Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1909-01-16
N|XON'S HUGE A|RSH|P
Expected to Cross Atlantic Ocean
In Two Days.
HALF A MILE IN LENGTH.

Wings on Monster to Serve as Prom
enade Decks For voyagers-To Garry
$500 Passengers-All Metal and
Furniture to Be Inflated With Hy-
drogen.
How would you like to travel across
the Atlantic in an airship the passen-
ger carrying capacity of which is as
great as that of the biggest steamship
afloat?
This is not mere hypothetical
question. Within a year airships OF
that kind will be actually plying be-
tween New York and London, accord
ing to the plans now being worked
upon by Lewis Nixon, who designed
the warships Oregon, Indiana and
Massachusetts,.
The first Of the series Of airships will
be a comparatively small affair, 700
feet in length and eighty feet in its
greatest breadth But the larger yes
sells will have length of $500 feet
and will be capable Of carrying $500
passengers, including the crew, as well
as fuel, provisions, etc., necessary for
the trip. And, incidentally, the trip
across the ocean will consume frac-
tion more than two days.
Thurlow Weed Barnes, the president
of navigation company which is
financing the new venture in aeronau
tics, said to New York Journal re-
porter the other day that he expected
the first Of the great airships to be
launched within the next twelve
months.
He said that there were fifteen di-
rectors of the new company, each Of
whom Is power in the financial
world. And it is very obvious that
nothing less than the biggest sort of
financiers could undertake so stupen-
dous an enterprise, as the smallest of
the airships-the one which is to be
TOO feet in lengths to cost not less
than $1,0OO,OO0.
The construction of the airships will
involve four principles which have
never been used in combination in any
otfler airship ever constructed. These.
psleiples are eompactness, inasmuch
as even the passenger carrying part of
the ship will be within it's body in
stead of merely attached to it in basket
form. Secondly, buoyancy will be Sc
cured by initiating with hydrogen or
other lighter than air gas not only
part Of the body Of the ship, but even
the followed out furniture and the
propellers, which thus also become
lighter than air and will float II tossed
overheard from above the clouds. The
third principle is that Of aereoplanes,
one Of which viii protrude on each
sidefof the body Of the ship. This will
add to the buoyancy given by the gas,
the skimming power which sustains
the heavier than air ships. And, final
~, the fourth unique principle is that
Of the relicopters or propellers on the
sides of the ship, which, when run
horizontally, raise the ship to any re-
quired height and can then be turned
on a swivel to vertical position to
propel the ship forward.
In connection with the aeroplane, it
is an interesting fact that they will
serve on the large type Of machine as
promenade decks for the passengers. g
The front propeller serves not only
the purpose Of drawing the ship for7
ward by creating vacuum Of air into
which the ship is sucked, but by the
terrific speed Of its revolutions it also
acts as set-of to currents of air and
will, moreover, keep rain and snow
from touching the ship.
The furnishing Of the passenger
quarter will be fully as luxurious as
that of the most up to date Pullman
car or ocean greyhound. The furni-
ture will be comfortably large and
constructed of pulp or aluminium. 1t
will be hollow and filed with gas, as
will everything else capable of holding
the lighter than air fluid.