Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-07-07

Flight, Says submarine Boats anu
 Airships Have Same Conditions to
 Contend With Anxious to Meet
 Santos-Dumont In a Race.
 A. Roy Knabenshue the young aero naut at Toledo, O., who recently sailed through the air a distance of three miles, landed on the roof of ten story office building at Toledo and then re- turned directly to the exact spot from which he started, states his views on the future of aerial navigation as fol- lows, says the New York World:
 ''To begin with, this subject has oc- cupied the minds of scientists for the past 200 years, and every conceivable method of navigating the air has been invented and tried repeatedly, with practically no results. Santos pointed out the way by taking the engine from his automobile and at- taching it to his balloon. He is the first man to successfully navigate the air and should receive all the credit due him. He has had many followers, but they seem to have made failures of their attempts. ...
 My visit to the worlds fair was for the purpose of studying this subject and to meet Santos-Dumont as well as any other competitors for the $1OO,000 prize offered for the successful airship. It was while there that I met Captain Thomas S. Baldwin, which meeting re- suited in my riding the air in the Cali fornia Arrow.
 T made five trips at the fair and five at Los Angeles, Cal, last winter. Each trip taught me more of natures laws and what should be done to over come the many obstacles connected with the successful navigation of the air, and now I have concluded the problem resolves itself thus:
 "First.-The air itself has weight, and to ascend into it one must have body much lighter than the air.
 Taking the theory that air has weight, then complete vacuum would be buoyant. But as it is almost im- possible to secure complete vacuum we must then use other means. Air at the sea level weighs approximately seventy-two pounds per 1000 cubic feet Hydrogen, the lightest known gas, weighs approximately seven pounds per 1000 cubic feet. leaving US a buoyancy of the difference, sixty-flve pounds per 1000 cubic feet. An en- velope constructed of silk and thickly coated with a preparation of linseed oil will successfully hold this gas, and with a netting to hold this envelope we have the means of getting into the air.
 "Second.-After securing the means of ascending into the air, we must then find a means of propelling and direct. ing the course of the air vessel. "The screw propeller at once appeals ! to us, and we then attach perpendic 1 ular rudder for steering. So there is no secret connected with navigating an airship. One must first thoroughly un. derstand the conditions under which he is working, and to my mind the rest | is easy.
 "A submarine boat and an airshir have the same conditions to contend with. A submarine travelling against a swift current is capable of making as many knots per hour as is the differ ence between the speed of the boat and the velocity of the water. "The same is true with an airship ! For instance. if we have a wind blow i ing at the rate of fifteen miles pel hour and the speed of the airship i' ' twenty miles per hour in calm, Vt would have when travelling against tht wind the difference of five miles pei hour. I speak of this merely to show the disadvantages of going against tht i wind, while with it the airship would make a speed of nearly thirty-fiv' | miles per hour.
 ! AS we have the buoyancy. the pro polling powers and the ability to steer we then have aerial navigation. bu { we are limited as to speed and th' amount of weight we can carry. WI can increase our carrying power b. adding more gas, but in doing this VI add resistance to the air on account O bulk. and to overcome this difficult. we must add power.
 "The problem then becomes a ques tion of three things-weight, powe | and resistance