Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1882 — SHALL WE FLY? [ARTICLE]

SHALL WE FLY?

Important and Perhaps Practical Calculations Made by an English Engineer of the Possibility of Aerial Navigation. Aerial navigation along with perpetual motion has been driven from the work-shop to the mad-house, The problem has been given up by most practical men and considered impossible of solution by the world in general. But the subjeot has recently again been discussed in England with such plain mechanical calculations and by such practical engineers that it is likely to attract fre; b attention and possibly to cause other and more intelligent experiments, There are several recent mechanical inventions and improvements that if properly applied to aerial navigation may overcome the hitherto insuperable difficulties. Van Nostrand’s Engineering Magazine for July contains a paper read before the Institution of Civil Engine ers by William Pole, F. R. S., in which a practical application is made of several important recent mechanical improvements to the problem. It may now receive intelligent instead of fanatical attention. The fiist important step towards aerial navigation at will was made by the application of the screw propeller to a balloon. In 1850 Mr. Henri Giffard constructed an elongated balloon to which he attached a rudder and a keel, and it ascended with an engine of three-horse power, which gave the screw power to propel the balloon at an independent velocity of from four and a half to six and three-quarter miles an hour. The balloon was steered at will, and the result was theoretically all that could be desired. It proved the important theory that a propeller and a rudder attached to an elongated balloon would enable it to be propelled and directed at will. The two great problems—propulsion and steering—-were thus solved. But there were still great practical difficulties. In 1850 the envelope of the balloon could not be made impenetrable and tfaere was no very cheap method known of preparing pure hydrogen. Besides these and other less important difficulties of construction, the balloon would support no greater weight than one person besides'the engine and the propelling apparatus. This objection ana the lack of speed, of course, made it almost valueless. During the siege of Paris in 1870 the naval architect of the French government, M. Dupuy de Lome, made another experiment similar to Gifford's with similar results. Instead of an engine his power was the hand power of eight men. The practical difficulties, however; that he could not overcome were of the same kind as GifTard’s—the lack of speed, the Inability to carry any cargo and many smaller difficulties of conetrvction.

Since these experiments,the weight per horse-power of engines has been greatly reduced and improvement have been made in the manufacture of hydrogen, in the structure of of envelopes of balloons and in many .other mechanical devices for lessening the weight of machinery and increasing its power. At any rate, no satisfactory tests have been made of these recent inventions in such an application. The experiments of Giffard and De Lome lacked only speed and carrying power to prove the practical value of balloons propelled by screw propellers worked by steam. By a simple and intelligible calculation Mr. Pole has reached the following results: Maximum diameter of the elongated balloon, 30 feet; length, 110: total ascending force, 2,970 pounds; weight of structure, 2,370 pounds; available ascending force, 600 pounds; horsepower or motor, 3; weight disposable for cargo, after allowing for fuel and water (and reusing water by condensing steam — an important improvement made since ClflTard’s experiment), 8% cwt.; maximum speed through the air, independent of wind. 12 miles per hour. A balloon 100 feet in diameter, with 370 horsepower motor, would have available weight for cargo of 18)4 tons and could make a speed of 26 miles per hour, independent of the wind. These calculations are astonishing more because they are simple and rest on a basis on experiments than because the results that seem attainable are so astounding. Are we really to have aerial navigation at last, or are more engineers going to the madhouse? It is officially announced that 4,046 shares of Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Paoiflc Railway stock were fraudulently issued by George E. Doughty, the deceased secretary of the company. The estate of Mr. Doughty is sufficient to make good the holders of the unauthorized certificates. Two Wisconsin bruisers are going to have a prize fight.