The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1938-09-23
WHO'S
NEWS
E. THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL r. PARTON

By LEMUEL r. PARTON
NEW YORK.-In 1918, the Bolshe-
l Y viks were fixing to shoot Maj.
Alexander P. de Seversky, but he
persuaded them to let him go to
America so he
SeOsrsky Gets could get a new
"A Wealth of wooden leg. He
rh;,r. H.~. got it, also beau
'' ~ tiful wife, a S.
100000 airplane factory, and lot
Of flying records, eliminating in his
new east-west transcontinental rec
ord of 10 hours and 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 10 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
1t 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 pOnto0n, 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
q 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 amphib1an
plane which made record of 177.79
miles per hour. Trained in the Inn
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 a Waiting plane,
swaying rhythmically with band
music from below. His waltzing
days were over and he found this
a satisfactory substitute.
CIMON LAKE, the inventor of the
- submarine, " years old, hopes
some day to get an under-sea peek
at the sunken continent of Atlantis.
In a midtown ho-
LdRe Ouf 20 tel in New York,
Redeem the he is up to his
Submarines knees in blue
prints Of subma-
rine adaptations and gadgets which
he hopes will be found useful by the
deep sea boulevardier. Els father
is 81; his grandfather lived to the
age of SO 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. It 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
Iy 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 q
dissolute lot and, as self-re-
speeding American business
man, he wouldn't have anything
to do with them.
ALI in all, he became fed up with
bureaucrats and red tape and gov
ernments in general and turned to
deep sea treasure hunts. The SUBJ
marines, of course, destroyed much
more treasure than they ever
dredged up. This troubles him. Wig
orous and energetic, with a wrin-
killed., knobby weather-beaten face,
genial and friendly, he plugs along