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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1906)
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAy. PORTIANI), 3IABCH 11, 1906. What America's Aero Club is Doing to Win for Uncle Sam the Honor of Tiirn ing Out the First Practical Airship. 39 p f T i Ml :'' - ': HBPf ? Mi',ni JSP". ' r aiERICAN inventors arc not wait L ingr for foreigners to solve the. great problem of aerial navigation. They are going ahead, and doing it themselves, and who would like to speculate that they won't win? No mere desiro to boast the American as against his European rival prompts the claim, but it is true that more Is now being done in this country than any where In the world to provide man a medium of flying through the air with. mc same comtort and speed, in factJ greater speed, than he now is carried across the continent on fast-flying trains". AH over the r-nitert States skilled in ventors are directing their attention to this most important of modem, up-to-date transportation problems, and work ing along differcn lines there are a dozen models of airships that promise success. Some of these have already made good to some extent. A number have made flights that show their essential prin ciples to be mechanically correct, and when certain details are worked out the airship of the future ought"to be close at hand. Not only are inventors working as in dividuals, but they are also urged to greater effort and encouragement by the Aero Club of America, a new but in tensely alive organization. Wliat the Aero Club Is Doliiff. This interesting club has for its object the perfection of a dirigible balloon, and the encouragement of all inventors who are working to that end. It was founded abodt one year ago. and includes many prominent Americana of wealth and nulv. .11c spirit. Its headquarters are at th i Automobile Club of America 753 Fifth I avenue. New York. j In its ranks arc men in all walks of life, professional, artistic, sporting, social, I scientific and business. ' j Its officers are: President. Homer W. j Hedge; first vice-president. John . O'Rourko; second vice-president. Charles J. Glldden; treasurer, Augustus Post; sec rotary, S. m. Butler: foreign representa tives. Cortland Field Bishop and A. Law rence Rotch, director of Blue Bell Observa tory. The club recently held its first public balloon ascension at Tuxedo. These ascensions are intended to create public interest. in aerial navigation, and they will be given as often as possible. The next js scheduled to take place at West Point, and this meet will shortiv h fal lowed by another at Pittsfleld, Mass., which ds generally regarded as an ideal spot for the purpose. ' Dr. Alexander GrahamBelI, the inven- j lor of the telephone, is among the most ' prominent and enthusiastic memhprs of the club. He has made extended study of the problem of aerial, navigation. "Well remembering the hard fight he had before the telephone won Its way, he is always ready to give a helping hand to the needy but able young American who is scoking.to win for Uncle Sam the con quest of the air. Evidence or Progress. The recent exhibit of the .Aero Club at the Automobile Show in New York gives an excellent Idea of the progress that is being made. There were three airships, the California "Arrow," winner of the ?10.000 prize at the St. Louis Exposition. and an airship built by Leo Stevens, of j New York. Besides these were the Lang- j Icy power model flying machines, which i flew successfully over the Potomac an save promise that some day a full-sized aerodrome on the same lines would win all the measures of success predicted for IL Striking as this showing- was, it merely represents an outline of what is being: done by Americans. To recite them all, to give a description of each in detail -would be to attempt a work so monumental that it would take a huge volume. In every Instance there has been Independence of action. The Nation that produced the inventor of the steamboat has inventors who eta re tkiik for themselves, and the airship j exporimontcrs are no exception. Their devices are as widely apart as the poles. Fearless Knabenshue. Roy Knabenshue has taken great risks with dirlgblc balloon. In fact he has exposed himself oftener than any other prominent American aeronaut but he is still on terra firms, and. has progressed perhaps nearer a working airship than the majority of his Amer ican contemporaries. Knabenshue is absolutely fearless. He first came into prominence at the sx. jxuis Exposition In 1804. He was at that time standing in the crowd when some one was needed to operate a- .... . 4L53r$3r.fcJ 4 ;-;. ft mm:-- .1 zszrr i: m- .'mam, u 4 all these daring young- American invep tors. They thrive on failure. The com plete collapse of a machine on which they have spent time and money. leaves them entirely undaunted, and ready for a fresh effort. A. S. Herring did not get much en couragement out of his first efforts, but he kppt sturdily at it until he perfected a gashlinc motor aeroplane. The model has flown la miles in a circle when tethered to a tall pole, and only stopped when the supply of gas gave out. It has , a motor that weighs only two pounds. , but gains a speed of more than SO miles , an hour. Charles Hamilton takes a chapter from Benjamin Franklin, and pins his faith to a man-carrying: kite. Tethered to a stout rope his huge kite of bamboo and duck has carried the aeronaut high in the air. Israel Ludlow has a-' kite on similar lines. Drawn by a tug- it gave good re sults in tests made on the Hudson. Captain James M. Clinton is hopeful of a dirigible balloon run by turbines. The final test has not yet been made. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, pins his faith to a tetra hedral kite. When released In air It de scribes a series of descending spirals. Bell is one of the veterans in the ranks of airship inventors. From him they range- in ago all the way down to Lincoln Becchey, "The Boy Aeronaut." who, at the age of IS, has made many daring flights in the Baldwin airship. Lately he has been working on a machine of his own modeling. His remarkably success ful flights in the airship "City of Port land'' durifig the Lewis and Clark Expo sition last Summer gave him world-wide fame. It is a wide list, and a varied one. all Americans working differently for the same end, but with a vigor and intelli gence that warrants the hope that Uncle Sam will invent the first practical airship. "85 -- t if the "Arrow." Professor Baldwin's j prize-winning- machine. Knabenshue stepped from the crowd and volunteered. His complete success on that occasion drove him into decn- er experiments with a machine of his own invented several years before. He went to New York with it. and made a flight that still lingers in the public mind as a genuine sensation. Seated in his machine which In gen eral design Is somewhat similar to that of Santos Dumont." and looks equally, like a cucumber or sausage with a triangular framed truss of bamboo for a car, Knabenshue rose over Central Park, and for an hqur sailed over Father Knickerbocker, in full view of that Hudson River, on which another American had navigated the first steamboat. Knabenshue showed that he could go against the wind, and could turn his air craft at will. This daring aero naut is 2S years old, and halls from Toledo. O. Clear across the continent. In Port land. Or., another airship startled the public by an experiment somewhat similar to that of Knabenshue. Prominent Aeronauts. Dr. August Grcth. though an Alsa tian by birth, can fairly be classed as an American, for he has horn in this country for 3ears, and it was not until after hj had taken a degree from the University of California and established business interests in San I Francisco, that he first began to study j aeronautics. Ills Greth machine eel's Its power frotn a motor. It has float ed successfully over San FrannU and showed itsolf to be able to so InJ uhtchuiu m me wm or the in ventor. Ico Stevens, of New York, has had a number of successes. He too uses the design of a dirigible balloon. F. M. Mahan has a machine that tenas strongly to eccentricity in ap pearance. It resembles more than anything else the wild goose that we used to see pictured in the fairy books. It Is provided with a lifting power balloon of sufficient capacity to over came S3 per cent of the- earth's grav ity Its two great wings. ocratP kv t.a smau xasounc engine, are designed" J to bae sufliclerit power to BroBel the ship. 3Jr. Mahan claims great things lor hla Invention. J?ar less outre have been the ex periments of the late Professor Lang- iey. He was generally rated as the deepest thinker of American ulrshlp Inventors, and though his devices have not met with full triumnh. the principles that Langley has promul gated are given deepest consideration by the world's specialists on the sub ject. Iiangley's Hope and Failure. Langley pinned his faith to the gas oline aerodrome. The Government thought so well of this invention that the Board, of Ordnance and Fortifica tions of the War Department appro priated $70,000 to enable the professor to carry out his experiment with it. The machine made its first appear-, ancc in 1895, and was given a public test in 1395. It sailed three-quarters of a mile over the Potomac, establish ing a distance record of this kind of airship. It was built on the plan of a four-winged Insect, but of model siztr. weighing 30 pounds, and carry ing a one-horse power boiler. The Langley "No. 2" was still a bet ter machine, but it was damaged In launching, so that no one knows Just what potentialities it may have had. It seems a pity, in view of. the unfin ished nature of his experiments, that Professor Langlcy's career should have been cut short by death at the moment He never lost faith in his machine, and It Is said that he had just brought It to the point of mak ing a further experiment during- the next few months. Langley'g machine at least proved that one of the most Important things to be learned before the aerodrome could be made a success was balancing. Various Successful Feats. AVith this idea in mind, two young American brothers Wilbur and Or vllle. Wright, experimented with a two-decked soaring apparatus. Their tests were made -at KIttyhawk, North Carolina. Tney built a number of machines and were encouraged by re sviiU. BotU retain their enthusiasm, and arc eagerly pressing forward to a better model. In fact, this seema to be the spirit ef Unmscribed Tomb of Robert Emmet Tray tell me," I said to an old man who strayed. Drooping o'er the rraves which his own hand had made. "Tray tell mc the name oC tho tenant who sleeps x Beneath yonder lone stone, where the sad willow weeps: Every stone la engraved with the name of the dead. But yon black slab declares not whose spirit Is fled." In silence he bowed, then he beckoned ma nlsh. Till we stood o'er the grave then he said with a sigh: "Yes", they dared not to trace e'en a word on this stone. . To the memory of him who sleeps coldly alone: He told them commanded the lines o'er his gravo " Should never be traced' by the hands of a slave. "He bade them to shade e'en his name la the gloom. Till the morning of freedom should dawn on his tomb; When the flag of my country for liberty flies. Then let my name and my monument rlset You see they obeyed him tls sixty-eight years. And they come still to moisten his grave with their tears. "He was young, like yourself, and aspired, to overthrow The tyrants who filled his loved island with woe; They crushed his bold spirit this earth wai confined Too scant for the range of his lumlnoui mind." He paused, and the old man went slowlj . away. And I felt as he left me an Impulse to pray. Grant Heaven I may see. ere my own day are done. .V monument rise o'er my country's beat son; And. Oh! proudest task, be It mine to Indite The long delayed tribute a freeman must write. Till then .shall Its theme In my heart deeply dwell. So Joy to thy soul, dear R. E.. fare thee welk G. Barric Viewed in Verse. Exchange. (Theater-goers who arc fonrf of T?arri have been amused at Captain Graham's tilts against him In "More MHrepreaentatlva Men." As Miss Ethel Barrrmore. Cantain Graham's fiancee. Is not appearing In "Bar- rie;s play. "Alice-Sit-by-the-Flre." aad Maude Adams In "Peter Pan." the following stanzas are especially to the point:) O tiniest of tiny men! So wise, so whimsical, so witty! "Whose magic little fairy-pen Is steeped In human pity: Whos? humor plays so quaint a tuae. From Peter Pan to Pantaloon! And modern matrons who caa find So Uttle leisure for the Nurs'rjT4 Whose Interest la feabyklnd . Is eminently curs'ry. " . , New views on Motherhood acquire. Fro Allce-Slttiae-by-the-yira! "