IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the Right Reverend Monsignor
Thomas John Capel and the Reverend Alfred de la Pauze at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 1st February 1881.
The Right Reverend Monsignor THOMAS JOHN CAPEL and the Reverend
ALFRED DE LA PAUZE, both of Kensington, in the County of Middlesex,
and also of 32, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the same County.
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION,"
"6
The object of our Invention is to provide an aërial locomotive which will be at
once economical in its working, speedy, buoyant, and dirigible.
Hitherto in most of the machinery or apparatus employed for navigating the
air too much attention has been paid to buoyancy at the expense of dirigibility,
thus allowing the car and balloon to be more or less, if not entirely, at the mercy
of currents of air.
Now our Invention consists in a suitable car or boat built as lightly as is
consistent with strength.
We may construct it of bamboo, or of the light weldless steel tubing now manu-
factured, the whole being trussed or stayed together in the strongest yet lightest
manner. The framing may be covered with oiled silk or any suitable light air
and water proof covering. In the centre of the car we place a light strong mast
or pillar, on the top of which a large light extended plane surface is balanced or
suspended, proportioned to the weight and force of the car or boat, and preferably
consisting of a light framing over which a covering of oiled silk, light varnished
or coated canvas, or other suitable air-proof material is rigidly stretched.
plane may be inclined either upwards or downwards. Supports or stays extend
from the mast or pillar to the ends of the boat or car carrying bearings, and in
each bearing is mounted a Hook's, ball-and-socket, or other form of universal joint,
to which a fan or propeller is attached, so that the fans or propellers driven by
motive power propel the car or vessel, and, receiving lateral motion from the
gearing, steer the vessel.
This
The propellors may be actuated by light steam, gas, or other explosive, or by
electric or other engines, or by air or gases compressed into tanks at stations
and these tanks carried by the car and their expansive contents used to actuate
the engines.

page_text: We mount the car on light wheels, which may be fixed on elliptical or other
springs to case the bumping of the car on touching the ground.
In using the apparatus the plane surface above the car is fixed in a horizontal
position, and the latter being placed on a level road, the engines are started and
the car runs forward. The plane surface is then inclined upward, which lifts the
car. When the desired elevation is reached the plane surface is gently lowered to
a horizontal or nearly horizontal position, and the propellors still continuing to
revolve, the car travels horizontally forward. To descend, the plane surface is
inclined in the downward direction. The descent is facilitated by steering the
apparatus in a circular direction.
It is obvious that our Invention may be used for a variety of purposes, and
that the details are capable of being varied without departing from the principle
thereof.