The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-06
AIRSHIPS GALORE AT STLOUIS FAIR Capt. Baldwin's Machine is a
 Great Success OTHER GRAF sPROMINENT I Ar At St. Louis VIII Be Filled With Ships This Month and Great
 Improvements Will
 Jesuit.

St. Louis. November 5-(Special)-
 Baldwin's ajrship, california Arrow"
 was caused by it's commander, A. Roy
 Knabenshue. of Toledo, O.. to perform
 a number of very remarkable evoluuons
 during a recent trial. The wind was
 blowing from the northwest at the rate
 of ten miles an hour. rapidly increasing
 to eighteen; but In the teeth of the
 breeze the vessel moved easily back and
 forth at the height of from 300 feet and upwards over the exposition grounds. and twice returned nearly to the point from which it set out. Just as 1t had described m the air huge figure eight for the second time the spark of the gasoline engine was raised a little too high and the motor ceased to work, the vessel being at the time about 600 feet above the plaza of St. Anthony. between the palaces of Transportation and Varied Industries.
 But this accident only served to em- phasize the triumph for even then, after the propelllng apparatus could no longer be used and the machine was adrift on the wind, the aeronaut was still able, simply by the shifting of his own weight and the manipulation of the rudder and the ballast, to turn the craft around, raise and lower 1t in the air, and to con- trol, to a considerable extent. the direc- ton of It's movement MT Knabeen- shue decided just where 1t was best to land, and at 2:5O gently sank down at Valley Junction, East St. Louis, and alighted without the slightest injury to either himself or the machine.
 Could the motor have been used throughout the trip the landing would have been made without any difficulty, in the Aeronautlc ground at the same point from hich the ascension had ta- ken place.
 The ascent and evolutions were wit messed by thousands of exposition visi- tors. and greatest enthusiasm was arous- ed by the Ierfect success with which the apparatus was propelled In any de- sired direction, either with, across or against the wind, so long as the engine remained in order.
 Property of Captain Baldwin.
 The Californla Arrow Is the property of Captain T. S. Baldwin and has been constructed after his plans. representing the final outcome of thirty years of study and experimentation. It has a cigar shaped gas bag of vanished Japanese silk. It Is 52 feet long and IT feet in diameter, with a capacity of 5000 cubic feet. On the upper surface and at the ends of the silk Is doubled, and at thepoints of greatest strain trebled. The car. forty feet long, is light frame work of white cedar braced with plano wire It s, in section, a perfect equil- atorial triangle, 30 that the whole is in the shape of a right prism, save that 1t grows smaller and smaller towards the ends. It Is pulled through the air by two-bladed propeller, eleven feet from tip to tip, act at an angle of twenty de- grees at he front end of the car. The draught of air caused by its 200 revo- lutions a minute serves to prevent ex- plosions by constantly cooling tie her cules gasoline engine set about eight feet from the forward end of the car. The engine weighs only 66 pounds, but per- forms 2,500 revolutions minute and has a working capacity of seven horsepower. The aeronaut has a seat further back, and he can move from one end to the other of the car at will, though a change of position of less than two feet is suffi- cient to cause the craft to ascend or de- scend in the air by raising or lowering the levation of the beak. At the rear there is a rudder of six feet by ten made Ol HBnI cdnNdS stTeIcneu on DdmDOO frame. The total weight of the whole apparatus is only about 22O pounds. The maximum speed thus far attained, by means of it's own engines, not taking the wind into account, Is twelve miles an hour. but the usual rate is only about eight miles an hour.
 The success achieved-confirming the reports of previous trials made at Oakland, Cal, Is all the more in view of the fact that the conditions were peculiarly owing to the strong and shifty winds and the intermngling cur rents of air of different temperatures, constantly varying pressure of the gas. Moreover the California Ar row" is little more than small and cheaply built working model. With well made engine and thoroughly up-to- date carburator. such as those with which one Of the larger Baldwin airships