Manchester Democrat., 1910-10-19
WE[LMAN SEA PATH
SCENE OF STORM
Several Vessels Spoken To, But
None Report the America.
BALLOON RECORD is BROKEN
Airshlp. II Still Up, Thought to se
More Than one-Fourth Of z
the Way to Ire
land.

cSoAs wv. Ao.-WdlScI WCtAAuaA
atrship America had not communi-
Gated with ships so far as known since
sending his last reassuring message.
Following the transatlantic steamer
lane. the large dirigible balloon passed
through the night and morning hours
about 800 or 400 miles from the New
England shore. heading for Sable is-
land, N. S. 1t was expected the wire
less station there would be able to
communicate with the America.
New York, Oct. 18.-Wireless sta
tions along the coast, 80 far, had moth.
ing to report as to the progress of
Walter Wellman's dirigible balloon
America in Its attempted flight across
the Atlantic. Shortly after the Amer
lea passed out of wireless touch with
the Marconi station at Siasconsen and
since then no word has come from the
daring air navigator. who in the alb
sence Of other information is assumed
to be continuing his northeastward
flight along the Atlantic steamer lane.
with the British isles as his destina-
tion.
Not Sighted by the Arabic.
Somewhere between Siasconset and
Sandy Hook the liner Arabic. which
arrived here early In the morning.
must have passed the America, sail
Ing eastward rapidly through the fog.
but though sharp lookout was kept
for the big balloon. and though the
liners wireless operator was listening
alertly for the Nv" code signal of the
airship. not sign of it was re-
ported.
From the Siasconset wireless station
details of the start and copies of mes
sages sent landward by the aerial
voyagers had informed officers and
passengers of the Arabic early in the
morning that the new ocean-going air
ship might CROSS their path during the
day, and everybody was on deck eager
to catch view of her through a lucky
rift in the fog cloud or. II no rift came,
to hear the throb of her engines as she
passed.
Crosses Course Of Many ships.
The Arabic Is the first OF about a
dozen incoming ships whose course
must have crossed that OF the America
during the last "a hours. It is regard
ed as unlikely that any of them saw
the balloon or heard the engines, for
the fog must have prevented sighting
of the Wellman craft. while dispatches
from Siasconset indicate that the en-
gtnes were silent much of the time
while the balloon drifted before 25-
knot breeze toward it's destination.
Perhaps the most significant mes
sage from Wellman before he got
beyond reach Of the wireless appar-
atus at Siasconset was the following.
received shortly before noon Sunday:
"The equilibrator is Jerking o nthe
airship as it leaps from lave to wave
but no damage has been done. The
weather is thick. We believe We are
south of Nantucket. The outlook is
not SO favorable. but we are keeping
up the fight"
EquIiIbrator 10 Described.
The reason for shutting down the
Americans motors in running before
the wind Is made apparent to experts
in the Information given as to the con.
duct Of the equilibrator. The equilib.
rator is the line of iron gasoline tanks
strung on a steel cable and reaching
down to the sea, where its rising and
falling with the expansion and contrac
tion of the hydrogen In the great gas
bag, due to differences Of day and
night temperatures. is supposed to
keep the airship within narrow range
of altitude and to avoid the ne
cessity of letting gas out Of the bag
when the heat of the midday sun
would carry 1t to too great height.
This device IL the invention of Mel
vim vaniman, chief engineer of the
America. His idea in filling the iror
tanks of the equilibrator with gaso
line was that as the buoyancy Of the
airship decreased the tanks could be
hauled up and their contents used II
the motors, thus gradually lesseninl
the weight to be carried.
II Wellman is still in the air he hai
won for himself worlds record By
outdoing all previous feats with dirig
ibles, SO far as time in the air is con
cerned. At $3.50 o'clock he equaled ,
mark OF 81 hours Of continuous figh
in dirigible. set by Count Zeppelin
and not heretofore approached by an!
others.
Must Be Fourth Of Way Over.
Wellman has covered about fourtl
OF the distance to Ireland according Il
computations of probabilities by bal
loon experts here. They figure tina
the balloon had made about 400 miles
and that the continuing strong ives
wind would drive It for the next i
hours at 15 to 20 miles an hour. From
Atlantic City to the nearest point OF
the coast of Ireland is about $50
miles.
rhlrtv.Elye Mlners Fall: Six kIIIed.