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 specil-
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 a
successful endurance flight, Capt. BALDWIN
will receive &C. $50 for his balloon.
Herring at Fort Myer.
little ,fsay-e yesterday a ,ftae
noon offering a suggestion here and there,
seeming to know everybody on the job, as
they all knew him. He scarcely spoke
above whisper. For all outward appear
ances he might have been any one of the
thousand visitors, only he was inside the
prohibited lines.
Il was y. NJ Herring, the heavier-than-
air man. who came down to Washington
yesterday to get extension OF time on
his machine. He wants a month longer,
owing to accidents which have happened
in his shop. This will be granted him by
the War Department.
Herring does not court notoriety. When
introduced to a 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 position to do
all the War Department asked and little
more, and that there was nothing else to
Ruf he IN
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
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 ,,le things it would do.
He says it is not gyroscOpe, though 1t
acts more or less like one in giving it's
results. 1t is an automatic arrangement
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 UNI
der one of the planes the plane bows down
to meet 1t. In this 1t acts more or less
on the principle of the gyroscope rail-
road car invented by Brennan. This car
stands upright on single wheel and
rises slightly when heavy weight is
dropped on one edge.
In the same way the Herring car runs
on single wheel in the center. If tn.
car is stopped. says the inventor it nat
urally topples over on the wheel and the
started it rises like a bicycle with the
rider on board and, getting running
start, goes into the air.
Herring Explains Generally.
Herring would not enter into details as
tn how the mecha nism accommodated +,;s
but said there was no apparent movement
of the planes or any of the rest of the
machinery. 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 gusty wind up to thirty miles an
hour.
But really there is little use in discuss
ing the subject" he said, deprecatingly
The public is not interested in the me-
chanics Of the thing, and 1t would be i'm
possible to put it into language that
would be understood by any one except
scientist.
If had machine that would do this. I
did not come out and do it in public
where people would see me. Now, in ali
seriousness. l do not care about being
seen or much what the public thinks
Il have orders ahead for about fifty
machines. There are possibly 100 orders
in sight.
Il would have been ready for this test
on time. but there were some accidents i'm
my shop. / 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 have been put back.
II have been working a night shift in
the shop trying to catch up. l work my
self usually from Z o'clock in the morning
to o'clock the next morning" And he
switched off his talk to study one of the
valves on Curtis engine
Asked whether the machine now build
Ing had ever really carried man. Mr..
Herring said frankly:
mo. 1t has net. The War Department
call for carrying two oper-
ators. This is the first machine of that
size I have built. But the smaller single
has carried a 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-carryins 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