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top of the tower, soar upward several feet and then sink slowly to the roof of the big building.
It had the appearance to those below of a gigantic hawk, and many were startled at its sudden and unexpected swoop. In reality it was a large working model of the flapping-wing flying machine which was invented by Henry Rodemeyer, of No. 185 Terrace avenue, Jersey City, before he was killed in a railroad accident about six months ago.
His son and namesake had taken it to the roof of the Grand Central Palace to demonstrate its self-sustaining qualities to men interested in aerial navigation. Among them were Israel Ludlow, who was hurt in Florida last winter when experimenting with an aeroplane; Dr. Julian T. Thomas, aeronaut; J. C. Lake, Professor Pickering, of Harvard University, Octave Chanute, of Chicago, Walter Wellman, explorer; Leo Stevens and C. M. Manley.
After they had seen the swoop of the Rodemeyer machine they agreed that an airship built on that principle would be successful, and steps will be taken to build one.
The machine is built on the bird principle, and has no motors or propellors. The wings of the model measure about twenty-five feet from tip to tip, and the entire model weighs only twenty pounds. In the wings there are pockets to hold air, the inventor having entertained the theory that the separate feathers of bird's wings served that same air-holding purpose.

[[?]] New York
8 Dec 1906
BIG CROWD OUT TO SEE THOMAS'S WIND WAGON

The Doctor Was Ready to Take a Run or a Flight.

BUT SOMETHING BROKE AGAIN

Visitors Inspect the Helecoptere, a Unique Auto That Is to Start an Aeroplane Soaring.

Dr. Julian P. Thomas's helecoptere did not get into action yesterday, though Dr. Thomas announced in the morning that he would take a run, or a flight, or whatever the experiment with his new and unique machine might turn out to be. The trial may be made to-day.
The new wind wagon, for that is really what it is, was tried out very late on Thursday night, and it scared everybody on Broadway in the vicinity of Seventy-sixth Street. Representatives of the press were invited to be present yesterday. The machine apparently was suffering from the exposure of the night before, and the reporters, waiting two hours in the garage, had a good chance to examine it.
It has three automobile wheels attached to a skeleton frame. In steel framework, above the two wheels at the rear, there is a gasoline engine which drives a shaft. The shaft extends over the rider's head to the front of the machine, where it is attached to a two-bladed propeller, in this instance made of canvas covering a framework of wood. The purpose of the engine is to drive the propeller so that the latter will drag the machine along, and it does not in any way connect with the wheels. Ultimately, if the machine proves a success, Dr. Thomas intends to attach it to an aeroplane, and by means of it he will get a running start, which is necessary to carry an aeroplane up into the air.
On Thursday night, Dr. Thomas, in running the thing through upper Broadway, broke the clutch on the shaft, and it was this that delayed operations yesterday. Although the flight had been set for 2:30, it was nearly two hours later when the machine was run out of the garage. Meanwhile, Dr. Thomas had explained the idea of his invention, and the machinists had tinkered with it.
once the street was gained, Dr. Thomas's picture was taken. He posted sitting in the machine with automobile goggles on. The seat, by the way, is a bicycle saddle, affixed to a single steel rod running between the rear axle and the standard to which the single front wheel is fixed. A large crowd of small boys and laborers hastened up to see the freak automobile, and they followed Dr. Thomas and the helecoptere to West End Avenue and Seventy-fifth Street, where it was proposed to make a start.
The wind was blowing half a gale, and was as cold as a Greenland zephyr. While the reporters and the other curious people stood on the curb and shivered, Dr. Thomas and half a dozen machinists from the garage tried to start the machine. The engine wouldn't spark. When the crank had been turned half a hundred times and there was nothing doing, it was found that the propeller shaft had parted where it had been brazed after the clutch broke the night before. The machinists went back for a collar to put on the shaft.
Half of West End Avenue was on the sidewalk or at front windows waiting for something to happen. The machinists were gone so long that finally, when Dr. Thomas's face was blue with cold, he decided that even if the machine would run he was too stiff to manipulate the thing, and so the trial was postponed.

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Santos-Dumont's latest development of the aeroplane

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Vina's type has bicycle wheels

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The French army's machine for experimenting with aeroplanes

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Blinot's aeroplane in operation nea [[cut off]]

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Barlattie's machine flying near M [[cut off]]

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Professor Graham Bell's "Tetrahe [[cut off]]

SANTOS-DUMONT says: "Within a year the aeroplane will be in common use [[cut off]]

Transcription Notes:
*notated where text and images cut off with '[[cut off]]', not sure if necessary.