The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1906-03-14
MASTERY OF THE AIR.
PROGRESS IN DiRIGlBLE BAL
LOOMS AND FLYING MACHINES.


Miles Per Hour Predicted.
1t is characteristic of the American
people, with our practical turn of
mind, that we refuse to take any sem
sational invention seriously until it
Is set down perfected at our feet. We
are not interested in the preliminary
progress, and take an attitude of skep-
ticism, until we wake up some day to
find 1t realized fact.
1t was so with the automobile, which
received no encouragement on this
side of the water until about five years
after the French had proved to their
satisfaction that it was the coming
vehicle, and 1t was so with the wire
less telegraph, which many persons
had never heard of until it was in
operation.
The exhibition of the Aero Club of
America in connection with the auto
mobile show, has been, for this reason,
a revelation TO many who have paid
no attention to the progress of aerial
navigation during the past ten years,
same amusement as the search for per-
petual motion and believing its sue
cessful solution about as distant as
the Judgment Day. In the light of
this exhibition, 1t seems necessary to
admit not only that aerial navigation
is possible, but that it is on the road
to becoming practicable. OF course,
much remains TO be done, but balloons
steerable in light wind are now ac-
cepted facts, and-far more remark
able scientifically-a machine has been
constructed of materials heavier than
air with which a man has made a
fight of thirty-eight minutes duration
travelling safely a distance of twenty
five miles.
1t is necessary in considering aerial
navigation to draw a line between the
two methods mployed-between the
dirigible balloon or airship on one
hand and the flying machine, aero
| plane, or aerodrome on the other The
balloon principle is the oldest and
most firmly intrenched in popular
fancy, but it seems to be inferior in
possibilities now to the flying ma
chine. The balloon depends for sup
port on the use of a gas lighter than
air, and when equipped with a motor
has proved steerable, so long as there
was an absence of wind, but the bulk
is such that it offers too much resis-
tance to be capable of high speed, the
body is too fragile to be driven with
| great force, and the cost of construc-
ton and maintenance is considerable.
The flying machine is far bolder in
conception. 1t is built of materials
heavier than the air, but is supported
in and propelled through it by attached
motor power.
| 1t is thought that the speed of a bal
loon cannot much exceed twenty miles
an hour. The aeroplane has done
about twice that, and 1t is only ques-
ton of combining power with light
ness in the motor to improve upon this
so that rate of 100, or even 200 miles
an hour is declared possible. The cost
OF an aeroplane is slight, as is that
|
pense for right of way or roadbed, it
has been fancifully estimated that pas
sengers might be carried from New
York to Chicago for dollar apiece
with profit. So far flying machines
have been built only large enough to
carry one man, but this, of course,
need not be the case once the type of
construction is somewhat settled up
on. Balloons have. already been up
with several passengers, and there are
no necessary limits to the size of
them or their engines. The Court
Zeppeelin No. 2, now under trial at
| Constance. is mamoth affair, carry
160-horsepower engine. In flying ma
! chimes Herring has a model now ON
exhibition with the Aero Club in
which a one-tenth horsepower electric
motor is enough for nine pounds
weight of the aeroplane, but no fixed
ratio has been determined yet be-
tween weight and necessary horse
power.
| Although all the real development of
the flying machine has been done by
Americans, and mostly in America, its
sponsors today like the Wrights,
Langley and Herring, have less repu-
tation in this country than has Santos
Dumont, whose achievements in the
way of dirigible balloon have been
notably not less revolutionary. San
tos Dumont chose Paris for his ex-
periments, where the imaginative
French mind made much of them,
and his reputation was imported to
this country, like many other things
French at its face value. If he had
conducted his tests in this country he
would probably be less famous. In
| fact, it has taken the French to come
over here and put value on our own
| experiments, the Wright brothers hav-
| ing only recently sold the rights in
| their improved flying machine for the
use of the French government for
consideration amounting to about
| 5000. 900.
The beginnings of the balloon go
back to 1882, when Joseph and Steph-
\ 4