Omaha daily bee., 1911-06-24

VIII the Beatrice niparachute outfIy
the LinrOln Devicet

the LtnrOln Dcvtcef
St. Louis Globe Democrat
Because Beatrice, Neb., is close 20 Lin
coin we expect great things OF Prof Sow
der OF the Beatrice High school. who &c
c!ar,s that he has solved tho probl m u
| flying. That is a land Of high flights and
many successful descents. Up from Liu-
coin has three times one a machine whit h,
though never reaching lis chosen goal. has.
whenever forced by storms and adverse
winds, 10 come down, made a safe and Sc
cure landing without hitting the ground
hard enough to jar the aviator II may be
of the genius OF the people thereabouts 70
fly high and when they must come down
do II not only in safety but with an ease
and grace to charm all beholders.
Prof Sowder calls his machine a "dirig-
ible blparachute." IN the terminology Of
science, but he adds. very sensibly, we
think, that 1t can be called the safety
airship" for short The Lincoln device has
not been patented. for the reason. perhaps
that the daring Lincoln aviator has never
feared competition. He las, accordingly
left his invention ope 20 infringement
and Prof sowder's prospectus indicates
that he has studied the Lincoln machine
and has now patented some Of it's best
hOillos u NIlt tHBlHtS iIlSst Nilt pIups llt' =
stop. or the rudders break" he says, the
machine falls at the rate of three feet per
second and can be gllded by mere move
ment and motion of the aviatcr's body"
This has been done by the Lincoln device,
and more than once, One of the engines
missed" in 1896, but with both the pro-
pellers and the rudders working, an easy
landing was made. At the second flight,
in ba ,,,Icg al
pellers stopped, but stili the descent left
the aviator very much alive. In 1905 not
only did the engines miss and the pro-
pellers stop, but the rudders were broken.
yet in spite Of such triple disaster, the
machine has since been coming down so
slowly that those who want most to see
It smashed are moved to profane impa-
thence because II is coming down at much
less speed than three feet per second. They
fear that next year II will land again with
out a jolt.
my. machine works in all kinds of
weather" says Prof Sowder SO does the
one at Lincoln. Wind" says the pro-
fessor, "either upward or downward gusts,
do not trouble H." This is clearly an In
friugement or would be IL Lincoln had evec
taken out letters patent on its plan for
withstanding downward gusts" "Equ-
librium," the professor goes on is auto
matte, and cspsizing therefore impossible,
as the center of mass is below the center
Of buoyancy." So II is with Prof. Bryan,
who is his own center of buoyancy, and
has lowered above the center of mass in
his machine. These ideas Of Prof. Sowder
are not new. Their chief merit is In the
fact that they have been well tried and
we'll proved within a short distance of Bea-
trice The idea Of two Independent en-
gines" was tried at Lincoln in the first
flight the two engines being fused In ac-
ton but not in substance. The one called
"populist worked we'll II was the one
called democrat" that missed" The one
new thing offered by the Beatrice professor
is bringing aerial navigation within the
reach of inexperienced persons" The Lin
coin ship has made three ascents and three
descents, but 1t has always been in the
hands Of one experienced air navigator,
Great as is our faith in the aerial genius OF
Nebraska, Prof. Sowder will have to show
us another man who can go as high and
come down as easy in one, two, three order
as Prof Bryan of Lincoln.