The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-18

now proposes to ascend next September
TO a height Of ten miles in a balloon
equipped with wireless antennae. IN the
nope OF catching some Of the signals
Mnich he suppOses the inha oitants or
Mars TO be trying TO transmit to the
earth Eventually, it may Be possible 70
communicate with the sister planet, II
not to visit it, by means of an airship-
me United States signal corps is equip
pms the army balloons with wireless APP
paratus, and Leo Stevens, the cele ted
aeronaut, is using the wireless telephone
with some of the balloons he Is making
The United States war department is
Tar 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 airship. a small
dlrlgibes constructed by Captain Tom
BALDWIN, and several ordinary free ana
captive balloons. Germany, on the other
hand, has seven huge dirigibles, includ-
ing one Of the Zeppelin. one OF this
type, 40 feet long, not long ago carried
a company of twenty-six men across the
country on a twelve-hour run. and only
a Few days ago Zeppelin made run of
about $50 miles in a similar ship. Ger
many is building airship harbors and
dockyards. France has four Mig air
ships of different types, one at each OF
ner chief fortified cities on the German
frontier. England has two airships Rus
sias 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 a plan OF detense
through the application OF aeronautics.
Congress refuses to appropriate money
for military aeronautics in the United
states, although strategists say that al
least half a dozen large up-tO-date diri-
gibles and a number of aerOplaneS, be
sides several well equipped aeronautical
tat in Il arfa of
are necessary to insure the safety OF the
country. At present the army has one
satisfactory station at Fort Omaha. Ne b.,
with a 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 d1Tigible
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 nave 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.
Numerous records in flight have been
made and broken during the past few
months Wilbur Wright flew continuous
~ for two hours and twenty-One minutes
and attained d height Of $50 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 Us miles in
thirteen hours. Point to point balloon
races have been held in North Adams,
Mass. To Henry Farnam, the ScOtchman,
do he
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
not long ago. flew an equal
distance across the country. The Ameri- |
can, Captain Cody, recently perfected an
aeroplane for the British army. The
Aerial Navigation company has been in
cOrpOrated to do a freight and passenger
business between Boston and New York. |
A new code Of laws governing the high
way Of the air is a recognized necessity. |
AerOnsutics has become so popular at
Los Angeles that the authorities propose
to invoke the law against baliooniStS, |
forbidding the dumping of rubbish on an |
others premises, this course being deemed |
necessary because of so much ballast be !
ng thrown overheard onto private prop
srty. Leo Stevens favOrs governmental |
control of aviation and a system of |
icencing 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- |
3ging the air navigator. The old world /
has offered $3.50, 600 in prizes, not to men |
ion Germany's prize of $4,000 for a /
journey The first in /
ernational aviation races will be held /
n France for the valuable James Gordon /
Bennett cup and 5000 in cash prizes. In /
his country the recent national cham
)ionship race from Indianapolis will be
succeeded in the fall by a great ''air car
rival" at St. Louis, and a series of aer-
contests in connection with the
Tulton-HudsOn celebration at New York.
The conquest of the air is already a
act. Aeronautics has progressed further
n the past year than in any previous
leCade. The aeTOplane and the dirigible
ire being operated in nearly every civil
lied country. It took centuries to evolve
he Lusitania; the locomotive was the re-
ult of many long years Of development.
The automobile has been perfected in ten
ears. It looks as though aerial flight
would reach something like full develop
nent in less time.
Copyright, 1909 by Frederic ]. Haskin.)