Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1884 — Navigating the Air. [ARTICLE]

Navigating the Air.

But if our flag is not on the ocean, there is no reason why it should not be seen in the mid-air before many years are over. Edison, the famous inventor thinks that electricity will be the motive power in aerial navigation. ,The desideratum is to secure five times more power per pound of weight than we now get from the iiest forms of small engines. The problem to be solved is to evolve the power from coal direct without the intervention of the boiler of the engine. Electricity is now generated from zinc and other metals without the intervention of any engine. If the same could be done with coal or carbon, six-horse could be got from one pound of coal. With the boiler and engine only one-horse power is procured from three pounds of coal. Zinc is as combustible in a battery or jar as coal is in a furnace but coal develops seven times as much power as zinc, and zinc costs thirty-five times as much as coal, a difference in cost per pound of 245 to one, or 24,500 per cent. Mr. Edison says that thousands of ingenious men are now at work on this problem, which he thinks will soon be solved. In a recent interview with a newspaper man he said: “Having lightness with power, we should only need enough balloon for actual lifting power, and we would attain a very high velocity, you could hold a ten-horse power motor out in your hand, and once in the air, with five pounds of coal, could the consumption be direct, the little jigger could go an vwhere. Nobody wpuld want to ascend to great heights where the air's resistance to the propeller would decrease, but skim along over the trees and houses like a bird above the water. The rudders could all be worked,- and your ballastless balloon could be raised or lowered, turned to the right or left, by the motor itself, and a boy could do all the work. Such an arrangement could scarcely do for heavy freight, but it could carry passengers and mail matter and express parcels, and move readily at 80 to 100 Umiles an hour. If we can solve the> power question we can do anything.”— Demorest’s Monthly. One of the successful druggists of New Orleans is a woman.