The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-18
CONQUEST OF THE AIR
BY FREDERIC }. HAskIN.

now proposes TO ascend next September
70 height Of ten miles in a balloon
equipped with wireless antennae, IN the
/ nope OF catching some OF the slsnalS
Mhich ne suppOses the Inhabitants OF
Mars to be trying to transmit 10 the
earth Eventually, il may be possible 10
/ communicate with the sister planet, II
The United States signal corps is equip
ping the army balloons with wireless ap-
pardtus, and Leo Stevens, the celebrated
aefonaut, is using the wireless telephone
with some of the balloons he is making
The United States war department Is
Iar behind the war offices of other pow
ers IN the matter of ownership of means
OF air navigation. The United states now
! owns Put one military aiTship. small
| qlrlglbb, constructed by Captain Tom
BALDWIN, and several ordinary free and
captive balloons. Germany, on the other
hand- has seven huge dirigibles. includ-
ing one Of the Zeppelin. One of TINS
type, $50 feet long. not long ago carried
a company Of twenty-six men across the
country on a twelve-hCur run. and only
| a rev days ago Zeppelin made a run OF
about $50 miles in a similar ship Ger
many is building airship harbOrs and
dOckyards. France has four big air
ships of different types, one at 'each Of
her chief fortified cities on the German
frontier. England has two airships, Rus
STA, Italy and Spain one each. Belgium
and Switzerland are each building an air
ship.
Each Of the continental nations has a
well organized corps of aeronauts, and in
several of them there is a commission Of
experts considering plan OF defense
through the application of aerOnautics
Congress refuses to appropriate money
Tor military aerOnautiCs in the United
States, although strategists say that at
least half dozen large up-tO-date dlri-
glbles and a number of aerOplanes, be-
sides several well equipped aeronautical
stations in different parts of the Union,
are necessary to insure the safety of the
country. At present the army has one
satisfactory station at Fort Omaha, Neb.,
with big balloon house, wireless tower
hydrogen gas generator and other neces-
sary apparatus For lack Of suitable
equipment at Fort Myer, and because
the balloon tent there has been blown
down several times, the army dirigible
and other balloons are being shipped to
Omaha, whence the aerOnautiCal detach-
ment of five officers and seventeen men
of the signal corps are being transferred
for practice.
The American navy has no airships, al
though experts say it should have sew
eral aerOplanes for scouting. Lack OF
funds explains the situation IN this case,
also An effort viii be made to provide
one next year Special artillery mounted
on automobiles has been built abroad TO
pursue and destroy military aircraft. and
an artificial fog is planned to hinder
their operations
made and broken during the past few
months. Wilbur Wright flew continuous
~ for two hours and tWenty-One minutes
and attained a height of 800 feet. The
longest trip Of the kind was made by the
German Gross. which left Berlin carry
ing four passengers, and returned TO the
starting point after covering 176 miles in
thirteen hours. Point to point balloon
races have been held in North Adams,
Mass. To Henry Farnam. the Scotchman,
belongs the honor of having made the
first crOss-cOuntry aerOplane flight. He
Travelled seventeen miles on this trip at
a speed Of fifty-one miles an hour, in
France Bleriot, the Frenchman, in his
monoplsne, not long ago. flew an equal
distance across the country The Ameri-
can, Captain Cody, recently perfected an
aerOpiane for the British army The
Aerial Navigation company has been in
cOrpOrated to do freight and passenger
business between Boston and New York.
A new code Of laws governing the high
way Of the air is recognized necessity.
Aeronautics has become so popular at
Los Angeles that the authorities propose
to invoke the law against balloonists,
fOrbidding the dumping of rubbish on an
others premises, this course being deemed
necessary because of so much ballast be
ing thrown overheard onto private prop
erty. Leo Stevens favOrs governmental |
control Of aviation and a system Of
hcencing aerOnauts. An international con-
gress on aeronautiCs to determine the
rights Of nations in the air they breathe
is proposed
Europe is ahead Of America in encour-
a ging the air navigator The old world |
has offered $4,000 in prizes. not to men,
ton Germanys prize of $4,000 for a |
journey. The first in |
ternatiOnal aviation races will be held /
I'm France for the valuable James Gordon |
Bennett cup and 5000 in cash prizes. In /
this country the recent national cham /
pionship race from Indianapolis will be /
succeeded in the fall by a great 'air car
niva' at St Louis. and a series of aer- /
onaulical contests in connection with the 4
celebration at New York. /
The conquest of the air IS already a /
fact. Aeronautics has progressed further /
IN the past year than in any previous 1
decade. The aeroplane and the diTigible !
are being operated in nearly every civil /
lized country It took centuries to evolve 4
the Lusitania; the locomotive was the re
suit Of many long years of development. /
The automobile has been perfected in ten .
years. It looks as though aerial flight /
would reach something like full develop
ment in less time.
Copyright, 1909. by Frederic J. Haskin.) I