The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-07
THE AGE OF FLIGHT
unnrnnnunnlnumnnnnnnnnnnunnunnnnnunn
IV..FREIGHTERS OF THE AIR
By Frederic J. Haskin.

When the age of flight has perfected all things. may we not see a new Kind
 of shipping rising skyward wi'h
 perishable freight that must be quick
 iy delivered, or with the products Of
 some inland farm too remote from
 waterway and railway to otherwise
 market its goods? There was a great
 ripple of amusement in the East about
 century ago when an enterprising
 engineer devised a new method or
 transportation in the PennsylVanla
 mountains, He had cut canal west
 yard and the mountains were in his
 pathway. so he devised railway from
 the eastern half of the canal over the mountains to the western half titted
 his canal boats with wheels and pre- pared to lift them by a stationary engine on the mountain top, until they slipped over the ridge to the valley and into the canal on the other side. This was before the days of railroads and steam engines, remember. As the rail- ways came the next year, however. his unique transportation system was not put into use. It is quite possible to turn the same idea to account when airships become
 freighters. The inland farmer might load his produce on barges lifted by an army of small balloons and lowed by
 
 waterway, where by a system of air
 depression the barge could be lowered to the water barge and sent on the | rest of It's many thousand miles Journey at less expense. for the snip of the skies will not be without It's ex- pensive features for many years after its perfection.
 The present cost of building an air
 ship is about the selling price of good touring automobile. An ordinary aero plane ftted with wheels on which U
 must run to gain raising force. and without machinery. will cost the pres- ent-day maker s1,000. A gasoline | motor of twenty -one horsepower will | cost e1,s00, it's installation $60, and the screw and It's installation $lOO more | These are the figures that an inventor has named as the cost of his own ma chine. The Wright brothers offered
 their aeroplane rights to the govern
 ment for $25.O00, Herring bid s20,OoV' | and Scott is said to have bid sl,ooo' The government some years ago appfo- priated something like e50,o00 for Pro- lessor Langley's experiments with l heavier .than air machines. and the
 money was not deemed thrown away l though the machine was not success | ZeppeIin's aluminium bodied ship cost s125, 900, his flexible atrship $SO,0Oe. | If the conquest of the air Is to be an | established fact, the making Of air
 ships will become a national industry | just as is the making of railway ana
 street cars, automobiles. ships' farm
 vehicles and bicycles. With the parts
 standardized, and factories tpInins them out with the rapidity with which
 they are now turning out other things | and with other factories to assemble | the parts, the purchase price of an aerial run-about or hansoni, or barge | or interufban car, or seeing-tne-clty | car would ba materially decreased and the new carrier placed within the reach of many. .''.''
 | By the time these factories have come into existence, many important
 points in airship construction will nave | to be solved. The question or warm ing the passengers and protecting then from the wind has not yet occupied the l attention. To make the air warmer l would require an additional weight-s thing to be avoided when every ouncE l will count. An aeronaht, who adver'
 tised fifty years ago that he would sal 1 from New York to London, proposed te
 generate the heat for the car under his balloon by s1aking lime. other. have followed with alcohol stoves bu' l these cannot be used on the aeroplane
 of the present day, To protect tns passengers from the wind would cal | for a device that would otler 100 great l resistance to the air.
 Already lighter and more durable | engines are being manufactured to
 meet the demands of airship makers
 Pelterie has done away with the heavy fy-wheels on his engine to lessen the l weight, and has seven cylinders, star
 shaped, which exactly distribute the ex-
 plosion. Santos Dumon't latest engine weighs only five pounds per horse power, and the perfectly balanced working parts keep the ship Tree rom
 vibration. Small petrol engines WelsH- ing only two and. a half pounds per horse-nower are on the market. Air cooled engines have superseded water