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1907. May 31. Friday at Boo deck 17
Herald Boston News Tribune. Detroit Mich.
10 Mar. 1907 10 Mar. 1907.
WAR BALLOON CONTRACT
A contract has been signed by Leo Stevens, the well known aeronaut, with the war department, to furnish a blue balloon and conduct a series of experiments at Fort Omaha. Neb. The balloon, which will have a lifting capacity of more than a ton of ammunition, is expected to be finished by March 30, says Automobile Topics.
The war department already has nine balloons, but none of them are so large as the new one is to be. It will weigh 1700 pounds. It will have a capacity of 78,000 cubic feet of gas, and the netting over the bag will weigh 286 pounds. The diameter will be 56 feet, while the car will be 6 feet long, 5 feet wide and 4½ feet high. While the balloon is intended chiefly for signal work, it will be large enough to carry deadly bombs in case of need.
Inquirer. Philadelphia
10 Mar. 1907.
FLOCK OF BALLOONS WILL FLY SKYWARD
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Interesting Flight to Be Made From Inquirer Building at Noon Tomorrow
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One of the very biggest of aeronautic affairs will take place tomorrow, when five hundred vary-colored balloons will be liberated from the second floor of The Inquirer building, 1109 Market street. The affair will take place at noon, and wind-sailing experts are expected to be on hand in thousands to witness the interesting sight.
Further than the beauty of the ascension there will be an added element of attractiveness in the fact that attached to each balloon will be something worth while. Two hundred and fifty of them will carry one month's free subscription to The Philadelphia Inquirer, while the remaining 250 will have attached to them free seats for "Little Johnny Jones," the celebrated George M. Cohan musical comedy, which opens a three weeks' engagement at the Park Theatre commencing tomorrow night.
Inquirer Philadelphia
10 Mar. 1907.
CORNERING THE AIR?
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Vision of Meters for the St. Louis Aero Club.
[From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.]
Heretofore the "air merchant" has been a figure of speech, but he will presently be a stern reality. All he needs to do is to prove his claim and take possession of his allotment of the circumambient. From Holland comes the news of a court decision which gives the owner of land property rights in the air above it, and construes as "trespass" any invasion of said air by any flying machine or balloon. and a New York justice has decided that a telegraph or telephone line may not pass above the property of any land owner without his consent.
We cite these instances for the immediate consideration of the Aero Club of St. Louis, and for the more remote consideration of all our people. We must not go to the expense of building airships until we have secured permission to navigate the air.
Nor is ownership of air any more illogical than ownership of land. The one is no more essential to the sustenance of human life than the other. Only we are accustomed to the private ownership of land, and pay ground rent as a matter of course while it would come as something of a shock to us to be required to pay air rent.
This brings up visions of air meters placed in our throats to register the cubic feet of air we inhale. We indignantly aver when we pay ground rent that it is supposed to include the right to the use of the air, but this only proves that we really admit the right to property in air. It is evident that if we may not occupy the ground owned by an individual without his permission, we may not use the air above ground.
"But the air is not stationary," is objected; "it shifts and changes and can not be confined or fenced. It circulates in the public streets and parks." Assuredly, and the citizen is free to use that in the streets and parks--but you can not live always in these places. you must own your ground and its air, or pay rent for that of others.
If we admit the right to private ownership of land, we must admit the right to private ownership of air and water and it follows that we can not use either without the permission of the owner.
A source of revenue is here opened up to property owners. They may rent the use of their air to airship sailors, and appeal to an aerial police to enforce payment. This would perhaps cause some embarrass . . .
FRANCE STARTS SCHOOL TO TRAIN MEN TO FLY AND CONSTRUCT AIRSHIPS.
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The History of Ballooning Shows That Its Problems Have Been Bothering Scientific Minds for More Than 2,500 Years.
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Daedalus, descendant of the Erechtheidae, the old Athenian race of kings, a contemporary of Theseus and Minos, was famous as an artist and mechanic, and is celebrated in poetic fiction as flying safely over the Aegean sea by wings which he himself had made. According to the same fiction, his son, Icarus, flew too near the sun and the wax which cemented his artificial wings melting, fell and was drowned in the Icarian sea, so named to this day, from his sorrowful misadventure. These are the earliest record in literature of "aviation."
Among other early experiments in flight, a wooden pigeon, which sustained itself in the air for a few minutes, is recorded as having been invented by Archytas, of Tarentum, 400 years B. C. Suetonius says that Simon Magus was killed in Rome during the reign of Nero by attempting to fly from one house to another. Friar Roger Bacon (1214-94) constructed a machine consisting of a pair of hollow copper globes, exhausted of air, which could rise in the air supporting a man seated on a chair. In the thirteenth century, Elemerus, a monk, is said to have flown more than a furlong from the top of a tower in Spain.
Giovanna Baltsta Damte, a mathematician of Perugia, made several flights above Lake Thrasimene by means of artificial wings attached to the body near the close of the fifteenth century, but discontinued them after an accident to his machine caused a fall which fractured his thigh. In the seventeenth century, Besnier, a lock-smith, of Saole, France, prudently began to leap from windows one story high, and at last ventured safely on flights from elevated positions, passing over houses, and over rivers of considerable breadth.
The First Balloon.
Henry Cavendish, about 1766, discovered the great levity of hydrogen gas -slightly over 14 times less than that of atmospheric gas- and the following year Dr. Black, of Edinburgh, announced in his lectures that a thin bladder, filled with this gas, must ascend into the air. Cavallo made the requisite experiments in 1782, and found that a bladder was too heavy, paper not air tight, but that soap bubbles filled with hydrogen rose to the ceiling of the room, where they burst.
The first successful balloon was made by the Montgolfler brothers, sons of Peter Montgolfier, a paper manufacturer of Annonay, France. It was a parallelepiped or six-sided bag of silk, containing 40 cubic feet. Inflated with hot air from burning paper, it rose to a height of 36 feet.
The Montgolfiers' success with their Montgolfieres, or hot-air balloons, led to Charles' experiments with his Charlieres, or hydrogen gas balloons. Within a short time several captive ascents, first with animals, then by human beings, were successfully made in heated-air balloons, and on Nov. 21, 1873, Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes made the first independent aerial expedition, rising 3,000 feet, and descending safely, though not without being exposed to considerable danger, 9,000 feet from their starting point.
The Parachute.
Ten days later, on December 1, Messrs. Charles and Roberts ascended in a hydrogen balloon, fitted with a safety valve, and traveled over thirty one miles. Over fifty-two balloon ascents are recorded in 1784. Blanchard, the first professional aeronaut, with Dr. John Jeffries, of Boston, eroded the English channel from Dover to France in a heated-air balloon January 1, 1785. On June 14, 1785, Pilatre de Rozier with Mr. Romain attempted to cross from the French side in a combination hydrogen and heated-air balloon, but the machine caught fire 3,000 feet in the air and both men were killed. The disaster was caused through unfortunate negligence, and the cause of aeronautics did not suffer.
The parachute, already known through Beshier the "flying man's" successful flights, was first utilized in a descent from a balloon by Garnerin, October 22, 1797.
Ballooning, or the "lighter than air" means of aerial navigation, now found more advocates than "aviation," or the . . .
. . . made a remarkable journey from St. Louis, Mo., to Henderson, in Jefferson county, N. Y., a distance of 1,150 miles, in 19 hours 50 minutes, or at an average speed of nearly a mile a minute. Since the beginning of the twentieth century this record has been exceeded only by Count de la Vauix's flight of 1,200 miles from Paris to Russia.
During the wars of the French revolution, an aerostatic institution was established in Meudon, near Paris, in 1794, for training a corps of "aerostiers" to observe the enemy by means of balloons. Since then regular balloon corps have been attached to many armies, and in their interests numerous attempts have been made to construct dirigible balloons. The "aeronautic fish" on which Marshal Ney is said to have spent $20,000, occupied the attention of [[print cut off]] the most ingenious and scientific [[print cut off]] in France for a considerable [[print cut off]] It was a large balloon, of a [[print cut off]] like figure, intended to swim [[print cut off]] as a fish in water, and to be [[print cut off]] by wings or fins working by [[print cut off]] But when launched, though it [[print cut off]] and moved forward a little, it [[print cut off]] on one side, and this tendency could not be corrected, so that the experiment proved a failure.
In 1853, a European aeronautical society was formed; and in 1843, an Aerial Transit company obtained the assent of the British house of commons to a bill for its constitution; to exploit a steam-propelled aero plane-aviator invented by Mr. Henson.
During the Franco-Prussian war balloons were used extensively, and the Uhland had many a hard ride pursuing them. At Ladysmith the British used a captive balloon, all through the siege, with much benefit to the intelligence department. It was announced recently that the United States government has ordered three balloons, worth $12,000, and will shortly establish an aerial station at Fort Omaha, Neb.
Dirigible Balloons.
Gaston and Albert Tissandler achieved some success in 1884 with ??? dirigible balloon, but the first notable dirigible flight was that of Col. Renard, on April 9, 1884, when in a cigar-shaped balloon, with a powerful motor and a front screw, he left Chalais-Meudon. and returned to his starting point in twenty-three minutes after describing an oblong course of five miles.
Since then aerial navigation has developed along the lines of dirigible balloons and motor aer???. Notable successes in dirigible [[print cut off]] have been achieved since [[print cut off]] by Santos-Dumont. Count[[print cut off]] of Paris, Conut Almerigo ??? the American professional aeronauts, Leo Stevens and Roy Knabnshue, but although perfect control has been attained in a wind varying from nine to eleven miles an hour, bulk, fragility, structural weakness, [print cut off]], and inability to carry heavy loads have to be overcome before practical value is insured.
One of Santos-Dumont's most notable flights took place October 19, 1901, when, starting from the Aero Club park, near Longchamp, he sailed around the Eiffel Tower and returned to his starting point, having covered over eight miles in twenty-nine minutes and thirty seconds. By this feat. accomplished within half a minute of specified time, he won the Deutsch prize of $20,000. Besides Santos-Dumont's various dirigible balloons "La Patrie." built for the French government by M. Lebaudy, made a successful flight of more than eighty miles in 1906, and another powerful airship is the dirigible balloon designed by Louis Godard for the Welman polar expedition in 1907
