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1907. February 22 Friday at Baddeek 
15

Sun New York
6 Jan 1907.
COP SHOOES THE HELICOPTERE

BROADWAY NO PRACTICE GROUND FOR POLAR EXPEDITIONS.

Try as He May, Dr. Thomas Cannot Avoid the Photographers and the Reporters When He Goes Out to Take the Air on His Windwagon—A Skied Propeller.

An unsympathetic cop shooed Dr. Julian P. Thomas and his wind wagon off Broadway yesterday afternoon, but not before the doctor had been photographed several times, on the wind wagon, under it, before it and behind it, and had been interviewed by sixteen reporters and a journalist.

Some altruist sent a hurry call to the newspapers about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, asking that reporters be despatched to the neighborhood of Broadway and Seventy-second street, as Dr. Thomas was about to sally forth with his helicoptere, or winged screw, and beat up and down Broadway under full power. It was hinted that the reporters must not make themselves known to the doctor, as he was averse to newspaper publicity.

When the reporters got there Dr. Thomas and the helicoptere hadn't arrived but there was a crowd of men and women and boys near the Seventy-second street station of the subway. Pretty soon the Thomas family arrived in the helicoptere and an automobile, the doctor proudly driving his overgrown tricycle, and Mrs. Thomas, the baby and Tilly, the maid, standing by in an auto in case he needed a tow. The wind wagon rounded the corner into Broadway, its gasolene motor making more racket than a motorcycle. The photographers took up positions, the populace cheered and Dr. Thomas bowed.

Then the motor quit thumping and cracking, gave a tired sigh and went out of business. The doctor frowned and hopped off. Somebody laughed unfeelingly and the doctor got red.

"Get away from here, blast it!" he said, as the crowd closed in around the sick wind wagon. "The reporters and photographers may stay, though. Anybody want to take my picture?"

After the photographers had done their duty Dr. Thomas towed the wind wagon to a garage near Seventy-third street and Broadway, went to work on his own automobile and fitted its motor to the helicoptere. A few minutes afterward he mounted the breeze cart and set sail up Broadway. This time the big four bladed propeller forward gripped the air and pulled the machine along swiftly. The photographers took more pictures and the doctor whirled her around and started back.

Then a mounted policeman, a cop named Brady, who labored under the impression that it was his business to keep traffic undisturbed in Broadway, rode down toward the doctor. Thomas got off the winged screw, adjusted his medals so they would show better in the pictures and faced Brady, while the crowd tittered.
"Yuh'll have to cut it out," said Brady. "Whatd'ye think this street is for anyway? Show me your license." 
"Sir," said the doctor, "you mistake. This is a scientific experiment conducted in the presence of the public and the press. This is a helicoptere, built for the purpose of testing the force and lifting power of winds."
"Produce your license or beat it," said Brady preparing to dismount.
"I have an automobile license which ought to cover it," said the doctor, getting in line with the cameras.
"This thing ain't an automobile," said the mounted cop. "I ain't sure whether any license would cover it. No go away from here"
Dr. Thomas moved the hilicoptere over to the sidewalk and then called the reporters around him. He was sure that the problem of Polar research would be solved as soon as he had improved the winged screw and further tested it.
"Little things will go wrong," he said. "You will observe that the propeller is held in place by fine piano wire. The other day the piano wire broke, permitting the propeller to free itself, and it whirled into the air, higher and higher, until it disappeared over the top of a tall building."
The camera men took his picture again.
"To avoid interference by the police," he went on, "I shall probably conduct my next experiment in the open country. If the photographers would like to take my picture, I am ready." They took him again.
Brady stayed on the job until the doctor and his wind wagon had gone and then rode thoughtfully away.

Dispatch Pittsburg
6 Jan 1907

This Year Man Flies, Says Dumont; And Paris Automobile World Believes

Motor Car Factories Go to Work on New Aeroplanes and Motors.

SOME BIG PRIZES OFFERED

Santos' New Machine to Be Ready This Week and it Will Not Be a Toy.

By STERLING HEILIG
[Special Letter to the Dispatch.]
[image] [caption: Santos on the "Bird of Prey." The 8-cylinder Antoinette motor is below him on the left.]

Paris, Dec. 29.--"This year man flies!" says Santos-Dumont, and the Paris automobile world is so convinced of it that we are witnessing a phenomenal aeroplane scramble. The Marquis de Dion has put the De Dion-Bouton factory to work on two aeroplanes and six experimental motors. Ernest Archdeacon is building a single-box machine with a 70-horse-power motor of his own devising. The Italian Vina has his single-plane refitting with one of the remarkable 12-cylinder motors of which I shall speak presently. Serge de Bolontoff, son of the Princess Wiasensky, is removing his plant from Vevey to Paris.
The Count de la Bauix, who has hitherto despised everything but spherical ballooning, has ordered an aeroplane with propeller force to drive it 37 miles an hour. A.V.Rol, the Londoner who admittedly follows the Wrights, has come to Paris to profit by mechanical facilities and be ready for the coming mixup. Henri Deutsch is paying for two spare-no-expense copies of the Bird of Prey, while the Bleriot-Voisin combination has abandoned its original form to copy the same winner of the two first heavier-than-the-air prizes-the Archdeacon Cup and the Aero Club Prize.
Probably a full list of aeroplanes building in Paris would include half the great auto manufacturers. Girardot of the C.G.V., for example is admittedly a candidate; the younger Clement is backing a school friend inventor; many are working in secret; some of the productions will never be heard of; but I cannot exaggerate the movement of anticipation, intensified by Santos-Dumont's two flights.

Prizes That Are Tempting.