IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AERONAUTICAL APPARATUS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Josef Livchak at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th July
1868.
I, JOSEF LIVCHAK, of 13, Stobzenthaler-gasse, Josefstadt, Vienna, in
the Empire of Austria, Editor of the "Strachopud" Newspaper, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AERONAUTICAL APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object to provide improved means or
appliances for keeping heavy bodies suspended in the air, and at the
same time moving and governing or steering them in any given
direction. For this purpose I construct an aeronautical apparatus
capable of rising in the air to a suitable height, and so furnished with
appropriate moving or steering parts or organs as to admit of its
being led or driven in any desired horizontal or inclined direction.
This object I attain by means of a peculiar mode or method of applying
a balloon filled with light gas, and by utilizing or employing the
centrifugal force of the moving parts or organs of the apparatus; and
furthermore by an appropriate and immediate application of the
resistance of the air.

page_text: 22
To the balloon, which I employ, I prefer to give a longitudinal shape
and conic ends, and so to connect it with or secure it to the apparatus
by means of a net or other texture as to keep it continually in a hori-
zontal position and at a suitable distance from the frame or body of
the apparatus; and I prefer to enclose it in or cover it over with an
air-tight cloth or light tissue, the two edges of which may be firmly
secured to a loose frame connected with the central frame or body of
the apparatus. To the loose frame I fit four or more fixed rollers, and I
connect the balloon with the moving parts of the apparatus by means
of elastic strings or cords, as will be explained herein-after. I construct
the frame or body of the apparatus in such a manner as to admit into
its central part a steam engine or other motor, being connected with
and actuating a threefold set or system of cranks or cranked levers,
which in their turn are joined to or connected with a series of two,
four, or more casings of prismatic or any other suitable shape, being by
preference that of a trilateral prism. I prefer to cover the two sides of
the prism with some air-tight tissue or other light material, leaving the
base thereof open; the triangular ends of each "casing or. " wing"
may be furnished with a series of valves made of leather or other suitable
material, and opening towards the inside of the casing. By this means
a compression of the air is produced within each casing, whilst the
cranks are turning downwards, and thus the condensed air will alter-
nately press upon either end of the casing. The casings or "wings
are so connected with the cranks as to be continually in a horizontal or
longitudinal direction, and to combine the motion in a horizontal
with that in a vertical line. The casings are also connected with the
balloon by means of elastic strings or cords passing over the rollers
herein-before alluded to, one end of each string or cord being fixed or
secured to the " wings" or casings directly or by means of springs,
whilst the other ends of the strings or cords are so wound round the
revolving shafts or axes fitted to the central frame of the apparatus as
to admit of the length of the strings or cords being increased or reduced
to such an extent as may be required by means of a corresponding or
commensurate revolution of the shafts. By this means I am enabled to
regulate or modify the distance of the balloon from the body of the
apparatus; and with a view further to secure this object I attach or fit
to the revolving shafts the ends of another string or cord, which when
stretched causes the shaft to revolve and thus to modify the position of
the balloon, as herein-before described. To the central frame of the
"

page_text: apparatus a suitable scale or guage may be fitted, by means of which
the rotation of the shafts may be regulated with the utmost accuracy.
"
In order to utilize the centrifugal force heretofore alluded to the
crank shafts or axes may be so fitted with suitable counterweights as
to counterbalance the weight of the prismatic casings or wings'
together with that of the cranks themselves. By this means I cause
the centrifugal force produced by the rotation of the cranks and casings
to remain uniform with respect to the mass of the counterweight, whilst
the centrifugal force of the prismatic casings or "wings" varies in
proportion to the resistance they encounter or are opposed by respectively
in their ascending and descending motion. In this manner I obtain
the requisite difference or variation of the dynamic effects produced
on the axes of rotation, and thus I am enabled fully to secure and
maintain the regularity and smoothness of the motion of the apparatus,
working both in a vertical and in a horizontal or slanting direction.