The Washington herald., 1911-02-26

sequent necessity of letting gas escape,
thus leaving the balloon with. too little
buoyancy when the gas contracts. again.
Prof Alt and Mr.. Brucker have devised
scheme to- mitigate this expansion. A
force pump, which can be worked by the
engineer with one hand, draws water up
a tube to the top of the balloon. whence
"a series of sprays distribute the water in
fine jets over the whole of the upper sur
face.
Arrange for Escape.
Experiments at Munich during the sum-
mer showed that the spray almost neu-
traIzes the effects of the sun, and only
needs TO be repeated at infrequent inter-
walls.
Meanwhile arrangements are being
made for escape in the event of disaster.
The car of the balloon is a motor boat
thirty feet long. with 1O-horsepower
motors. which can drive either the boats
screw or the two propeIlers OF the bal
loon.
The aeronauts, however, do not expect
to have to use these motors much, as the
dirigible will mostly drift with the trade
wind. They hope to reach the coast of
Florida or Barbados m about five days
The car is fitted with explosion-proof
tanks containing 3.0oc liters of benzine,
and also an adjustment for sucking up
water from the sea or from a ship If
necessary. The vessel is not intended
to proceed against a head wind, so it is
bluff bowed. Its total capacity Is 800
cubic meters, and it has air balloonettes
On the Parseval system.
New Shaw Biography.
An American scholar, Prof. Archibald
Henderson, of the University of North.
Carolina. is in Berlin experimenting
from this vantage point the first author
lied biography of George Bernard Shaw.
The work wilk be issued shortly in Eng
land and the Nnited States. Prof. Hem
derson tells me that the book as based
for the most part on photographs, facts,
revelations, and other data supplied by
the dramatist himself, and that the biog-
raphy is designed TO throw an entirely
new light on the much-discussed author.
We are promised whole pages of hitherto
unpublished "reminiscences written in Mr.
Shaw's own hand.
The collections of Shawiana, owned by
William Archer and Holbrook Jackson,
were also placed at Prof. Henderson's
disposal. Some Of Nine. Shaws passage
alarms with Sir Arthur w. Pinero, cal
Culated to furnish an unexpected concep-
ton Of the actual relations between the
two men. will, | gather, form one of the
by no means least diver;ing chapters of
the Forthcoming work, which will run to
so pages.
Crown Prince on Way Home.
The crown prince is now On mis- way
home from his interrupted Oriental trip
having reluctantly had to give up his
visit to Siam. China, Japan. the Philip
pines, Manchuria, and Siberia but al
though the simple truth is that he was
called back because of the plague in
China. Maternal solicitude on the part
of the Kaiserin. developing chest weak
ness Of the crown princess IA report prob
ably due 10 her long stay in Egypt.
Pan-German jealousy of the crown
princes close intercourse with English
men in India, and others of the same un-
founded kind are in turn suggested to ex-
plain the cnancelIor's request to the
kaiser to recall his son and heir.
The crown princess has prolonged her
stay in Egypt far beyond original inten-
tions. so that it will be possible for her
husband 70 join her there and travel
with her back to Germany. Germans.
inVeterate critics of everything their i'm
perial family does. have not left the
crown princes spo-t-filled programme in
India without comment, and to certain
captiCUs souls the interruption of his
travels is not displeasing. Most people,
however, are genuinely sorry that China
and japan have had to be left out of
the tour, for high hopes of political and
economic results were cherished from
thes impression the future Kaiser was ex-
Iected to make on his Pekin and Tokyo
hosts.