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L NAVIGATION OF THE AIR BY THE FRENCH MILARY AIR - SHIP "LA PATRIE" Brothers of Ohio Are Said to Have Perfected the Airships ts Think These Two Americans Have [[ou]]tstripped All Others and [[fl]]ight Seems Near Reality. [[image]] THE BLERIOT AEROPLANE AT BAGATELLE [[image]] WILBUR WRIGHT [[image]] AEROPLANE "BIRD OF PREY" WHICH ACTUALLY DID FLY [[image]] [[?]] 1897 of Prey at the Bagatelle Wright brothers' achieve- them the front place in gation, assuming that the tnesses to the trails are g from 10 to 38 minutes ayton inventors. Those ay that the driver of the have perfect control of [[illegible]] up [[?]] [[illegible]] did not [[?]] qualities of the aero- plane. Trees were cir- cled, fields were gone over in every direction, and the investors were able to bring their con- trivance to earth with- out any jar -- something that has bothered other inventors of airships almost as much as the [[image]] [[?]] PATRIE" problem of ascent. Why all this secrecy concerning their invention if it can be all that they claim for it? That the comment Santos Dumont has m[[illegible]] claims, and he has challenged them [[illegible]]aipe for the price of $50,000 offered by London Daily Mail to the owner of the fist [[illegible]] that shall travel from London to Manch[[illegible]]a dis- tance of 185 miles. The Wright[[illegible]]s are poor men, and they do not a[[illegible]] front's challenge, their friends say[[illegible]] they hope to sell their invention for a great [[illegible]]m to a foreign government. It is generally believed that their contract is with the French o the British government, and were the secret of their invention to be divulged, as would necessarily happen if they engaged in a public compettion, the contract would be void. At present the Wrights are abroad, engaged in further nego- tiations in regard to their aeroplane and picking up ideas for future use. From descriptions given by eye witnesses of the flight in 1905, the Wright machine consists of two parallel surfaces about 30 feet long and six feet wide, with frames strongly supported by trusses. In front is a rudder six feet square, by turning which the aeroplane is directed either upward or downward; and the rudder makes such a wide swing on its axis that considerable stability is insured to the machine. A small rudder is set at the rear, vertically between two propellers, a[[illegible]] it is this rudder that gui[[illegible]] the aeroplane wherever [[illegible]] inventor would go. The propellers are of wood and have only two blades. with a diameter of about three feet each, The whole contrivance weighs only 925 pounds, and [[illegible]] motor of 25 horse- power. To rise without accident from the ground has proved a stumbling block to many inventors. In order to accomplish this initial feet the Wrights constructed a single-rail track. The aeroplane rests on a truck before the ascent, and the truck is started by the momentum given by the fall of a heavy weight from the top of a derrick. After running 30 feet, the aeroplane has gained sufficient momentum to breast the atmosphere, and leaves the truck for its flight. The in- ventors say that a speed of 25 miles an hour will sustain the flight of their machine. But there are other experiments being con- ducted in America toward the solution of aerial navigation just as important as those of the Wright brothers and Sautos-Dumont, even if they have not attracted the same attention from the public. Prof. Bell of Washington, the in- ventor of the telephone, achieved a theoretical flight with an airship that he himself likens to a flock of birds harnessed to carry among them the weight of motors and operators--a large number of small kites joined together into one system, each of a shape permitting of an in- definite expansion of the system. A Capt. Raymond L. Anglemire of Chicago has the use of Dr. Bell's aeroplane and a de- vice[[illegible]]plied by Edward E. Harbert of Chicago succe[[illegible]] in constructing an airship that is pro- pelled a wireless electrical current, whose power transmitted from earth beneath but [[?]] this contrivance will be has [[?]] been demonstrated. In [[?]] there are, too, Leo Stevens of Franklin, who is bringing ballooning up to an exact science; Prof. Manley of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, Roy Knabensh[[?]] and host of lesser inventors; while Santos-Dumont, Lebaudy of France, Count Zeppelin of Germany and hundreds of continental investors are doing their share in the old world towards the accomplishment of aerial navigation. Since Mongolfier's picturesque balloon was launched in 1783 and Dr. John Jeffries of Boston his cruising of the English channel in a [[?]]on in 1 inventors have been busy turn-out all manner and shapes of balloons and [[?]]ips. Some of them have not flown, others about as dirigible as a piece of paper in a bottle of wine.
