The Calumet news., 1910-09-08
Balloon Inflated With 34S,00O
Cubic Feet Of Gas and Car
Is Being Attached
to II Now
TO JOURNEY ACROSS OCEAN
Daring Aviator Confident of Success
Airship Will Carry Enough Food
For Six Passengers For Over
Thirty Days

Atlantic City, N. j.. Sept. S.-The
airship America, which is being pre-
pared for its trial flight before its
trip across the Atlantic Ocean, is now
fully inflated and floating I'm the air
In the immense repository at the
point of the inlet. The gas bag is 22S
ieet long. shaped precisely like a ci-
gar, coming to a sharp point i'm front.
It's greatest diameter is 80 feet, and il
contains. $4,000 cubic feet of hydro
gen gas.
The gas was generated by combin-
ing I'm tanks eighty tons of sulphuric
acid and sixty tons of iron turnings.
The gas is twelve times lighter
than air. The quantity now in the gas
bag weighs 2,15O pounds. The air
displaced by the inflated bag weighs
25,SOO pounds, hence the lifting force
OF the balloon is the difference be-
tween the weight of air displaced
and the weight of the hydrogen gas.
1850 pounds
The balloon itself is composed of
three thicknesscs of cotton and silk
gummed together with rubber and
the material I'm 1t weighs. 1850 pounds
hence the lifting power of the bag as
II now floats is 1S,SO0 pounds. 1t is
held down by clusters OF sand bags on
each side, which are strapped over
the top of the bag. Three hundred
bags are used. weighing about $4,000
pounds.
The balloon floats gracefully TO the
top of the repository at about twenty
feet above the floor.
The car, or as il Is technically
known( the .nacelle. which consists OF
the highest grade of drawn steel tub
Ing, Is now being rapidly attached TO
the bag. This car is 156 feet long and
will be inclosed i'm rubberized silk and
cotton canvass. The tubing is adjust
ed In trusses. wide at the top and tap
pering toward the bottom, with a
wooden walk at the bottom about is
inches wide.
Carry Provisions for Thirty Days
Underneath the car Is steel tank
Is inches in diameter, and divided
into ten compartments. Each COM
partment will contain about 1875 gall
Ions of gasoline. The centre of this
tank is rounded out with circular
aperture, so that one can pass through
II.
In the center below the tank the
lifeboat will be suspended. The boat.
which arrived last week, was deliver
ed Friday evening. II was built at
Cowes England, especially for this
exposition. II Is constructed of three
threaded together, welded and riveted
with copper wire. 1t has alright
compartments and Is equipped with
provisions for thirty days and wire
less and navigation instruments.
The car will be lighted by electri-
which will be charged from the en-
gincs on the car. Telephones connect
all parts of the car: and the lifeboat:
also a gasoline stove and other ac-
cessories.
One of the most interesting featur-
es of this craft Is the equillbrator
or as IL is technically known, the
stabiltzer. The purpose of this is
automatically to regulate the upward
Or downward motion of the airship.
when the sun heats the gas I'm the
bag and the airship has a tendency
10 rise, the equiblibrator, which nor
nally floats on the surface of the sea. |
Is raised by block and pulley. and |
This added weight checks the rising |
Should the airship have |
4 tendency to descend. the equilibra- |
Tor is lowered and the weight of tho |
,rship is correspondingly reduced |
so the downward tendency is checked |
Confident Of Success
The equiibrator is composed OF |
hirty hollow steel cylinders connect |
ID with each other on universal |
oint so that II has the greatest pos |
,ible nexibility. strung to one another !
,y steel cables. These cylinders an
'wer double purpose, being filled |
with gasoline a reserve supply for the |
engine. The total supply of gasoline
carried, including that In the tank |
md in the equibrator. Is about 1.S0O |
gallons.
The two chief engines, placed at |
positions from the CEN
er OF the car. are so horsepower |
ZACH. and there is also service mo-
or of 10 horse power. The four pro-
,ellers are placed one on each side OF
zach engine.
The work is progressing with all |
possible speed. and from the appear
ince of things yesterday IL is safe to
assume that all will be ready within
en- days.
Every one connected with the ex- |