The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-04
THE GYRosooPE ON AIRsHIPs.
The Third Possibility of Use for This
 Interesting Instrument.


 groscope have been recently suggest ed, namely, the steadying of vessels and the balancing of railway trains running on single rail. Now a third possibility of utilizing this interesting instrument is discussed by c. L. von LilienbachN in La Conquete de PAir. As a gyroscope has been found to insure the stability of the two kinds of oseilating vehicles referred to, it might be employed as we'll in connec- tion with vessels sailing through the air. In this connection it should prove the more valuable, as lack of stability is known to constitute the greatest drawback to the use of the aeroplane.
 After suggesting that some kind of gyroscope apparatus may be used in the Wright aeroplane, the author points out the great analogy between the conditions affecting the stability of aeroplanes and the stability of a "monoraip' car. In both cases the center of air pressure and the center of gravity must fall on the same straight line if the vehicle is to pre- serve its balance.
 However, it is very difficult to ob- tain this coincidence at the right mo- ment and within the limits actually desired, which is the most important point in connection with aeroplane flights Neither reflex rudders, nor the use of automatic sliding weights, nor finally the front and side steering gears, have given full satisfaction in this connection.
 A more efficient method of obtain taining the desired stability consists in arranging the supporting surfaces in pairs behind one another, the practicabllity of this principle having been demonstrated by Prof. Langley. A similar system has been recently employed in France by Bleriot.
 According to Lilienbach's sugges- ton, the gyroscope could be used in steadying the aeroplane. This would prove valuable, not only in connection with ordinary aeroplanes, but even with the Langley double e-aeroplane airship. Flying machines of the lat ter type to which most experts ascribe the best chances of final success, pos sess a great stability in midair by sliding like sleds on an air cushion, so that only linear inertia has to be &C., counted for They will accordingly require the addition of gyroseope utilizing rotative inertia only in the case of slow flight, In starting and landing, and during storms. In any case the gyroscope would augment the safety of the flight by fixing the cen l ter of gravity of the apparatus, thus exerting favorable influence on the speed of the motor, In fact, the axial position of the gyroscope seems to be of no importance, for, by reason of it's vertical or horizontal rotation, it offers uniform resistance only to a lateral displacement of the apparatus.
 It may be said that propellers pos sess a certain gyroscopio action, espe- cially If the axis Is short The blades of the screws should obviously be thin and of especially light material, on ac- count of the centrifugal force. The propeller actuating the aeroplane thus contributes, by its rotation, to increase the stability of the airshlp, and when there is only one propeller, slight tendency to rotation of the airship in an opposed direction will ,be observed. Two propellers rotating in oposite di- rections, however, compensate each other, and can be arranged either on the same shaft behind one another or symmetrically, side by side. The for- mer construction is more simple. since the other requires a rigid transmits lsion; the latter, however, is the prefer able. Won Lilienbach suggests ar- ranging with three or four pairs of very slightly curved vanes, two addi- tional pairs of symmetrical propellers a separate motor, and dovetail. In order to increase the stability of this arrangement gyroscope should be added
 It should be said that an Austrian and German inventor a few years ago suggested the use of gyroscopes in connection with airships, and that a similar idea has been patented by Etrich and Wels, but abandoned dur ing construction.-Sc Ameri- can,