The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-07

and pumps and so lessen the weight. Man-power alone will be of little use in propelling the airship of the future. for a man continuously exerts only one- tenth rse-power, and can support and drive only twenty pounds through the air. According to the late Profes- sor Langley, the greatest weight that can be sustained by a one-horse-power aeroplane Is 209 pounds.
 To the smuggler the airships pre- sents great possib ilities Suppose he has one that will carry only two people besides the crew. He could travel over sea himself and bring back rare laces and jewelry in packages that would not exceed the bulk weight of a man, and then take hts chances with the revenue cutter service of the skies. Here 1t Is possible that invention will retain the balance that has always been kept. As fast as smuggling ves- sells are built and put into use. just so fast will watchful government build swift revenue cutters with vigil- ant officers on board, just so fast will 1t set captive balloons armed with search-lights and rapid-fire guns along the coast lines. Smuggling will be no easier then than now, but 1t will have a bigger sense of risk and of danger that will make 1t more worth while to
 
 It is freight of priceless character that the merchant of the future will risk in airships. They will be used to bring over special orders of jewels, silks and laces for millionaire patrons. hurry-up orders for gowns from the Paquins of the future, rare plants for decorating the homes of those to whom cost Is no consideration. The element of risk will be no greater In the age
 AA of steam. Even with the seas charted by mariners for twenty centuries of world commerce, there are treacherous winds and waves that still enaAnger shipping and destroy many millions of dollars every year. The men of the future who will chart the skies and note the winds and currents and dan gerous eddies will perhaps be no better than the chart-makers of the seas. The men who guide the airships may be as keep-eyed, as vigtlant and learn ed in weather lore as the men who guide the ships at sea, and yet dis aster may come to the one as easily as to the other. Life boats, life pre- serves, systems of distress signals, and superior construction of craft that will not allow ship of air to sink any more quickly than a ship at sea, must all be features of the com ing aerial craft.
 The big Union railway Station in Washington Is the biggest thing of It's kind in the world. All the officers and men of the United States army can be Inassed in the great concourse. Into its sheds rumble hundreds of passenger cars every day, and 1t Is a matter of general curiosity to ths tourist to see just how much ground space Is required for the accommodation of travelling folk. Freight yards in big shipping oenters cover miles of ground and hundreds of miles of track are re- quired for the accommodation of cars when temporarily idle.
 If the esent airships are true pat terms of what the successful ones of the future will be, what type of union passenger and freight stations will be built to meet their needsa Farman's s machine requires over 1000 square feet of ground to rest on, the gaTgage for the aeroplane at Fort Meyer looks like a country town hotel. The shed that housed La Patrie was big enough to hold 8 small cotton factory, and when Knabenshue'S dIrigible balloon hoyered once over the capitol grounds in- Wash ington, there was grave consideration as to whether there was enough clear space in front of the building for It to alight on, if it so caose.
 Architects of the coming era will have busy times devising shelters. sta tions and factories big enough to hold the monster ships of the skies. Wood will be too scarce for such use. steel and reinforced concrete will lead in construction materials. Perhaps the housetops of the future will be. the gargages for the family machines. Then will disappear the privacy that for centuries has pertained to the housetop of the Eastern potentate, for over him will fly the argosies of com mercial nations. and his neighbours housetop will hum with the machinery of the new craft, or resound with the fiip-flap of big wings gaining momen- tum for some cross-continent flight.
 The effect on trade in certain articles will be a result of this great manufac- turing industry of the future. Rubber plays an important part in the manu- facture of cloth for balloons of the type of La Patrie and the one made by WellmAn. The rubber cloth of Le- baudys model is made in Germany. and as goon as there was prospect of the United States government ordering balloons of this type for It's War De- partment, a German firm monopolized the rubber industry so far as that branch of manufacture was. concerned Considering the size of the average war balloon, and the amount of goods, cotton or silk necessary for its mak- ing, the effect on certain industries Is worth considering.
 Certain dangers from their own kind will lie in the path of future aerial freighters, for as a protection of their grain crops from hail the Belgians have recently tried a new inventioH,-a hail cloud destroyer that may some day have to be legislated out of the skieS. These destroyers are pear shaped bal looms, each carrying 500 gramrnes of high explosive to which slow match has been attached. They are sent into inc air and exploded into the hail clouds to disperse them. While these new inventions protect the commodi- ties that make commerce. they will en- danger the very commerce they are seeklng to protect. They will be con- sIdered. in coming days, as to many obstructions in the path of the aviator, asEdangerous as a steel rail or bit of dynamite on the track ahead of the l rySentieth Century Limited.
 (copyright. 1908, by Frederic J. Has TomOrrow-The Age of Flight. V. Aboard the skyfyer.