An improved Air-snip or Aerostat.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Dec., 1898-Accepted, 4th Mar., 1899
An improved Air-snip or Aerostat.
I, MICHAEL BLUMELHUBER, of Steyr, Upper Austria, Master Cutler, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same 18 to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
In the construction of all steerable air-ships hitherto known a certain nervous
anxiety has been displayed to avoid the attachment of any structure to the body,
of the vessel or balloon itself
Accordingly, all the wheels fitted with wings (vanes or paddles), and all rudders
and the like employed in propelling the balloon or air-ship in a predetermined
direction were secured to the car, while the voluminous body of the balloon proper,
which supported the car in the an was left unprovided with any propelling or
steering apparatus It is this grievous error of judgment, which until now has
been invariably committed, that was the real cause of the impossibility, thus far
encountered, of steering any of the existing appliances for aerial navigation. An
air balloon, with the car suspended from it, is upon the whole neither more nor
less than a pendulum, of which the balloon itself constitutes the fulcrum whereon
the pendulume in the case here considered, the car oscillates Now it is a
well-known fact that a pendulum can only be moved from its position of iest by the
expenditure of a certain amount of force, and that therefore there must always be
a force in operation that tends to restore the car to that position of rest
Now when the means for propelling a governable air-ship are as they heretofore
have been attached to the cai, it is clear from the foregoing remarks concerning
the pendulum action that, firstly, considerable force is necessary to move the
pendulum or car-from its position of rest; that, in the next place, the counter-
acting force, which tends to restore the car to the state of rest, must be neutralized
during the whole time of navigation, and that, lastly, the resistance of the air,
encountered by the balloon as it is drawn along by the car, has to be overcome
In the improved au-ship which I have devised the arrangements employed in
propelling and steering are mounted-not on the cai-but upon a shaft passing
through the balloon body, which is made of material suited to such purpose:80
that what is actually propelled is, not the car, but the balloon itself, or in other
words, the fulcrum or pivot-point of the pendulum
Owing to this construction, the car will follow the propelled balloon with far
greater facility than it would do in the opposite case e if it were itself propelled
Turning now to the actual construction of the improved air-ship, it should bo
stated that it consists of the following main parts, viz
(1) The balloon body, (2) the propelling mechanism, (3) the steering mechanism,
and (4) the car The accompanying drawing is a diagram of an an-ship con-
structed in accordance with this invention
In determining the outline of the balloon body, the usual ball or pear shape has
been discarded; and with a view to reducing the resistance of the air to a minimum,
the lenticular shape has been adopted in constructing such body, A, so that it

page_text: presents the form of two segments of a sphere, joined together with then flat
surfaces facing each other, and has, all around it, a median peripheral edge or
1dge, which, as it sails through the an, enables it to cut the air it traverses, and
to minimise its resistance
The material of which the lens-shaped balloon A 18 to be formed is China silk or
sheet aluminium, the latter material being even better than the former, fitted to
effect the desued purpose In order to cnable the pressure of air to be adequately
resisted, the muddle part of the balloon 18 provided with a number of braces 1.
Extending diagonally through the balloon body is a tube B with which the said
braces are secured and which proti udes from the balloon, the joint all round its
edge being made perfectly tight and strong Now it is this tube or hollow shatt B
which serves to support the apparatus for propelling and steering the air-ship.
The means adopted for propelling the au ship above ieferied to 18 an aerial
screw G acting by traction and therefore attached to the shaft B in front of the
an ship, at L To set this screw in motion an electro-motor C is used, which has
a shaft or spindle H in common with the said screw (t, and is enclosed in a case,
which extends rearwardly, in the shape of a sleeve, into the supporting body D,
it is inserted into the hollow shaft B. and is firmly secured at E F. The electro-
moto is thus rigidly connected with the air-ship and adapted by its energy to
impart the required 1otary motion to the aerial propeller G, which is mounted ou
the shaft H supported in the bearings In order to obviate any reaction of the
1ote impulse upon the supporting body D, an inclined steel aim I is screwed to
Euch body, which aim is retained in position between the two front carrier-ropes
by cords or lines K, so that the system of sleeves or tubes located in the centre of
the au-ship is effectually protected from any injurious reaction. The propelle G
itself is a section of a double-thread screw and 19 mrde up of steel 11bs and bands,
covered or braced up with sheet aluminium, and it is mounted upon the shaft H
which is supported in the beaung 11 of the hollow supporting cylinder D. The
electio moto is changed from accumulators, which, as I shall describe more
fully further on, ale stowed in the car and connected with the motor by a free
conductor Y
The opposite, rearward end of the shaft B carries the steering, mechanism L³,
which is not a stern-rudder, as hitherto used, but is aanged for purely central
operation, and adapted to act as a brake at the same time This steering mechanism
consists of two cucular steering surfaces or discs M joined together by the vertical
shaft which is revolvably mounted in the fork-shaped bearing or support Q
In the centre this shaft O carries a chain wheel P, around which is run a knotted
rope R which, as it descends, passes over two rolleis m Hence, by pulling this
1ope, the said steering discs may be turned to one side or the other and set at
varying angles to the balloon body, with the result that the balloon may be steered
also horizontally When it is desued to use the steering device as a brake, the
dises are turned at right angles to the line of motion of the balloon
Exactly below the centre of the balloon body, the car L is suspended; the
bottom of which car forms the platform for the battery of storage cells or accumu-
lators, Z, while its sides constitute the carrying framer to which are fastened the
carrier 1opes V whereby such car is suspended from the balloon
With the rope R
a small toothed pinion or wheel S is arranged to engage in such a manner as to
enable, by being correspondingly turned, either the air-ahip to be steered on the
brake to be applied, while the current which operates the electro motor may be
tuned on or off by means of the switch board X
In order to render the balloon steerable also along an ascending or descending
incline, it is provided with an arrangement_enabling its centre of gravity to be
shifted. To this end the front carrier ropes are not as is the case with the rear
carrier 1opes-permanently attached to the sides of the car, but are all wound upon
a windlass U fitted with suitable shafting or driving gear at W The front carriers
may thus, by being wound on or off the windlass, be reduced or increased in length
Accordingly, in rising, these front caliers will be longthened, and the balloon

page_text: will, as a result, take an upwardly inclined position in relation to the car; while,
for the purpose of landing, the ropes V will be shortened and will thereby permit
the air-ship to descend
By this displacement of the centre of gravity, therefore, either an ascending or
a descending direction may be given to the motion of the balloon, which may, in
addition, be further regulated by a corresponding adjustment of the rudder
mechanism
It will be seen that by means of the air-ship described above the ideal of
aeronauts, vaz the construction of an air-ship readily steerable in all directions, 18
realized.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim
18:
A steerable air-ship characterized by a lens-shaped balloon-body A through the
centre of which there extends a hollow shaft B, to which an aerial double thread
screw propeller G, mounted upon a shaft H, is attached, and within which 18
furthermore enclosed the electro-motor C serving to operate such propeller, the
said shaft B also carrying, in the rear, the rudder-device which occupies a cential
position with regard to the air-ship-structure and consists of two circular plates or
discs revolvable upon a vertical shaft O, such rudder being controllable from
the car by the aid of the rope R and an adjusting pinion P mounted upon the said
shaft O, and being at the same time adapted, when tuined 90°, e at night angles
to the line of notion, to act as a brake, the invention being further characterized by
the car L3 suspended by a series of carrier-ropes V and having arranged within it
the storage battery serving to charge the electro motor, such battery being con-
nected with the said electro-motor by a conductor Y, another feature of the arrange-
ment being that the greater part of the said carrier ropes V, situated in front, e
in the direction of motion, are not attached to the cai permanently but wound upon
a windlass U, by turning which they may therefore be either lengthened or
shortened, whereby, and owing to the resulting inclination of the balloon, which
causes the propelling impulse and centre of gravity to act no longer in one line,
the ascent and descent of the balloon may be regulated
D
1000
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, 'W.C,
Agents for the Applicant.