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1907 June 13 Thursday        97
Herald New York 21 Apr 1907

AERIAL NAVIGATION AT JAMES

Norfolk, Va., April 13.-Aerial navigation will be an open book to all who visit the Jamestown exposition, at Norfolk, Va., this year. The aeronautic exhibit will illustrate the history and progress of all attempts to master the ethereal mystery and overcome the power of gravitation.
The art of sky climbing is regarded by enthusiasts as having now entered the realm of reality. What has been accomplished to this time by the many bright minds concentrated on the work will be shown at this exposition on the shores of Hampton Roads, and when President Roosevelt, by the touch of the now proverbial button, sets in motion the great machinery exhibit on April 26, the cloudland chauffeur will dip his colors in the spindrift of the sky.
It is expected that a great impetus will be give to ballooning, superterranean yachting, flying, or whatever one would call it. All of the late inventions and contrivances of airship builders, many o which and their performances have been described in public prints, will be there for the inspection of the exposition goer. Those disposed to view the aerial fun from altitudinous advantage may do so from captive balloons. Capt. Baldwin, who is recognized as the greatest of American aeronauts, and who was conspicuous in the exhibits aloft at St. Louis will have the captive floating observatories in charge.
Dr. Julian P. Thomas of New York, whose thrilling experiences have put Munchausen's adventures in the shade, will be there with his big Nirvana, and his dirigible, as will Santos Dumont with his collection of air craft, and many of the other pioneer pathfinders of the Blue. Dr. Thomas has been on the grounds already testing the lifting power of Norfolk gas, and though, on a recent visit, an ascent was out of the question, because of the severity of the elements, he is soon to visit Norfolk again and give some attention to air currents.
The Aero club of New York has taken up the exposition aerial exhibit with a zealous interest and under its and the exposition's auspices an aeronautic congress is to be held that will bring together the aeronauts of the world, while international contests will put all kinds of air craft through paces that will embrace high flying, speed and long distance flights.
The names of Langley, Bell and Maxim now figure prominently in the work of scientific effort. Others skilled in practical accomplishment are Ader, in France; Kress, in Austria; Hoffman, in Berlin; Margrave, in Australia; Baldwin, in California; Knabenshue and the Wright brothers in Ohio. The Wright brothers attracted much attention some two years ago when they flew more than a mile at Kitty Hawk Beach, North Carolina, with an aeroplane pushed by propeller and sustained in part by another propeller pushing up. This arrangement was changed afterwards, so that one screw was put forward and the other overhead [[cutoff]]
has weight. Francesco Lana decided that nothing is lighter than nothing and that a body would rise if it was of less weight than the air it displaced. He proposed to construct an aerial vessel of globes from which the air was excluded. It is not recorded that any experiment of this theory was successful. It is not generally believed that a balloon could be made on the vacuum principle, the strength required to withstand the air pressure from without involving weight out of all proportion to buoyancy. Yet as a matter of fact a patent has been granted to an inventor who gives a description of a vacuum balloon.
John Baptist Dante, date not given, is credited with being the first person who attempted flight by wings. He is said to have flown several times, but he at last broke a thigh. Sieur Bernier, a Frenchman, attempted to fly by means of wings, constructed of poles and feathers. That was in 1678. It is not recorded that he was successful.
Another inventor unconsciously was trying to solve the problem of lifting himself by his boot-straps. He designed a ship of iron which carried load-stones which he said would attract the metal and so lift the ship. That was in 1709, and tho gentleman was Baron L. de Gusman, a Portuguese.
The first recorded balloon ascent was made by M. Pilatre de Rozier, in Montgolfier's balloon, Oct. 15, 1785. The balloon was captive and went up but eighty feet. A month later the same gentleman in company with a friend took a balloon sail of five miles. The air in the balloon was raefied by a fire beneath it, and the aeronaut stood in a gallery around the mouth. Accidents caused by fire led to the abandoning of fire balloons. In 1767 Dr. William Black of Edinburg proposed hydrogen gas for inflating balloons. It was not tried until 1783, when Messieur Charles and Robert sent up a large balloon from Paris. It rose 3,000 feet and fell fifteen miles away, where the country folks were thrown into consternation, thinking it a supernatural visitor. Dec. 1, the makers made an ascent in this balloon and were carried about three miles. On a small scale coal gas was used before the end of the eighteenth century, but owing to the difficulty of making it in quantities, by the methods then in use, it was not generally adopted till the beginning of the nineteenth century, when it came into use for illuminating purposes. Though heavier than hydrogen gas it is invariably used now because so much cheaper.
The necessity of controlling balloons was at once recognized and mechanical geniuses began as early as 1784 to turn their attention to this subject. An early sketch shows the air ship of M. Bois of Paris. It is a balloon shaped like a ship, with rudder and a sail. Many others followed, all like this, failures. One, the Dolphin, commenced in 1817 was to cost $50,000. Fish shaped, it was provided with fins to be worked from the boat like [[cutoff]]

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MINES AND METALLURGICAL BUILDING-JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION

balloon was ignited by fireworks which she has taken up with her, the occasion being a fete at the Tivoli Gardens.
The pioneer and most daring in the realm of gliding flight was Ottoman Lilienthal of Berlin. He made about 3,000 flights between 1891 and 1896, when he was killed. An English marine engineer, Mr. Pilcher, improved Lilienthal's apparatus, but was killed in an upset in 1899. In Germany, in 1897, Dr. Wolfert, and his [[cutoff]]
 
to receive records and reports and give proper standing. This club is affiliated with the Aero club of France and England, and the various clubs in all countries of Europe.
Nearly five hundred ascents were made from the balloon park at the Aero club of France last year, making an average of two a day during the season; on the pleasantest days eight or ten balloons would be liberated; it is possible to see a [[cutoff]]

moving. We came to the edge of an [[cutoff]] field. The count cautioned us not to [[cutoff]] out of the basket until ordered th[[cutoff]] pulled the valve rope, allowin so[[cutoff]] the gas to escape. We descended [[cutoff]] and when within 100 feet of the g[[cutoff]] he cut away the anchor which fel[[cutoff]] bedding itself in the ground. The [[cutoff]] loon, lightened by this much [[cutoff]] its [[cutoff]] made an effort to rise again, [[cutoff]]ut not have force enough and descend [[cutoff]]

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