Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1916 — THERE’S ALWAYS OPPORTUNITY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THERE’S ALWAYS OPPORTUNITY

By JERLE DAVIS.

F a young fellow has the right' stuff In ■ him there is no limit to his soaring—- ■ especially if he invents an aeroplane that is as “safe as a rocking chair." fl/ And thls * a the situation which Mr. T. W. fynlj Charles Russell, a Chicago inventor, iH faces. After five years of hard work JsftTsL-. and fighting big odds he stands on the threshold of wealth and fame. v\ p> Seven or eight years ago, Russell 111 was a freshman in the academic course W U at Northwestern university, Evanston, ly 111. He had an uncanny knack for understanding the why and wherefore of electricity and mechanics, and was able to earn his way through college by doing odd jobs for a light and power concern. During the four years he put in at literature, languages, mathematics and other subjects contained in a college arts course he was tinkering along on the side with toy aeroplanes of his own devising. Russell was slowly working out the details of a dream —one of the kind of dreams that have made Edison, the Wrights. Hammond, Bell and Marconi scientific conjurers. After he had received his bachelor of arts degree, this young man —he was born at Midland, S. D., twenty-seven years ago—went into the engineering school and specialized in physics and engineering. Then he began to experiment with his aeroplane for all he was worth. Because it wasn’t a part of the regular course, Russell had trouble getting shop space in which to do this work. The school authorities, he says, had mapped out a prescribed course and they considered that a deviation from it would mean confusion in the ranks. He even went before the trustees and made a plea for special concessions, but without success. Sympathetic members of the faculty came to the rescue, however, and Russell found room in Dearborn observatory to make experiments at night. Dozens of models were made, tried out and broken. The experiments had gone forward with fair steadiness for three years and longer, when the young man felt that he had discovered and worked out satisfactorily the principles of aerodynamics he had sought. That was three years ago. Then he went gunning for patent rights. It was easy enough to get simple patents, but the Inventor wanted basic patents. Simple patents cover processes and methods, while basic patents cover principles. So after another long wait, voluminous correspondence and endless dealing with lawyers, Russell was notified a few weeks ago that the basic patent rights were his. He carried the glad news to a fraternity friend. - The friend carried it home to his father. The father went East on a business trip and told some Boston capitalists. And the Boston capitalists sent an aviator expert to Chicago to talk to young Russell and see what he had. What he had was “the goods” evidently, for a short time afterward a company was organized, foreign agents —supposed to be representatives of the Anglo-French-Russian allies—rsigned contracts, a big factory was leased and the inventor went on to the plant to supervise the manufacture of the machines. Just before Russell went East the-Chicago newspapers printed brief accounts about the patent grants and the company’s formation. Very little was said about the Inventor. When he was approached for the "Inside story” of his labors Mr. Russell wasn’t easy to “get at.” He was found in a little chicken-coop office which occupies a corner in the machine shop which he l calls his own. His sleeves were rolled high and his hands were grimy. The clatter and whang of machinery made conversation difficult, but not so difficult as the young inventor himself made it —for he is a shy and reticent person, who would make a poor selfadvertiser. But once he began to talk about his machine he was a whirlwind of impulsive speech, making quick, draftsmanlike sketches to illustrate his points. His aeroplane differs in shape from all other known makes. It is a biplane. That is, it has two sets of wings, one set several feet above the other. ‘'ln other machines the planes spread straight across, and with the body and tail form a big capital T. In the Russell machine the wings form a double V, like this: W. The tail is attached to the place where the letters join and extends to the rear. The narrow points of the letters form the front of the machine, and the pilot, passengers and engine company occupy a sort of canoe which rests, where the wings and tail join. The lower wings extend forward of the upper ones—like a man with an undershot jaw. The two propellers twirl on either side of the tall just back of the’wings. Mr. Russell didn’t have, war in mind when he was working on his invention. His idea, centered in commercial possibilities. So long as the aeroplane remained unstable—so long as a driver had to keep his 4 hands on the controls td prevent the machine’s capsizing—it would remain a sporting' proposition. But when the time came that, by improvements in the aeroplane, the driver need only crank up and guide, simply as he would guide an Automobile, the filer would be very useful in business and pleasure. , ’ In the double-V machine the young Inventor believes he has discovered the great secret of in-

herent stability. Placed In the positions described, the wings present a broad surface to air currents on all sides. ‘‘The dangerous air pockets are no longer death gaps In the atmosphere,” Russell declares. All present types of fliers —that is, all the new ones both in this country and abroad —use a gyroscope control. This is a sort of governor, like the governor on a stationary steam or gas engine, that automatically warps the aeroplane wings to meet constantly varying air surfaces when the machine is in flight. These devices art just emerging from the experimental stage. With the gyroscopic stabilizer doing the work, what is the advantage of the Russell machine? Let Russell tell: “The stabilizing devices are all artificial controlfers. If the stabilizer gets out of fix when the machine is 3,000 feet above ground it means danger and possible death for the passengers. The safe machine is one that needs no such controller. It is a machine whose very shape Is an autoinatic controller —a real automatic controller that cannot be tinkered with If the machine Is to leave the ground at all.” This new aeroplane can be made in any size. It is understood that the fliers being constructed in Boston will have a wing spread of a hundred feet or more and will carry two independent engines, each developing 150 horse power. Machines of this size and power are capable of carrying half a dozen passengers, one or two rapid-fire guns, fifty to a hundred large explosive bombs, fuel for a 500-mile flight and scientific instruments for navigation. They can travel rapidly, too—fifty to ninety miles an hour. It is easy to imagine the value of such machines in peace as well as in war. Already"' the government is experimenting with aeroplane mall routes, and Postmaster General Burleson has recommended the establishment of regular aeromail service. The possibilities are without limit, it seems. And for war —well, we know a little of what they are doing with aeroplanes in Europe. All the chief belligerents are building huge planes, triple-winged and engined, that in a pinch can fly close to a thousand miles and carry half a dozen men with small cannon, ammunition and deadly -bombs of large size. In a report which he has submitted to President Wilson, and which will be made public soon, Secretary of the Navy Daniels tells of some remarkable developments in aeroplane construction by American designers and Inventors. He mentions specifically “an aeroplane that practically sails itself. About all the aviator has to do is to crank up and sit at the steering wheel.” Mr. Russell’s explanation of the principle involved in his aeroplane is Greek to the layman. “The problem is to maintafn the center of upward pressure to coincide with the center of area at all times, no matter whether the machine is in direct forward flight or is falling. This problem I have solved, if the success of all my experiments proves anything.” There’s a young inventor either at work or dreaming over work to be done wherever you go tn this broad land of ours. In the towns and cities you see amateur wireless receiving stations strung from barn gables to attic windows. In the country the youngsters are tinkering over the fool benches —working away at some"* idea that .. may revolutionize ah Industry. r* The history of young Mr. Russell should be an inspiration to every youth born without a silver

spoon in his mouth. This inventor saw the light of day first in a South Dakota village. He spent some of his childhood at Evanston, another small town. He received his common school and high school education at Paw Paw, Mich., which Is no metropolis. He has had to paddle his own financial canoe and “help the folks” besides. He has been denied opportunity and has forced his own pathway. Does he expect riches to come immediately? This is his point of view: “I expect to get royalties later. My invention has to prove its worth first. If wealth comes, It will be the reward for toil and discouragement I certaintly don’t expect to sit around and wait for money to be dropped into my hat. “Let me pay a tribute to two men who have stood by me and helped to make this aeroplane invention possible. One is Prof. Philip Fox of Dearborn observatory. The other is Prof. Henry Crew of the physics department at Northwestern. Mr. Fox helped me with my experiments as much as one man could help another.... As for Mr. Crew—the training I got under him In learning to analyze things is priceless. “This analytic training has taught me to sit down with a vagrant idea and pursue it to first principles—to get to the heart of every proposition.” Mr. Russell’s first money-making Invention was an electric blanket. This device looks like an ordinary bed Comforter. Its stuffing, however, is interwoven with, fine wires incased in asbestos. Connected with an ordinary light socket the blanket develops considerable heat —enough, say, to keep an outdoor sleeper comfortable when the mercury is huddled at the bottom of the tube. Other inventions are an aero-fan, said to be an improvement on ordinary cool-breeze makers; an electric heating pad, similar in principle of construction to the blanket, and a thermostat for controlling electric heat. What promises to be another important invention, however, is an electro-magnetic rapid-fire gun. Mr. Russell has been working at odd times on this idea for several months. is the expulsion of missiles from a gun without the use of explosive material, he says, and experiments with workshop models have been highly gratifying. “It may be years, though, before I perfect it,” the young tn an smiles. “I have the idea fixed in mind and It is a matter of developing the idea. Someone else may produce a successful gun of this type before I do. I have a gun that will shoot all right, but it isn’t ready for the war market by a long shot” And just to show you that a rising young lnve» tor is an ordinary Human being like the rest of us, here’s one on Mr. Russell: He didn’t want the photographer to take his picture as he stood with his sleeves rolled up before a work bench because he thought that the dense growth of black hn<r on his arms would show when the picture appeared in the paper. Furthermore, he was vary exreful to fix the knot of his four-in-hand, tie “just so” before he said, “All ready!”