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1907. February 20. Wednesday at Baddeck.
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Dispatch Pittsburg
6 Dec 1906

Aerial Rivalry.

The construction of airships has finally reached the stage where inventors are accusing each other of copying their ideas. This looks like progress because so long as the ideas were not susceptible of successful demonstration nobody wanted to copy them and nobody cared whether anyone copied them or not.

The charge that Santos-Dumont has been copying the designs of the Wright brothers of Dayton is repelled with heat by the Parisian with the remark that he does not believe the Wrights have succeeded in building a machine that will fly. But Professor Graham Bell, President Butler of the Aero Club of Great Britain, Major Baden Powell and others of expert knowledge believe that they have, adding that the Wrights are not to be blamed for keeping their trials secret, as such a machine would be immensely valuable for war purposes.

The reported offer of the Wrights to make a flight for the French Government is said to have been rejected because the altitude proposed was not high enough for war purposes and an alternative offer was refused by the Wrights. With true Yankee caution they do not purpose to give anyone a chance to steal their secret. Meanwhile the testimony of eye witnesses of their flight is, in default of disproof, accepted as convincing by the scientific world and seemingly corroborated by the jealousy of rivals.

Herald Washington DC
8 Dec 1906.

Airships and the Tariff.

The late Henry George, an ardent free-trader, used to sigh for the time when the universal use of airships for travel and transportation would make it impossible to longer maintain custom-houses and to collect tariffs on imports. For, he argued, it would be manifestly impossible to prevent absolute freedom of trade in goods carried by aerial freight, as argosies of the air sail whithersoever they will and land wherever they choose. Evasion of the customs officers by aerial smugglers would become so easy and so general, he thought, as to make the collection of duties on goods coming from abroad a farce and a protective policy a laughing-stock.

Mr. George's dream is approximating reality in at least one quarter of the globe. We learn that in England a discussion has started as to the possibility of the evasion of customs duties by smugglers using flying machines. Since a number of balloons have crossed the Channel within the past few months, the possibility is by no means remote. At the present rate of progress in the development of aerial navigation it may not be long before communication between England and the continent through the air will be so well established as to become one of the ordinary features of modern life, like the wireless telegraph. How, then, will the British government prevent aerial smuggling?

The query opens up a realm of fascinating speculation. It is suggested that the government police the upper atmosphere with an aerial fleet to catch offenders on the wing, and to seize and confiscate airship, contraband, and smuggler. Spectacular conflicts would doubtless take place, but would it not be easy to evade the government airship? They could not be constantly on the wing, nor could they effectively guard the immense regions of the air, without coastline, or boundaries, or surface. We should think the odds decidedly in favor of the smuggler.

Our insular position will undoubtedly save us from immediate contact with the interesting problem now undergoing discussion in England. No airship has yet crossed the Atlantic, and we presume none is likely to cross for some years to come. However, should aeronautics solve the difficulties at present in the way of over-sea traffic via the air there will be serious trouble ahead for such standpatters as may unhappily survive to see that day. The problems presented by airship navigation will then become momentous and pressing. They will threaten, as Henry George foresaw, the very foundations of the protective system.

We regret that President Roosevelt should not have included this very important, though not very immediately important, topic among the glimpses into the future with which his recent message abounds. We can see no way out of our prospective aerial problems but the government regulation and supervision of aerial navigation. Government ownership, such as would be proposed by Mr. Bryan, would be obviously impracticable, visionary, and dangerous; but proper supervision and control over persons and [[cut off]]

[[Leuies?]] Buffalo NY
9 Dec 1906

A THRILLING MID-AIR EX[[cut off]]
By ANDREA LA TOUR

[[image]]

THE START OF A BALLOON RACE IN PARIS.

When automobiles first began to attract the attention of the world at large, the prediction was freely made that the great cost of the machines and the danger attendant upon running them, would prevent them from ever becoming popular. And so now, even though the airship is only in the infancy of its evolution and development, we hear the same carping. But to a man who has been in close touch with the balloon men and the airship men, it is apparent that the very reason that people are turning to aerial navigation is because of the expense and the danger. People who have money and are willing to spend it are constantly on the search for some new experience; some novel sensation to tempt the satiated appetite for pleasure. And in ballooning they get it as they do in no other form. Do you remember the first time you ever rode in the ordinary office building lift? Do you remember how when the operator started the car on its upward flight you felt rather that the ground floor was falling away from you, than that you were going up? And do you remember the sickening sensation when the elevator started suddenly downward and it seemed as if the floor of the car was falling out from under you? That is the way it is in ballooning, only more so. When your gas bag, released from its fastenings, begins to soar rapidly upwards, you do not appear to be moving. You seem to be standing still and old mother earth slowly settling away, falling gently much as a piece of paper gradually flutters through the air.

It is when you reach the higher altitudes, however, and the varying eddies of wind come, and toss your fragile craft here and there on the sea of clouds, that you begin to realize your position. There never, however, seems to be a sensation of danger. A man on one of the upper platforms of the Eiffel Tower feels his elevation. He dreads falling. He is overcome by a sense of dizziness and experiences a desire to catch hold of something. The feeling when you are in a balloon is entirely different. The experienced aeronaut feels very much like an old-time salt in a sailboat. He enjoys the battle with the elements. Just as the navigator of the brimy manipulates his rudder and sail to catch each bit of air and each favorable current, so the balloonist, with ballast and gas valve, raises and lowers his airboat to catch the draft of air that will take him in the right direction. I well remember my first balloon race. It was an amateur event. The word was given; the cables were slipped; [[cut off]] of life, the Swiftwind, as [[cutoff]] balloon, shot upwards. [[cut off]] almost as if she knew what was expected of her, for with un[[cut off]]cision she sought out the [[cut off]]ward gust of wind and shot into the lead. It was a pretty [[cut off]]

Chronicle San Francisco
9 Dec 1906. Cal.

ANOTHER MAN WITH AN AIRSHIP

Italian Who Believes He Has Solved the Problem of Aerial Navigation.

ROME, December 8.-Count Almerigo of Schio, who since 1874 has been experimenting with airships, believes he has found the solution of aerial navigation. His new machine, which is in the shape of a ship, contains a 50-horse-power motor and a rudder ten yards square. Besides this there is a kind of tall about thirty-five yards square which may be used as a rudder, and at the end of this an arrow to keep the ship in balance.

This airship, it is said, can remain in the air for five hours without recharging, attain a height of 3000 feet and a speed of twenty-five miles an hour. Experiments will soon be made with the machine.