Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-09

specifications which was found lacking
was that which required ''all fitting and
appurtenances which will be required for
successful and continuous flights must
be provided.
Capt. Baldwin has been using an anchor
and a guide rope which were borrowed
from the Signal Corps. The centrifugal
blower had been placed in position before
the inspection was made.
Everything else being up to. the specl1-
cation requirements. Capt. Baldwin's air.
ship, i'm SO far as it's construction is con-
cerned. has been accepted by the govern
ment. If twenty miles an hour Is made In
the speed trial and the airship makes
successful endurance fight. Capt. Baldwin
will receive S. $50 for his balloon.
Herring at Fort Myer.
y little srayfaced. gray-eyed man hung
around the Baldwin airShip yesterday a fter-
noon offering a suggestion here and there.
seeming to know everybody on the job, as
they all knew him. He scarcely spoke
above a whisper For all outward appear
ances he might have been any one of the
prohibited lines.
I, was y. NJ Herring, the heavier-than-
air man. who came down to Washington
yesterday TO get an extension OF time on
his machine. He wants month longer,
owing to accidents which have happened
in his shop. This will be granted him by
the War Department.
Herring does not court nOtoricty. When
introduced to Star man, who explained
he had heard of the aviator being in town,
Herring said almost plaintively:
II don't know how you heard it. never
told ANYBODY"
He was loath to talk about his ma
chine, saying ne was in a position to do
all the War Department asked and a little
more, and that there was nothing else to
say about it, But he did finally loosen up
a little in reply to questions.
Herring is the man who has built a
plane nth an automatic balancing ar
rangement.'' This much has been said of
IT i'm all the stories that have been print
ed. Just what this arrangement is the
inventor will not say in detail. but he
told of some of the things it was not and
some of ,,ie things it would do.
He says it is not gyrOscope, though 1t
acts more or less like one in giving Its
thac anticipates the action of wind cur
rents and throws the weight of the ma
chine against them instead of allowing
them to push 1t out of the way.
For instance, if a gust of wind gets I'M
der one of the planes the plane bows down
on the principle of the gyroscope rail-
road car invented by Brennan. This car
stands upright on a single wheel and
rises slightly when heavy weight is
dropped on one edge.
In the same way the Herring car runs
single wheel in the center. If thu
car is stopped, says the inventor. it nat
urally topples over on the wheel and the
point Of one wing: But II the engine is
started it rises like bicycle with the
rider on board and, getting d running
start, goes into the air.
Herring Explains Generally.
Herring would not enter into details as
l.
but said there was no apparent movement
of the planes or any of the rest of the
machinery. A loose curtain on the for
ward edge of the plane. he said, was
enough to set the machinery to acting,
and the plane would ride on even keel in
even a gusty wind up to thirty miles an
hour.
But really there is little use in discuss
ing the subject" he said, deprecatingly.
chanics Of the thing, and it would be i'm
possible to put it into language that
would be understood by any one except a
scientist.
If had a machine that would do this,
did not come out and do it in public
where people would see me. Now, in all
seriousness, l do not care about being
seen or much what the public thinks
Il have orders ahead for about fiftv
machines There are possibly 100 orders
in sight.
Il would have been ready for this test
on time. but there were some accidents in
my shop. I had the end of one finger
torn off, and he displayed the fresh
wound And then one of the two en-
gines was injured in another accident
And I have been put back.
II have been working a night shift In
the shop trying to catch up. l work my
self usually from o'clock in the morning
to 1 o'clock the next morning" And he
switched off his talk to study one of the
concentric valves on Curtis engine
Asked whether the machine now build
ing had ever really carried man, Mr.
Herring said frankly:
NO. 1t has net. The War Department
specifications call for carrying two oper-
ators. This is the first machine of that
size have built But the smaller single
machine has carried man."
Seeing that the big machine can he
taken down and packed in a Saratoga
trunk. all but the engine, this argues that
the small machine must have been very
small indeed.
Asked how far the man-carryine ma
chine had flown. Herring said he did NOT
care to go into details. but admitted he
had been up ninety feet in the air on one
Of his own planes.
One remarkable feature Of the Herring