New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-05
Horoscope of the Panama
Fair Takes 120 PeO-
pie 265 Feet
i'm Air.
By HERMAN WHITAKER.

| From the beginning of time man has tried,
on occasion, to shake loose the strong grip
of the earth and defy Natures greatest ordi-
nance, the law Of gravitaton. Perhaps he
inherited the instinct from some winged
creature, prmordial ancestor, that tapped
its little moment during the Rons OF time
that intervene between man and the pro-
tozoon? But that doesn't matter. Sufficient
that it is there.
The Scriptures tell US how the rebellious
children of earth bulded the Tower of Babel
to scale the heavens, and were for their i'm
pietv, stricken with Confusion Of tongues,
so that no man could speak with his neigh
Dor" The great pyramids of the earth rise
always from the dead fiat of far-reaching
deserts or plains, and while they may have
had other uses, it is even money that their
builders were trying to go the plan Of erea-
ton one better and rise a bit above their
fellows. Later came fire and gas balloons,
aeroplanes and stationary devices, such as
the Ferris Wheel and the Eifel Tower, all
designed to lift man, for a moment, above
his cares and follies. Every worlds fair has
had something Of the sort, but all have to
yleld the palm 10 the great detOsNope NJ NH0
Panama Pacific international Exposition.
At best it looks like a steel truss cable
tower, or one of those new-fangled wireless
masts on the latest war vessels, which has
been thrown over by cyclone upon It's side.
Come to think Of il, that's exactly what IL
is-a steel truss tower, 265 feet in length.
that is balanced across a revolving turret by
an enormous concrete counterweight OF
three-quarters of million pounds. Il oper-
ates-well, you have seen the strong man az
the circus swing a dumbbell from the ground
at arms length above his head? Then the
horoscope is the strong man of the exposi-
ton. II picks up a double-deck car that car
ries 100 people and swings il up 70 height
of PCS feet, until to those below IL looks like
the arm and fist of Titan defying the gods
in the Olympian wars. As the car rises,
clever balancing devices maintain the floor
horizontal and others keep IL in perfect
equilibrium. At rest, tower and car are in
perfect balance, and when man steps in
valve opens automatically and let's his weight
in water flow out of cistern. Vice versa,
II ten are in and three step out, a second
valve opens and let's back into the cistern
their corresponding water weight
The movement, rising, is slow and majes-
tic as is becoming in a machine that sets
gravitation az naught and completes with the
celestial bodies. And here comes its first
great departure from other devices. Your
Eifel Tower is merely an edifce; the Fer
ris Wheel gigantic whirligig. But as the
horoscope rises and describes a slow gesture
in rnidair it might very well be the arm OF
the presiding genius invoking blessing upon
the fair
Until the surrounding buildings are cleared
IL goes straight up. Then. under the propul-
sion of two lateral aeroplane fans, IL begins
to circle, lifting the car on spiral 10 its
full height. The feeling as one rises with
il is similar 10 that experienced in the as
cent of captive balloon, and in the same
way objects and animals diminish below.
Horses lose their legs and become fat-bodied
snails Man is principally hat with two boots
alternating in strides beneath il. Because
1t covers almost as much ground when looked
at from above, chicken is nearly as large
as a man.