Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-11-10
A MODEST AERONAUT
A Roy Knabenshue and His Won.
derfuI Airship
The Young inventor MlnlmIzes the Inn
portanee Of His Achievement In Sailing
over the skyserapers Of New York.

Il 90 not DelleVe tnaL any greater sue
cess in aerial navigation is likely than
that which we have attained" said A.
Roy Knabenshue. the first to sail over
the skyscrapers Of New York in an air
ship, at the Hotel St. Paul, New York,
yesterday afternoon. THAT is, l do not
believe that airships are ever likely to
be a commercial success for the carriage
of passengers and freight. l don't want
to put myself forward as knowing all
about it, for l don't l merely tell you
what seem to me the lessons of my own
experience. Sometimes the judgment OF
the man who has been there is warped
by that very fact, but 1 can only tell you
that do not think any great progress is
in sight.
I'm the last 200 years there has been
very little learned about aerial naviga-
ton. We have altered the shape of the
balloon, and we have put in the motor
and the propeller. That is all. 1 am
going on working on the same lines and
1 may hit on something that will prove
to be a great advance, but l am not very
confident Every advance means new
complication. You say my frame is
fimsy. 1t is; but II / made 1t rigid, 1t
would be so much heavier. That would
mean larger balloon; and that would
cause a greater resistance TO the air. You
| say put in a larger engine; but that is
| heavier again, and so we reach a vicious
circle"
There is nothing of the charlatan or the
boaster about Mr.. Knabenshue. He
claims to have invented a very interest.
| ing toy, and he has made good his asser-
| ton; but he is absolutely frank in con-
| Tossing its limitations. He has received
offers to go into a joint stock company
for the manufacture Of his machines as
| the final word in airships, but he has
steadily refused. Possibly he may dis
cover a combination which will solve the
problem, but until then he will not make
assertions he cannot substantiate.
He is 2S years of age, the son Of the
American Consul at Belfast, Ireland, an
old newspaper man. He has studied
electrical engineering and has been in
| terested in ballooning for some time.
| Captive balloon ascents were the means
| by which he made his living till last year.
when he met Baldwin at st. Louis. For
| him he made some ascents in his airship
one of which led to a disastrous spill on
the ground and broken rib. Some bust
ness disagreement arose between them
| and they parted company; but Knaben-
shue was too greatly fascinated with air
ships to return to humdrum ascents at
| the end of a rope. He improved on Bald
wins models with the result that he first
has sailed over New York.
Actually What He Has Discovered.
The chief advances he claims for him
| self are a new kind of gasoline motor Of
| exceptional lightness and the discarding
of the valve in the balloon, which also
saves a good deal OF weight. According
| to his figures the motor he has invented
developes ninety horse power and tips the
scale at ninety-two pounds, while the
| engine in the Baldwin machine weighed
100 pounds and could produce hardly five
! horse power. The omission of the valve
| in the balloon is a more startling inven-
| ton. AS everybody knows the gas ex-
j pands the higher the ascent and the ele-
walton a balloon can attain 10 limited by
the risk Of splitting the envelope. For
| this reason when n certain height has
been reached 1t is customary for aero
nauts to open the valve and allow some
| of the gas to escape. But the valve
| weighs from 20 to 25 pounds and Is quite
useless for any other purpose than to open
| and shut the mouth of the gas chamber.
Mr.. Knabenshue has substituted for it a
plain ordinary office rubber band. Old
timers may be Mortified at his daring,
but he takes the matter very quietly.
| When he wishes to let gas out he slips
off the band; when he thinks enough has
been freed he slips the band on again,
and meanwhile he has saved an appre-
ciable number of pounds.
In appearance Mr.. Knabenshue looks
like a typical American athlete Abso-
lutely without side" he is the kind OF
man might De picked III II crown dt
tirSt-rate runner. He weighs 100 pounds
AMI has a well-knit cleanly built frame
with slender muscular limbs. There does
not seem an ounce of superfluous flesh
on his bones and he gives every promise
OF agility and strength. AS matter OF
fact he possesses them and II is well that
he does. The airship to which he trusts
his life 5000 feet in the air is of the most
fiimsy construction and far more tender
than the greatest freak that has ever
crossed the line in a yacht race. To
navigate it requires a combination of thC
qualities of steeple- jack and an acrobat
The balloon may be described as re-
semblng a whale with the tail cut off, Il
is 62 feet long with a blunt nose and 6
tapering end, and is greatest in girtf
about one-third of the way from its for
ward extremity where the diameter II
sixteen feet. 1t holds 1000 cubic feet o.
gas and can lift 500 pounds. About eigh
feet below it hangs the car, or rather
the frame of what would be a car II their
was any lifting power to spare. 1t Il
| shaped like a canoe and consists of TIVE
long strips OF spruce, an inch wide anC
two feet apart, but meeting at either end
They are connected by few braces o
spruce and a network of piano-wires, bu
the interstices are foot wide and ever
IL the sailor does not step through these
his only protection from falling sideway
overheard is a light rail, three feet abov
the keel The propeller with two blade
of cloth on a spruce frame is at the bow
OF this queer craft; the motor about 2
feet further aft; the rudder at the stern
Tho navigator takes his stand with on
foot on either longitudinal strip of tn
frame with n small saddle-shaped seat a
the only relief from the strain of his posi-
ton. But even II he had the place, h
, would not have the opportunity for re
! pose, for every moment is occupied wit
the necessity of trimming ship. Just a
the crew of a racing yacht has to hyk
out to windward, so Mr. Knabenshu
. has to alter his position to balance hi
craft against every pun of wind, an
moreover the plane of his progress de
ponds entirely on the way he stands
Would he go up, he takes step towar
the stern would he descend, step for
ward, and the air-ship answers to hi
slightest motion with far more delicac
than the most unstable of canoes.
All these movements have to be per
formed without a seconds hesitation l
mid-air, for the air-currents are mos
complicated and confusing. In speakin
of them Mr.. Knabenshue said:
The FlatIron Buildings Wind.
1.-THE trouble is you cannot see an all
current and are right in 1t before you su:
pect its existence. Now i had been b
the Flatiron Building on the ground an
had noticed the rush of wind around
: but / never thought 1 should find it ha
any effect on the upper air. Yet 30l