The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-09-22

persuaded them to let MN go 10
America so he
oeOersRyIets could get a new
A Wealth of wooden leg. He
TL:. H.~ got it, also beau
tiful wife, S.
600, 900 airplane factory, and lot
of flying records, eliminating in his
new east-west transcontinental rec
ord of 10 hours and 8 minutes, from
New York to Los Angeles.
Flying for Imperial Russia in the
World war, he engaged in more
than 100 dogfights with the Germans
and dropped Is of them. But one
day they dropped him-into the Bal
tic. A forty-pound bomb, which he
had failed to release, exploded as
the ship struck the water, and blew
it to bits.
Recovering consciousness lat
er, he discovered that, witless
as he was, he had been clinging
to a pOntOOn. The water was red
around him. Shifting his good
leg over the pOntOon, he made
torniquet of his torn trOuser leg.
He swooned again, as Russian
destroyer picked him up. He
crow-hopped the Chinese border
on his wooden leg, as stupid
border guard refused to recOg-
nize his papers.
Washington received him hospita.
bly,, in April, 1918, and made him
a consulting engineer for the army
air service. He later experienced
some rough going, but the only real
crack-up in his career was encom-
passed in that drop into the Baltic.
He was steadily on the uptake, de-
signing planes, flying and bringing
through his factory. In 1888, he
designed and built an amphibian
plane which made a record of 177.79
miles per hour. Trained in the I'M
perial Naval academy, he has con-
tributed greatly to aviation engi-
neering and design.
Several years ago, using an alarm
clock and few electrical odds and
ends, he made Waiting plane,
swaying rhythmically with band
music from below. His Waiting
days were over and he found this
a satisfactory substitute.
CIMON LAKE, the inventor of the
- submarine, u years old, hopes
some day to get an under-sea peek
at the sunken continent of Atlantis.
In a midtown no.
LoRe OW 10 tel in, New York,
Redeem the he is up to his
Submarine Knees IN Dlue-
rine adaptations and gadgets which
he hopes will be found useful by the
deep sea boulevardier. His father
is 81; his grandfather lived to the
age of Sc and his sister to 102. AL
though his once red hair is white, he
thinks he is just now getting his
start in life.
His Is basic patents alone made
the submarine possible. Like many,
possibly most, inventors, he could
devise a scheme for almost any
thing except getting what was COM
ing to him. So, in his genial, casual
way, he is broke.
Reading Jules Verne, when he
was 10 years old, led him to capsize
a rowboat on the Toms river in
New Jersey and test his staying
powers in the submerged air cham
Der. In 1894, he made a wooden
submarine IA feet long, with a soda
water tank supplying compressed
air. 1t worked nicely. In 1894, he
made the Argonaut, Jr., in which
he cruised under the water for thou
sands of miles on Chesapeake bay.
Like the Wright brothers, he
aroused little attention. He final
ly got Washington interested
when he telephOned to the capt.
toll from the bottom of the sea.
His working submarine came
through. Washington didn't
seem to care much what he did,
so he took his invention to for
eign capitOls. Czarist Russia
made him some impressive Of
fers but he decided they were a
disSolute lot and, as a self-re-
speeding American business
man, he wouldn't have anything
to do with them.
All in all, he became fed up with
bureaucrats and red tape and gov
ernments in general and turned to
deep sea treasure hunts. The sub
marines, of course, destroyed much
more treasure than they ever
dredged up. This troubles him. Wig
orous and energetic, with a wrin-
kled, knobby weather-beaten face,
genial and friendly, he plugs along
alone in his hotel to redeem the
submarine by making it general
cargo and passenger carrier.
@ Consolidated News Features.
WNU Service.
The Letter Writers
The average Englishman writes
rs letters year; an American
writes g.; a New Zealander, Sc;
Swiss 60. German "a. Dane az