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1907. February 19. Tuesday at Baodeck Daily Telegraph London, Dec 1906. EXPLOSIVES FROM AIRSHIPS. ------------- WASHINGTON, Friday. General Crozier, of the Ordnance Department, has admitted that Government experts have invented the most powerful explosive known, and that it has been designed especially for use in the airships for which the Government is negotiating with the Wright brothers, aeroplane makers, of Dayton, Ohio. The new explosive, however, could be used in ordinary balloons.-- Laffan. News London Sup. 1 Dec 1906 AN AERIAL FLEET. ------------ United States to Begin Construction Shortly. ------------ NEW EXPLOSIVE. ------------ (From Our Correspondent.) WASHINGTON, Nov. 30. The Government have been so impressed with the growth of serial inventions that General Crozier, Chief of the Ordnance Bureau, to-day announces that steps will shortly be taken to form an aerial fleet. The construction of the airships will be based on the discoveries of the Wright Brothers, of Dayton, Ohio. These aeronauts have been subjected to considerable criticism of late, and their alleged achievements have been scoffed at by European aeronauts, but this announcement tends to show that they have succeeded in impressing the army authorities. WASHINGTON, Nov. 30. General Crozier has admitted that Government experts have invented the most powerful explosive known, and that it has been designed especially for use in the airships for which the Government is negotiating.--Laffan. [We must remind our readers in this connection that the use of high explosives thrown from balloons and airships is forbidden by the Hague Convention. We doubt whether the United States Government is seriously disposed to ignore so emphatic a declaration made in the interests of civilization.--Ed. D.N.] Georgian Atlanta Ga. 1 Dec 1906. He Will Construct An Aerial Navy For French Government [[Picture of M. Lebaudy]] M. LEBAUDY, The inventor of a dirigible airship, bought by the French government, which is now going to build the first aerial navy. Sue Post New York 1 Dec 1906 [[strikethrough]] T 76 BALLOON CUP PROTECTION ------------ LIEUT. LAHM'S TROPHY HELD FOR POSSIBLE DUTY. ------------ Question Whether an Air Pilot Is an Athlete - Aero Club to Show the Bennett Club Next Week-Coming Races of the Organization-Aerial Navigation to Be Developed. ------------ International balloon race trophies do not appear in the custom house with such regularity that they have become common objects of appraisal. Consequently when the immense big silver cup recently won by the representatives of the Aero Club of America at Paris was landed in New York from the strong box of a French express steamship the custom house officers were in a quandry as what to rate it. Yachting trophies, athletic trophies, shooting, horse racing, and rowing prizes have passed to and fro between the continents, but a balloon cup--never. Besides that the Gordon Bennett cup is something extraordinary in appearance. It is over three feet long, nearly as many feet high, and is strange and wonderful in design. To one who is not "wise" in balloon lore the object might be anything but a figure symbolizing sport aeronautical. The appraisers at first classified it as an art importation, and when Aero Club members claimed it there was a protest immediately over any payment of duty. "Any trophy won by an American athlete shall be admitted duty free" is the way the club members construed the law, and the chances are that this interpretation will hold, although a balloon pilot may hardly be termed an athlete. The famous cup should be released from customs by to-day and be on exhibition during the Automobile Show, which opens to-night, and after that it will be put away in some safety deposit vault until the international contest next year, on which the American committee is already hard at work. ELIMINATION RACES FOR CUP. A plan for elimination must necessarily be agreed upon on account of the large number of entries which are bound to come in, and the board of directors of the Aero Club of America will probably have to take into consideration the past records of the pilots as one qualification. About the only decision reached, however, is that Lieut. Lahm, the present holder of the cup, will be exempt from any and all qualifying rules whatever they may be, and that all contestants must forward certified checks covering their entrance fees before February 1, 1907. The committee is resolved that all records for distance in this contest must be broken next year in order that America in the future shall be the popular racing course for all aerial contests. Cortlandt Field Bishop, president of the Aero Club, said to-day that the importance of the coming contest as a sporting event could not be exaggerated, and that the eyes of England and Europe were already focused upon us, anxious to see how Americans were going to handle something they knew so little about. "We cannot afford to fail," said Mr. Bishop. "From Washington to 'Frisco America has a sweep of country that is magnificent for ballooning. Either side of this line there is plenty of room to swing north or south at any angle, and even if the start should be made from the centre, distance would not be lacking to break all European records now standing. One problem will be gas quality, and the city that can show us the best facilities for filling the balloons will stand the best chances of getting the start!" FLYING MACHINE MEN ACTIVE. But before the Aero Club enters fully upon work for next year's race meet, the exhibit at the automobile show, which opens Saturday night, must be carried out. The work here this season has largely been put upon the "flying machine men," and the balloon experts will have very little to say. "Flying machine" inventors are in a class all by themselves. They are as different from balloon pilots as the skipper of a sailboat is from a machinist. In the first place, all of them are inventors and each has some particular machine that can beat anything else. Consequently, there will not be very many balloons shown at the exhibit this winter. Air ships, aeroplanes, kits and wind wagons will
