The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-31
Chicago Newspaper Man As- sign1d to Mak' th' Trip
 With Santos DunOnt
WILL REPORT PROGRESS
 BY WIRELESS TELEGRAPH
The Airship Will Be the Largest Ever Built, Carrying Five Men and a Total Cargo of 5000
 Pounds.

Chicago, December 30.-"Bulld an air. ship, go find the North Pole and report by wireless telesraphy and submarine cables the progress of your efforts"
 This was the startling assignment given a few days ago to Walter WeIlman, Wash ington correspondent of tho Chicago Rec ord Herald, by Frank B. Moves, editor-in- chief of the paper, and the commission has been accepted by Mr. WelIman. As an associate on this daring expedition, MT. Welllnan will have the services of Albert Santos Dumont of Paris who will have charge of the construction of the airsnip and will act as aeronautle director and pilot.
 The pifship the order for which nas been given, will be bull. py Lewis Godaid of Paris under the supers ison of M. San- tos ,homont. ana will be completed by .hs end cf rext April
 Start From Spitsbcraen. No definite date has as yet been de- clded upon when the explorers will start on their journey, but 1t Is expected that everything will be in readiness to get away next July or early In August Early in July headquarters will be established
 
 await atfavorabie opportunity for n dash to the pole, which, according to MT. We'll man. shohld be reached in less than a week.
 In announcing his acceptance tonight of I the proposed ezpedition. MT, Welman said
 "If l did not believe the chances Of success were greater than those of fall i an ehn lao < MT. Moves acted upon no sudden whim or impulse when he gave me the order, as he had before him report which l had submitted to him as the outcome of two visits to the inner polar regions of years of study of the problems of the pole, or many months of special investigation of airship construction and navigation; the wind and climatic conditions to be oil. countered. and all the multitudinous me- ehanieal or meteorological facts involved.
 High Speed Not Required. "rhe problem of reaching the pole by means of an airship does not require high speed. and the present state of the art of aerial navigation by gas-buoyed and motor-driVen ships Is ample for that puf- pose. From an easily reached base of operation in northern Spitzbergen We hava but 550 geographical miles to go to the pole, and like distance for the return voyage. If we take the whole at 100 II al twelve miles an hour Santos Dumont has repeatedly made from nineteen to twenty-three miles per hour with small arsh,ps, equipped with relatively small motors.
 The airship in which we propose to at tain the North pole will be the largest practical airshlp ever built. It will be i9a feet long and its greatest diameter will be 40 feet It's surface will measure 23- GOO square feet. and It's volume will be GOO cubic feet. Seven thousand pounds will be the weight of the snip and It's equipment, complete. leaving 5000 pounds for cargo The ship will he provided with three motors with g combined energy of seventy y-horse power If tne winds hinder no more than they help, and there are no delays tine ship can motor from North spltzbergen to the pole in 45 hours
 Carries $500 Pounds of Gasoline. "The airship will have an endurance space in buoyancy sufficient to enable it to remain % 10 % days in the air. IL will carry 5500 pounds of gasoline. As our airship will De constructed 1t will be able to make headway against two-thirds of all the winds that blow, even though thcy may be squarey adverse, but 1t Is part of our project to motor only with favor ahle winds and anchor our ship to tho ice and lie to in all unfavorable winds. The ship will be equipped for safe an- chorage in the highest winds ever known in the Arctic region In fact the ship will be subject to the will and hand of ths navigator just llke steamship upon tha ocean. Besides the 6500 pounds of fuel mentioned the ship will carry also fivs men. a comfortable car to live in ,which is also boat in case of needl food and supplies for 75 days, sledges to draw them over the ice, and in fact completely organized and equipped sledging party ready at any moment should It be neces- sary to abandon the airship, and take to tho ice. If at the worst our ship of the air carries us only to the vicinity of tho pole or two-thirds Of the way to II. we have an alternative method of travel by whch we may reasonably hope to com plete our task, and make our return to land In safety
 In Touch With Earth.
 At no time will our airship be out of touch with the surface of the earth. \ guide rope so connected. but In our cass smooth taperlng line of steel, is to drag fits lower end over the ice. keep the ship at q fairly stable height aud maintain under ordinary conditions tho workable stability of the craft
 Wireless telegraph stations will be es- tabllshed at Spltzbergen and at Hammer fest, Norway. six hundred miles distant A wireless equipment will be carried in our airship and 1t will be our effort to send frequent and if possible daily eis- patches to the outside world"
 
 Kentucky Belle Is Welded
 Lexington, Ky. December 60 Miss Clara