Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1891 — An Aerial Top. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

An Aerial Top.

Zip! up, up, she goes! “There! she’s out of sight!” An instant of silence. “There she comes! down, down, down; there she is across the street.” In the lively scramble a lucky youngster grabs it, and hastening to the vender, says: “Here she is, mister.” “All right,” says the vender. “I give you a penny every time you catch the aerial top.” This is a Forty-second street scene: “Here is your aerial top, a regular sky skimmer. You cam see it go out of sight'. Only ten cents.” Meanwhile, in the intervals of the jangle, the vender with his bird warbler imitated the canary, mocking bird, various animals, and Punch and Judy. A newcomer says: “I’d like to see it go up,” and up she goes, down she comes, and another gamin gets his penny for securing the sky skimmer, while an occasional passer-by invests a dime in the interesting toy. The object of so much interest, says the Scienti/ic American, was a simple three-armed wheel punched out of tin, with its arms widened at their outer ends and all inclined in the same direction, a little spool with prongs at one end which enter corresponding holes in the central portion of the wheel, a wire supporting the whole, and a string wound around the spool for giving the filer its impulse. The string is quickly pulled, and the rapid rotation of this aerial

screw propeller causes it to leave its prime mover and fly skyward out of sight.

AERIAL TOP.