AN IMPROVED AERIAL MACHINE
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
March 1864. A communication from abroad by Pierre Jacques
Carmien, of No. 39, Faubourg Saint Martin, Paris, France.
I, WILLIAM, EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge, and Son, of
, No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
AERIAL MACHINE," (a communication to me from abroad by Pierre Jacques
Carmien, of No. 39, Faubourg Saint Martin, Paris, France,) to be as
"follows:-
The body or balloon of this aerial machine is cylindrical, it is terminated at
its stern by a spherical cap, and in front. by a cone; it is of metal of a special
composition, very light and strong. It is composed interiorly of circles,
strengthened by ties of steel wire attached to the axle of the balloon, and it is
on these circles that the envelope or covering is applied. A longitudinal axle
traverses the whole, and supports (so that they play freely) two vertical pieces
united to a skeleton framing placed lengthwise beneath the balloon, and two
ladders are fixed near these vertical pieces. All this framing is strengthened
by steel wire ties in form of Saint Andrew's cross. In the centre of the
skeleton framing or car of the aerial machine is a platform supporting the
steam engine which gives motion to the entire arrangement. This engine
turns a driving shaft, itself composed of several pieces brought together, so as
to permit movements which are inevitable, and would otherwise warp the

page_text: shaft. This shaft carries pulleys, on which roll cords having a steel core, and
which pass also in grooves made in the circles or rings of the balloon in such
wise that this balloon receives a rotary motion more or less rapid around its
axle. On the fore part of this balloon are solidly fixed, by shrouds, three sails,
which participate in the motion of the balloon. Beneath the engine is a
bellows, which the engine may set in motion when required; this bellows
corresponds by means of two pipes with two hemispheres placed at the two
extremities of the balloon, and into which it can blow air at pleasure. In
front of the cone on the fore part of the balloon is placed the rudder.
The action of this aerial machine is as follows:-To rise, the process is as
in ordinary balloons, that is to say, the balloon is filled with hydrogen, then,
after having given the sails the necessary position for the direction in which it
is desired to proceed, a rotary movement is given to the balloon by means of
the engine, and the balloon advances by the effect of the rotary motion of the
sails in virtue of the difference of the resistance and the force. To ascend or
descend to or from a certain height, in the atmosphere it is only necessary to
empty or fill the aforesaid hemispheres with air, and they thus serve for ballast.
To aid in ascending and descending two archimedean, screws are placed in the
car, and are turned in one or other direction at will. The pipe or flue of the
steam engine runs along the bottom of the car, having its vent at the stern.
The axle of the balloon is solid, excepting near its two extremities, where it is
hollow, and serves as a pipe bringing air to the hemispheres. All the wooden
framing is in prismatic section, in order to have the greatest possible strength
in the smallest compass.