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1907 May 17. Saturday at Baddeck  119

Scientific American
16 Feb 1907. New York

AERIAL NAVIGATION PRIZES.
Of a somewhat sensational nature is the announcement of a $50,000 aeronautic prize offered at Paris. The prize in question is to be awarded for an aerial flight from Paris to London, and the largest part of the sum is subscribed by one of the leading daily journals, Le Matin, which offers $20,000. The remainder is subscribed in equal portions of $10,000 by Marquis de Dion, M. Clement, and M. Charley, all three of whom figure prominently in the automobile world. According to the rules which have already appeared regarding the contest, the event will take place in 1908 and there are two essential points, first, that all possible kinds of aerial craft are admitted to the contest, and second, that the motors employed on all the flying machines must be of French construction. The aeronauts themselves may, however, be of any nationality. In any event, not regarding the state of the atmosphere, the start will take place from Paris on the 14th of July (the national holiday), 1908. Should the $50,000 prize not be won at that time, other starts will be fixed for the second Sundays of August, September, and October so as to have the event closed in the year 1908 if possible. The distance is 212 miles.

The amount of the prize will be awarded directly by the donors to the proprietor of the winning flyer who arrives the first within a maximum period of twenty-four hours exclusively through the air and using only the power contained within such apparatus. For the start a point will be fixed in or near the city at a later date. The finish will be noted by the dropping of a marked bag from the flyer, which is to fall within a circle of 25 meters (82 feet) radius about the finish point. Ten o'clock in the morning is the hour fixed for the start. It is to be noted that stops en route are to be allowed for taking on fuel and other supplies. All the motors are to be of French make. Closing of the engagement lists will take place thirty days before each start. No competitors will be allowed to enter who have not made a good performance beforehand with their aerial flyers, according to the testimony of reliable persons. Questions which are not settled by the regulations may be brought before the committee for decision, and this will be final. The announcement of such a large prize has awakened a great interest, as may be naturally expected, in aeronautic circles in Paris and elsewhere, and it will go far toward stimulating the activity of aeronauts, especially in France. 

When the Daily Mail offered the sum of £10,000 ($50,000) on certain conditions for an aeroplane flight from London to Manchester, The Car, a London automobile paper, offered through the medium of the Daily Mail £5 ($25) per mile with the low minimum of twenty-five miles to be covered, and a challenge trophy value of 500 guineas ($2,500) for the longest flight taken in Great Britain in any one year.

The Brooklands Automobile Racing Club, of England, offers a money prize of £2,500 ($12,000) for any aeronaut who wins a race in the air by covering the prescribed course once. The date of the race will probably be in June or July next, so as to give plenty of time for construction and experiments. The prize will be given to the owner of any aeroplane heavier  [[??]]

Independent 
21 Feb 1907 New York.

Aeronautics in America
BY AUGUSTUS POST
SECRETARY OF THE AERO CLUB OF AMERICA.

ON January 1st a committee of the Aero Club of America made the tests preceding the selection of the city of St. Louis for the international cup contest next October. The committee found full confirmation of all aerostatic conditions desired. St. Louis is an ideal aeronautic port. It is far removed from the sea in every direction. The balloonist has the chance of hundreds of miles over land toward every point of the compass—a condition of the greatest importance, since the points in the contest are for the longest distance and the whole distance, as well as for the equilibrium in the air and the manner of landing. In St. Louis there will be abundant gas, free of charge to contestants. A starting point will be provided in Forest Park, a portion of which is to be enclosed so that there shall be no interference with the inflation of balloons. A St. Louis Aero Club was immediately formed, and this club is now negotiating for the balloon "United States," in which Lieutenant Lahm won the Bennett Cup last year and brought the races to America. This club will do all possible to encourage local participation; sums of money as second, third and fourth prizes are offered by various St. Louis organizations. With all of these favorable signs the committee is sure that it has chosen a suitable city. The contest will be held during the period of full moon in the month of October, probably about October 19. Fine weather, with a temperature of about 64 degrees, is to be expected at this season of the year in St. Louis. There are usually only three or four days of rain in the whole of October. The requirement of ten previous ascensions, two without assistance and one at night, will be made of competitors.

An ambitious precedent for the contestants is afforded in the balloon flight of John Wise, from St. Louis, July 1-2, 1859. This was the longest aeronautic journey ever known to have been accomplished in the United States, and held a record unsurpassed in the world until Count Henri de la Vaulx raised it in 1900, with his balloon flight from the Paris Exposition 1,300 miles into the interior of Russia.

The "Atlantic," Professor Wise's balloon, covered a distance of 1,150 miles in 19 hours and 40 minutes. It left St. Louis at 6.40 o'clock Friday afternoon, July 1, 1859, and landed at 2.20 o'clock on the afternoon of July 2 near the village of Henderson, Jefferson County, N. Y. The route taken included Pana, Ill.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Fremont, Sandusky and Fairport, Ohio; Dunville, Canada West, and Niagara Falls. There were four voyagers—Professor Wise, of Lancaster, Pa.; John La Mountain, of Troy, N. Y.; D. A. Gager, of Bennington, Vt., and William Hyde, of St. Louis, The balloon contained 60,000 cubic feet of gas, and was equipped with 900 pounds of ballast.

This trip was an adventurous one. Wise, during the early part of the night, narrowly escaped asphyxiation from having fallen asleep with his nose immediately at the end of a pipe of escaping gas. The other three members of the party, who were in the lower basket, observed his silence, and Gager climbed in the dark, hand over hand, up into the basket, where he found out the trouble and with difficulty aroused his companion. About 2.40 o'clock in the morning the balloon came to near the ground that the bags of ballast thrown out could be heard as the touched the earth. In the early morning the city of Toledo was seen, and at 7.25 o'clock the aeronauts sighted Sandusky. They raced, at 9.30, with a steamer bound for Buffalo, and crossed Lake Erie in three hours. At noon the balloon was about midway between Buffalo and Niagara. Lake Ontario filled the balloonists with terror, for there was no more ballast left, and it seemed impossible to cross the lake with the balloon so low in the air. A storm was raging. But there was no alternative except to continue the course. Wise, Gager and Hyde climbed up into the


  

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