New-York tribune., 1912-04-03
CLOUD IN AV|ATOR'S SKY
nead Mans Patent May Rise to
Mock Wright and CurtlSs.
wIDoW'S CASE RE0PENED
,,,oc;ate Editor of Aero Club
periodical SCOTS at Idea OF
Impending Trouble.

nm The unfuflled visions and untrled
~. ~ dead man, who never saw
,n.O., ~ Machine in actual flight, nor even
f,IIy constructed. upset the wnoie ex-
,.r . status Of things in the nying ma
'srD ,rorId. was the odd question that de-
Gun" reeterday from the decision in the
, Ne'Vr c,ates Supreme Court handed down
',--..,rgton on Monday reopening the
~ -,oot,on OF Hugo Mattulath for a pat
- the specifications for a flying ma
.,irs fled by him in 1900
en- c.sr was reopened in behalf of Meta
...,,,o,b the dead inventors widow The
,.~s,,ion seemed to promise. 1t was salo
.n,sdate the wing warping device EN-
',.,.,d in both the Wright and Curtlss ma
I,.s for obtaining stability and control
,,,,,no Nattulath was a strange man.
-, IJoruann Behrens his son-in-law yes
-, "He was typical inventor-nlled
- ,.s,ons and ideas. He was Prusslan
o.r,s 70 this country years ago. lie
S"1 oIwavs working at something new
.o,e of the family took much STOCK In
81, dresms. We did not think much OF .his
St., machine of his until IL was caled
80. attention by those who understood
- ohout such things than We 40
~us had no doubt that IT would 60
.hora are leading mathematicians
.. limos, every college in the country that
;" hir, and appreciated his mechanicsl
81. His nying machine Is still gen
absad Of the times, according 70
,ssso men. It was not built on any smal'
...,.--it was to he huge n1achlne' e'
soo, beam and 30 feet long 1t wouio carry
aver fifty passengers, and ne caicula'eu
.Lo, 4. would 60 from here TO Chcaso III
Ave hours.
OF VAS a hydroplane, which We hear so
,,ucb about these days, too-snd all tha'
nas uore than twelve years ago. nc
rod his apnlication In 1900 and died two
ears later. before any enc ever made
,uccessful fight in heavler-than-d'r ms
china. and his own machine was not yet
hr,lt-yet he foresaw clearly all that mas
,ssn accomplished since his death' ana
more. too.
For three years prior 20 fling his appli'
c.tion for a patent Mattulath worked IN
h,e nlan at the Catholic University AT
washington. He did not believe IN mooeiS'
Nr. Behrens said, but submitted his loeaS
I, the form of drawings and applications
II WAS because of this that the patent was
originally refused. on the ground that the
r.,ent was imperative and too general
His idea was not to wasts money and time
on small models, but TO so Immediately to
work on the practical machine Itself as
soon as his ideas were protected.
The significance Of the court decision was
not taken so seriously by Henry Wood
house, associate editor Of The Aero Cluo
Of America Bulletin.
81 think it IS a false alarm Mr.. Wood
house said yesterday. 1t often happens
that old patents are unearthed which
seemed 10 antedate subsequent patents
hut which upon investigation are found not
10 do so. This has happened with the
Wright machines before. Previous patents
have been brought forward, which were &c
cared to use the Wright method Of warp
tng the wings, but usually they have been
found to be intended merely 10 control the
direction of the fight and were not effec-
tive in maintaining stability. l do not
know about the present case in particular
but do not think the Wright ideas Will
be found to be involved"