
has ever done.
Our knowledge of electricity has
annihilated space.
Our knowledge of steam has revo-
lutionized commerce.
What will our conquest of the air
bring forth?
Writers of fiction have printed many
volumes on this line-all of them more
or less fantastic. No one has made
serious and thoughtful attempt to out
line what will be the scope and mean
ing. of this most revolutionary of revo-
buttons, The full effect must be little
short of a reorganization of civiliZa-
ton itself. Science, religion, law, COM
merce, the physical life of man-these
are some of the fundamental elements
of existence that will be influenced by
the solution of the aerial navigation
problem.
In the light of recent achievements
it is certainly not too soon to prepare
for these marvellous changes. What
will aerial navigation mean?
Primarily it will bring about the
construction of airships costing hum
dreds of thousands of dollars. They
will be immense floating palaces whose
natural element is the air.
Millionaires will have their private
air palaces just as they have their
colossal steam yachts.
There will be aerial highways over
seas, hills and deserts. A new and mar
Vicious turn to human affairs is there
fore inevitable. Sovereigns will be
convinced Of the folly of war, since it
will be impracticable for the most po-
tent of them to guard his dominions.
While steam will still be used to
haul their heavy products of the coun-
try and passenger traffic between
towns and cities may remain in
great measure as it is because of vari-
able and impossible weather condi.
lions, there will be pleasure touring
and travelling and sightseeing by air
such as the world has never seen.
In the past all our ideas of balloon
ing have been in the way of extreme
attitudes. 1t is probable that the air.
ship of the future will not fly higher
than the roofs of the tall buildings,
and no attempt will be made save by,
The cumbersome ferry boats should
be easily displaced by light and relia-
BILE airships which would cross the
river in a fraction of the time now
required.
Express traffic, too, in the city limits
would be performed by airships instead
of delivery wagons.
The terrible effect of airships in
actual warfare may be easily imagined.
A fleet of enemies warships resting
on the sea twenty miles off Sandy
Hook in a strong favorable wind might
turn loose, 1000 balloons ten feet i'll
diameter, each carrying 100 pounds
of dynamite with time fuse.
These would float over the city, the
time fuse would burn out and the
dynamite would drop. The ruin and
carnage would be past comprehension.
In fact the solving of the airship prob
lem is not necessary to such project
as this. Hot-air balloons would ac-
complish the object.
Battles between airships would be
most terrible, as nobody in a disabled
warship of the air would have the re-
hottest chance of escape.
What will be the effect of the airship
on science? Balloons may be used for
forecasting the weather..
We know that a thunderstorm has it's
inception away in the upper regions,
and begins there sometimes before we
feel it here, and we know how to pre-
dict it, but as to the great storms of
500 or 1000 miles in diameter, the
main forces that cause them may begin
to operate there long time before we
feel them down here
High air explorations might clear up
that much-mooted question, and deter
mine whether these great storms orig
mate there, and to determine also
whether or not we can see the very in
ception of the storm by this upper-air
route and foretell it's coming before IT
arrives.
In the realm of medicine it is de-
ciared that balloon ascension acts on
the human system as the most power
fut tonic known. DR.. Naugier the IA
nous French physician. states that a