IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Weldon, of 3, Falcon Court, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Publisher, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION."
Sealed the 26th February 1864, and dated the 29th August 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Weldon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
August 1868.
I, WALTER WELDON, of 8, Falcon Court, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Publisher, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION;" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improved apparatus and arrangements for
navigating the atmosphere. Instead of employing bags or "balloons" of a more
or less spherical-form, a long narrow bag or receptacle made of suitable material
(such as silk) is constructed so as to constitute a kind of flattened cylinder
with ends of a paraboloidal form, it being, however, essential that one of its
axes should be considerably longer than the other. The long narrow receptacle

page_text: or cylinder thus formed is filled with a light gas, and is caused to float in the
air horizontally (that is, with its longest axis parallel to the earth's surface,) by
dividing it internally into a number of separate compartments or cells, each
longer in the direction perpendicular to the longest axis of the receptacle or
cylinder as a whole than in the other direction; or if it is wished to construct
a machine of considerable size, instead of using one receptacle or cylinder only
and dividing it as before mentioned, the object in view is accomplished by
connecting together any desired number of distinct receptacles or cylinders
into one train. As all the receptacles or cylinders will be suspended in the
same plane, the resistance offered by the atmosphere during their passage
through the same will be no greater for two or more such receptacles or
cylinders than for one only. An important advantage obtained by the use
of buoyant receptacles or cylinders so constructed and arranged as aforesaid is,
that any propulsive power which may be applied in connection therewith may
be exerted in the same plane as that occupied by the receptacles or cylinders.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Walter Weldon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 29th
February 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WALTER
WELDON, of Number 3, Falcon Court, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Publisher, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Walter Weldon, Her special licence that I, the said Walter Weldon, my
executors,, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Walter
Weldon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPA-
BATUS FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Walter Woldon, my executors. or administrators; by an instrument

page_text: in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Walter Weldon, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This Invention relates to a method of making practicable the navigation of
the atmosphere by means of machines rendered buoyant therein by the aid of
the gases lighter than atmospheric air. This object is accomplished by a
novel form and arrangement of the receptacles containing the gas employed.
Instead of using to contain the light gas more or less globular bags or
"balloons" for the purpose of my said Invention, I use either a long narrow
bag divided internally into separate compartments or cells, or, as will often be
more convenient, especially in constructing machines of considerable size, any
desired number of distinct bags is connected together, somewhat after tho
fashion of the carriages of a railway train, but with little or no interval
between each bag and the next. In either case the construction must be such
that the machine, when all its cells or compartments are distended with
gas, shall be externally of the shape of a cylinder of considerably greater
length than diameter, and that the cells or compartments of which it consists
internally shall each be longer in the direction of the diameter than in the
direction of the length of the cylindrical machine as a whole. I prefer that
the external shape of the macbine should be that of a more or less flattened
cylinder, the section of which, taken at right angles to the longest axis of the
cylinder, should be more or less either oval or pear shaped; and I also prefer
that the ends of the machine should approach the paraboloidal form; but
neither of these particulars is essential. With its cells all filled with a gas
lighter than atmospheric air, but having no communication with one another,"
a machine constructed as above described will float in the atmosphere hori-
zontally, or with the longest axis parallel to the earth's surface, and will so be
capable of being propelled and steered.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the mauner in which it is to be performed, I would observe in
conclusion that what I consider novel and original, and therefore claim
as constituting my said Invention, is, the construction and arrangement of

page_text: apparatus for aërial navigation as herein-before substantially described and
set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Weldon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
E. P. H. VAUGHAN,
15, Southampton Buildings,
Agent for the Patentee.
WALTER WELDON. (L.S.)