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30 Ap- 1907. Tuesday, April 30. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, said at London that it was only a question of a brief period when the progress of aerial navigation would make it possible to have dinner in America and breakfast the next morning in Europe. Globe Boston 29 Apr- 1987 Balloon Ascension Postponed ST LOUIS, April 28-The balloon ascension to have been made in St Louis tonight by Capt Charles Chandler U.S. signal corps, and J.C. McCoy New York city was postponed. It was decided to wait for a strong west wind. Capt Chandler and McCoy desiring to try to land near Washington. Capt Chandler is testing the adaptability of balloons for use by the government in war. Tribune New York 30 Ap - 1907. TWO HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell is said to have expressed the belief that within a few years the world will see an airship capable of travelling from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles an hour, and also that the United States will be the first country in the world to develop a "practical aerial battleship," for which we shall not have to wait very long. Perhaps Dr. Bell did not mean to be taken seriously, and perhaps he was not accurately reported. We are sure that nobody expects to see Admiral Evans's fleet go out of commission this year or next or looks for any interruption of the government's present programme of naval construction. If, however, it was the intention of the inventor of the telephone to predict that America would eventually produce a better airship for certain kinds of military service--observation, photography and perhaps the dropping of torpedoes--than has yet been evolved in Europe, his forecast, so far as it applies to war, will seem fairly reasonable. In that case discussion of the views he is credited with entertaining may properly be confined to the question of how fast it will ever be feasible to go with a flying machine. A close parallel to the problem of developing high speed in the air is furnished by experience on the water. In both cases the chief resistance is offered by friction with the element in which the screw propellers of a craft--airship or ocean steamship--work. Now, at sea every attempt to gain in velocity involves a disproportionate increase in the power required. A hint of this difficulty may be found by comparing the Deutschland and the Kaiser Wilhelm II, vessels of about the same size. The former has engines capable when new of developing 36,000 horsepower and enabling the steamship to attain twenty-three and a half knots an hour. The other vessel has engines developing 40,000 horsepower, and though her designer's ambition was apparently not realized to the utmost he did not expect her to beat her rival by more than half a knot. Here is another illustration: The battleships of the Virginia class displace 15,000 tons, and the capacity of their engines is 19,000 horsepower, or about one and a quarter horsepower to a ton. The destroyers of the Bainbridge class displace a little more than 400 tons and have engines developing 8,000 horsepower, or nearly twenty horsepower to a ton. Yet by an enormous increase in the ratio pf power to size-fifteen or sixteen fold-the government gains about 50 per cent in speed. The Virginia develops nineteen knots and the Bainbridge twenty-nine. Even by reducing the size of the hull and filling a vessel entirely with machinery, the attainment of a speed of fifty knots is apparently out of the question, if established precedents in marine practice are followed. To do as well as or better than this in the atmosphere would be equally impracticable without some radical innovation. If a given amount of power could be secured by the use of much lighter engines than have been used on land or sea, a distinct improvement in speed might be practicable. Langley and Maxim realized that truth so fully a dozen years ago that they sought to reduce the weight of their machinery to the lowest possible minimum, so that they could develop more power within a given space than had previously been attainable. No doubt Mr. Bell and other Americans who are trying to evolve a thoroughly practical and useful airship are planning to act on the same principle, but until they have shown what they can thus accomplish it will be wise to cherish only modest expectations. brea[[cut off]]ica. Good-it will [[cut off]] European travelers to come home to [[cutoff]] every day and escape that terrible foreign table d'hote. Herald New York 30 Ap - 1907 AERIAL FLIGHT SURE TO COME -ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL. - Inventor of the Telephone, in London, Discusses Flying Machine Problem. - GIVES CHANUTE CREDIT - Declares That Chicago Man Is To Be Thanked for America's Advancement in Navigation of Air. - DEFENDS LANGLEY'S EFFORTS - Asserts Governments Will Use Successful Machines in War and Wealthy Men Will Want Them. - [SPECIAL CABLE TO THE HERALD.] Herald Bureau, No. 49 Avenue de l'Opera, Paris, Monday. London, Monday.-That the problem of aerial navigation is already solved and that America is in advance of the rest of the world in heavier than air flying machines are some of the statements made by Professor Alexander Graham Bell in the course of an interview to-day. Professor Bell has come to England especially to receive the degree of Doctor of Science, which is to be conferred upon him by Oxford next Thursday. He and Mrs. Bell went to Oxford this afternoon in an automobile and returned in time for dinner after a fine run. He said the problem of navigating the air has been solved by the Wright brothers, of Dayton, Ohio. Gives Chanute Credit. Mr. Bell gives great credit to Octave Chanute, of Chicago, author of "Progress in Flying Machines," to whose efforts and inspiration he says much of the progress made in America is due. "Aerial navigation is no longer in the problematical stage," continued Professor Bell. "Wright brothers have succeeded in accomplishing it. The age of the flying machine is not one that belongs to the distant future, but it is here now. There is left only the question of improving the machine that has been invented. No, I have not seen the machine of the Wright brothers fly, but I credit fully the testimony of Mr. Chanute, made to me not long ago. To Mr. Chanute should be given a great amount of credit for what has been accomplished in this direction in America. He started the experiments with the flying machine over there. He reproduced the gliding machine of Lillenthal and induced several young Americans, among them Herring and the Wright brothers, to experiment with it. "Chanute is a man advanced in years and could not conduct the experiments, but paid out of his own pocket the expenses for experiments that have been made by Herring and others. Of Langley's Trials. "In experiments made in America the late Professor Langley led the way, though his machine did not carry a man. His model is going to be tried again by his assistant, Mr. Manley, who risked his life in the former experiment. Langley's latest model was really never tried. The so-called trial, which some harsh writers pronounced a failure, never having taken place, the machine having been wrecked by an accident in launching it. "The development of the airship, I think, will come for other than commercial reasons, for the flying machine is destined to take an important part in warfare. The war departments of different governments are watching with greatest interest whatever is being done in this direction, and once a successful airship is given to the world its growth toward perfection will be more rapid than anything ever seen. The airship will overturn all present methods of warfare. Then, too, wealthy men will take to airships as they have taken to automobiles and the machines will be developed for speed. They will undoubtedly be utilized for purposes of rapid and light transportation, such as carrying the mail." He Will Try Again. Asked about his own experiments, Professor Bell said:- "I have not been able to do anything recently, but I am hurrying back by the Adriatic on May 8 to resume experiments at my place in Nova Scotia. There I can smash as many machines as I please without fear of inquisitive newspaper reporters recording my failures. At my home in Washington it is different. An experiment I made in December I thought turned out very well, one of my structures flying very well in a ten mile breeze. No, this was not a flying machine. The structure was just made of aeroplanes, same as a kite, but I may say it lifted a man without difficulty. My experiments with the aeroplanes have been conducted from a purely scientific standpoint and principally for my own amusement. This summer I [[cut off]] to try a motor with them." [[cut off]] what he thinks is responsible for [[cut off]]rence between the efficiency [[cut off]] in London and that [[cut off]] city, Professor [[cut off]]ntrol may [[cut off]] what- [[cut off]]
