The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-08-21
MOB CaASBS FLYING AIRSHIP.
SWARM OVER PARK LAWNS-MANY
KNOCKED DOWN AND HURT.
Knsbenshue's Toledo No. , Sails Twenty
Blocks and Bsck and Circles Times
Buildins-Cfowd Afsot and In Trol-
leys Chsses Twas 800 Feet Up.


bis bullet shaped airship. left his tent In .
vacant lot at Sixty second street and Central
Park West at noon yesterday and made
trim to the Times Building and back.
Atent had been set UP in the lot. and when
the airship was brou ght out and released
Yesterday II scared straight up In the air
for two or three hundred feet.
Something went wrong then and tho
engine stopped. The machine oame slowly
Down and settled among the trees border
Ing the West Drive. A park cop came,
running up and told Knsbenshue that II
he didn't get out Immediately he would be
arrested. Knabenshue soon adjusted mat
ters enough to rise above the trees and get
back to his starting point.
There repairs were effected and q second
start made at 1922. Charles j. Strobel.
the baseball man Of Toledo, Knaben-
shues financial hacker, and several re-
rorters started In an automobile to beat
the airship downtown. So did great
crowd which had gathered; attracted by
the unusual sight. Men and women came
running from every side street and avenue
until the Circle at Fhty-ninth street was
packed with folks staring skyward.
When the airship passed over the Circle
going south the entire crowd broke and
started down Broadway and Eighth avenue.
Some were knocked down and trampled on
and the cars going south were jammed.
The airship rose to q height OF about 1, 900
feet over the Circle, hesitated and then shot
away down Broadway. 1t travelled con-
siderably faster than the auto until the
Times Building was reached.
hod annOllnCod hia pttAnfi ion
of sailing around the Flatiron Building.
but, he says; got the Times and Flatiron
buildings mixed and settled down until he
lowered just over the tower. about SEQ feet
in the air.
The airship then made turn. went up
to its highest rise, 1900 feet, and came
back toward the Circle.
The crowd then had grown until. the
police say, there were rs 900 to $4,000 people
packed around the statue OF Columbus.
The ropes Of the traffic squad had been
swept away and the police were lost in the
shuttle.
The airship got ii trouble again near
the Circle and made shoot for the elevated
structure at Columbus avenue, but righted
itself in time and shot up again. The
engine had stopped, however, and the
ship was merely drifting with the air cur
rents and gradually foated off over Central
Park.
When the airship started for the park
the entire crowd broke again and swept
the police of their feet. Part made rush
up the West Drive and part chose Central
Park West .---~-~-
Horses, pedestrians and even automo-
biles turned and fed north when they
sighted the oncoming crowd. The few
police in sight were helpless. In the park
the crowd parted and spread over roads,
paths and lawns, cheering and running.
Those who had gone up Central Park West
began jumping the wall and running over
the grass. Traffic was blocked entirely
along the park for twenty minutes.
In the park fully score OF children were
knocked down and trampled on. One child
was BOWED over by buggy, in which were
two Policemen. The police drove the
b, egv f,ll tilt into the densely packed mob.
When the child went down. more scared
The. i, ri. the whole crowd turned it's
a'tent 81 to tho buggy and Missed and
iooral.
q rerc-vo, were seat for, and the crowd
w. r.rr.J unchecked throughout. No
f., n h, Circle, but scores carried bruises
{ ! wps home with them.
lie arship had been slowly settling,
r"j list efty-four minutes after its start
r. g no gracefully through the trees on
C." avn opposite Sixty-first street.
-------~---Tstt~ Immediately surrounded IT,
rr'. .ra time it looked az though 1t would
he '-' oi she'd
I.ral enshue was cooped up inside the
rt"irg. bat lis pleas to the crowd to be
cs''r were successful and he stalled them
OF IcrG enough for his assistants to sur
rord Ito eirship. No policeman now
,hcctcncd him with arrest. The airship
VIZ lifted on the shoulders Of his assistants
and, with the crowd following. was carried
down the West Drive to the Fifty-ninth
street entrance and up Central Park West
to SiStyfourth street.
The crowd had made q cross cut, and
another wild scramble over the park wall
followed. The two streams OF people
came together again at this point, and
many went down. Here again the police
were not noticeable, and the crowd had
things their own way. A space was finally
cleared about the airship and 1t rose, sailed
over the fence and dropped down into the
lot in front Of its tent.
The police at last made their presence
felt and were successful in keeping the
crowd ont of the lot.
Tho airship was quickly run into the tent
and Knabenshue, Strobel and their assist
ants were then busy posing for almost In
Vulnerable photographers. New York's
rival aeronaut. Lawyer Ludlow. was an
interested and excited spectator OF the
trip.
Knabenshue told the reporters about his
trip.
Tho first time I started I stalled my
engine by speeding 1t up to clear the trees.
but it didn't amount to anything serious.
When ! went up the second time found
quite wind blowing up above. 1t was
very difficult to steer, on account OF tho
eddies and whirlpools. Sometimes 1t got
too strong for my rudder and was forced
to drift. think my highest rise was about
LOO feet, when started to come back.
The reason my engine stopped on the re-
turn trip was that lost a connecting plug
between my electric current and engine.
rubbed against the plug with my trousers
and knOoked n o,it I had no other with