The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-31
TO NORTH POLE }
 IN AIRSHIP Walter Wtllnan Will Make Effort.
TO REPORT BY WIRELESS
Ex raordinary Assignment
 Given Newspaper Man.
santos-Dumont win Accompany weii- man and start wm Be Made from spit.berges--PIans
 for the Journey.

20 find the north poie anu report " wireless teiegraphy and submarine ca
 This was the startling assignment given few days ago to Walter Welt man, Washington correspondent cf The Chicago Record Herald. by Frank g. Moves, editor-in chief of the paper. and the commission has been accepted ny Mir Wellman. As an assistant on tnis 1,. daring expedition. Mir. Weilman Will have tue 'servioes of Alberto Santos-Du- mont of Paris. who will have charge of the consfruction of the airship and VIII act as aeronautic director and pilot. The atrship. the order for which has been given. will be built by Louis God ard of Paris under the supervision Of M Santos Dumont and will be com. pleted by the end of next April
 No definite date has as yet been de- | eided upon when the explorers will start on their journey. but 1t is expect
 ed that everything will be in readiness to get away next July or early in Au- gust, Early in July headquarters will
 be established in spirzpergen, where the explorers will await favorable opportunity for dash to the pole. which according to MT. Weilnan, should the expedition meet with good
 run of luck. should be reached in less than a week.
 In announcing his acceptance tonight
 of the. proposed expedition Mir. We'll
 man said:
 If I did not believe the chances of success were greater than those of failure. I should not accept the com | mission. Mr. Moves acted upon no sud- den whim or impulse when he gave me the order, as he had before him ae re- port which I had submitted to him as
 the outcome of two visits to the inner polar regions. of years of study of the problem of the pole. of many months of special investigation of airship con strucfion and navigatien: the wind and
 the climatic conditions to be eneoun- tered and all the nsultitudinotss mes chafieais or meteorological Eacts AIt- volved. v e K --- tasss, ..las | The problem of reaching tho pole by means of an airship does not re- | duire high speed and the present state | of the art of aerial navigation by gas | buoyed and motor driven ships is ann | pie for that purposes From an easily
 reached base of operations in North ern SpftZbergen. we have but $50 geo. | graphical miles to so to the Pole, and
 a like distance for the return voyage.
 If we take the whole at 1900 miles, it | means but 100 hours of motoring at l twelve miles an hour. Santos-Dumont ! has repeatedly made from nineteen to | twenty-three miles per hour with small
 airships equipped with relatively small | motors.
 attain the north pole will be the largest practical airship ever built. It will be 195 feet long and it's greatest diameter will be forty-nine feet. Its surface will measure 23.000 square feet and its vol
 ume will be 226.000 cubic feet.
 Seven thousand pounds will be the
 weight of the ship and its equipment complete, leaving 5000 pounds for car | ha nrnNidad vuffla
 three motors with combined energy of seventy horse power. If the winds hinder no more than they help and there are no delays. the ship can motor from North Spitzbergen to the pole in
 forty-five hours.
 Able to Go Against Winds.
 The airship will have an endurance
 it to remain twenty-five to thirty days
 in the air It will carry $500 pounds Iof gasoline. As our airship will be { constructed it will be able to mako l headway aga'nst two thirds of all the
 winds that blow even though they may
 be suuarely adverse. but it is part of
 our project to motor only with favor
 able winds and anchor our ship to the
 ice and Tie to in all unfavorabie winds
 'The ship will be equipped for safe ! anchorage in the highest winds ever | known in the arctic region. In fact the | ship will be subject to the VIII and
 hand of the navigator just like a | steamship upon the ocean. Beside the | $500 pounds of fuel mentioned the ship
 will carry also five men, a comfortable
 car to live in (which is also a boat in
 case of need) food and supplies for 70 1 days, sledges to draw them over the l Ice and, in fact comparatively or
 ganied and equipped sledgins party ready at any moment, should 1t be | necessary, to abandon the airship and ! take to the lee.
 ''If at the worst our ship of the air | carries us only to the vicinity of the l pole, or two thirds of the way to it., we have an alternative method of trav-
 el by which we may reasonably hope to complete our task and make our re- turn to land in safety.
 At no time will our airship be out of touch with the surface of the earth. A guide rope so-called, but in our case smooth tapering line of steel is to drag its lower end over the ice, keep the ship at fairly stable height and main tain under ordinary conditions the sta bility of the craft.
 Wireless telegraph stations will be established at Spitzbergen and at Ham, herfest. Norway, 600 miles distant. <
 wireless equipment will be carried in
 our airship and 1t will be our effort to send frequent and if possible daily di-
 patches to the outside world"