Viewing page 173 of 404
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
Post Dispatch St Louis 31 Mar 1907. The Board of Governors of the St. Louis Aero Club decided at its meeting during the week to appropriate $5000 for special prizes to be competed for at the international "aero" contest in St. Louis next October. The contest thus provided for will be in addition to that in which the Bennet cup is competed for. All kinds of aerial craft will be included in the scope of the contests. It is intended to make an opening for the Wright Brothers of Ohio, to make good their claim that the actual flight without has, made by Santos-Dumont in Paris is merely a suggestion of what they can do with the flying machine they are said to have tested in secret and secretly found to be a solution of all that is left of the problem, of "navigating the air." Times New York 30 Mar 1907 A SCHOOL FOR AIRSHIPS It Is Recommended to Rich Men as a Worthy Object of Philanthropy. To the Editor of The New York Times: The benevolence of philanthropists has been, up to this time, mainly directed to libraries, schools, universities and other institutions of learning. There are manual training and technical schools, but there are no institutions where untold numbers of capable and practical men, especially workingmen can be advised and financially helped. Frequently such men have to give to the pursuit of ingenious inventions for lack of means to perfect them. Applied science would certainly be much promoted if inventors were given the opportunity to work out a degree of commercial utility, which otherwise they could not afford to do. If we look at the field to which so many now turn their energies and money, air navigation, it appears as if they were tying the cart before the horse. Instead of advancing on a sure, scientific, and practical basis, they waste money on balloons, which lack the first requirement, dirigibility. Would it not be more sensible to recognize the immature state of the science of air navigation and to first exhaust all resources by offering prizes to scientific and practical men for valuable propositions to overcome that principal obstacle, resistance of the air? Until this problem is solved balloons will remain mere toys. If there existed an institution in which ideas, patterns, or developed models could be examined and where the inventor would be allowed to finish and test his invention and to demonstrate its commercial value, there would certainly be more chances to accomplish quicker and better results. Suppose one or more such institutions should be created, does it not stand to reason that in a given time such institutions would be self-supporting? The inventors, in case of success, would only be too willing to divide their revenues from such inventions with the institution that enabled them to finally reach success. MORE LIGHT. Brooklyn, March 25, 1907. [[image]] Since his famous flight of 240 yards at the B last November, says the London Graphic, M. Santos with the construction of another aeroplane, which for trial on the first favorable opportunity. The ne built on the lines of the "14 Bis," differs from it. The rider sits below the wings, thus giving increased steering apparatus in front has been replaced by a supporting surface has been greatly reduced, while been exchanged for a more powerful one. Times New York 31 Mar 1907 TO ENTERTAIN W. WELLMAN. Aero Club of America Reception for Arctic Balloonist. A reception to Walter Wellman on Tuesday night, an ascension at Pittsfield next Saturday, and a meeting of Directors to outline a plan for an amicable adjustment of the Italian entry difficulty will be among the activities in the Aero Club of America this coming week. Walter Wellman is due to arrive here on Tuesday on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. He will remain barely a week, as he will return to Paris on April 11 to complete arrangement for making an early start for Spitzbergen where the preparations will be completed in June for the airship flight to the north pole. Major H. B. Hersey of the United States Weather Bureau, who it to accompany Mr. Wellman on the arctic expedition, will be in New York to-morrow, and will be a guest of the Aero Club at its rooms, 12 East Forty-second Street, on Tuesday night. Both will tell something of what they hope to accomplish, and Mr. Wellman will be asked to give an account of the changes he has made this year in his big airship. He has stated that it has been practically rebuilt, equipped with new motors, and possesses a lifting capacity of 19,500 pounds. Major Hersey will sail for Europe on Wednesday and will take charge of the work until Mr. Wellman returns. President Cortlandt Field Bishop, who is to sail for Europe about the middle of April, has sent word to the offices of the International Aeronautical Federation, asking that a general meeting be called for April 30 in Paris to complete arrangements for the coming Gordon Bennett Cup Balloon race at St. Louis in October. Mr, Bishop is especially anxious this the Italian team be permitted to compete. The Italians failed to send their entries until after Feb. 1, the official time for the closing of the lists, and it is believed here that there is a disposition on the part of the French Club to insist upon t he technicality of the rules and judge the Italians ineligible.
