IMPROVE- MENTS IN AERIAL MACHINES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
-
6th April 1863. A communication from abroad by Pierre Jacques
Carmien, of Luze, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN AERIAL MACHINES," a communication to me from abroad by Pierre
Jacques Carmien, of Luze, France, to be as follows:-
Hitherto the numberless essays which have been made in aerostation have
been always in the same direction, and nearly all inventors have agreed in
attempting to give motion to the balloon from the car, which may be compared
to a long boat towing a frigate.
In this Invention the car acting as ballast holds the balloon in an almost
horizontal position. It contains the steam boiler, the water, the coal, and the
apparatus required for the aerial voyage. A rope ladder furnishes a means of
ascending to the fore part of the balloon, and at the same time holds the fore
part of the car suspended to the fore part of the balloon. From the fore part
of the car a capstan or windlass may be turned, on which enrolls the lower
part of this ladder, shortening or lengthening it, so as to make the car weigh
down the balloon more or less to the front or rear, accordingly as it be desired
to ascend or descend. In front of the balloon is a small case serving to maintain
the bearing. The rear or stern part of the car is suspended to the stern of the

page_text: Another
balloon by a pipe of aluminium, which conducts the steam to a machine fixed
to the same piece as the bearing at the stern of the balloon. The piston of this
machine communicates directly with a connecting rod fixed to a shaft which
traverses the balloon in its entire length. This machine acting therefore on
the connecting rod causes the shaft and the entire balloon to turn.
rope ladder leads from the car to a case near the machine, and another
capstan or lever holding the two ends of the rudder cords at the stern of the
car permits oblique divergence to the right or left. The body of the balloon
is of ovoid form, the small end passes first, and the large end having greater
ascensional power supports the bearing fixed to the machine, the rudder, and
the oblique sails. These sails should present a surface of at least twice the
thickness of the balloon, so that in turning they will press upon twice as much
air as will oppose the end of the balloon. These sails, however numerous, may
be all closed simultaneously by pulling a rope from the car during the progress
of the balloon, and on pulling another rope the catch which holds the sails
closed falls, and they open of themselves under the pressure of the wind. The
object of this arrangement is to change the speed without interfering with the
steam, as the balloon itself acts as a flier; and it is desirable not to interfere
with its regular march, presuming that these sails when fully opened describe
a course of twenty yards, it will follow that each stroke of the balance beam
will drive the entire aerial apparatus twenty yards forward. The balloon may
also be constructed entirely in the shape of a screw with the above arrange-
ments. This screw will act directly on the air, that is to say, that its point
pushed directly into the aerial fluid by the steam engine, which finds a fulcrum
in the perpendicularity of the car, would itself overcome the resistance while
the length of the screw would have a hold or bearing ten or twenty times
greater than the slight resistance vanquished by the steam. The entire
apparatus is suspended in the air by inflating the balloon with gas or vapour
in the usual manner.