Show CONQUEST OF THE AIR BY FREDERIC J HASKIN The official trials of or the Wright nero aero ro plane plan at Fort Myer Myel Va which are aboUt abo t tto to begin will work a renewal of intense popular interest In airships The flights of Orville Orvllle Wright at Fort FOlt Myer loler last fall which terminated in the death of Selfridge the Injury of ot Wright and the wreck of the aeroplane were only tests The fulfillment of the contract of the Wright right brothers with ith the government will wm yield them with a liberal bonus for extra speed The Wright brothers proved in the tho United States their claims as pioneers in inthe Inthe Inthe the realm of the birds and then pro proceeded proceeded proceeded to astonish Europe They are selling aeroplanes In France and Italy the French government having paid them for their patent rights In that country A company com pan has been organized organIzed in Germany for tor the construction of Wright aeroplanes The brothers will ill re return return return turn to to t Europe later this year ear and give demonstrations in England Germany and perhaps other countries The machines which they are now building will carry two passengers b but tiey ey say NY the aero acre aeroplane aeroplane plane eventually m e capable of ear car carrying fourteen or sixteen passengers Sixty Wright machines are being built in France at a cost of 1500 each The Wrights rights have eliminated the awkward starting device which was a feature of their aeroplane and are said Id to have evolved great Improvements In Inthe Inthe inthe the steering s apparatus Miss Katherine Katharine Wright is no longer designated as the sister of those crazy craz Wright boys She participated In part of their European triumphs and the tile three thres received re hed a royal welcome when they returned to America The city of Day ton 0 O the home of the aviators broke all records for a real celebration at which nothing was left undone which would show the pride which their fellow citizens and neighbors took in the achievements of the inventors Inventors Inventors tors The brothers received medals from their state and city from the Aero Club of America and finally from the United States government President Taft him himself himself self In the historic east room of the White house pinned upon the bosoms of the champion navigators of the air the beautiful gold medals awarded them by b congress The records of the patent office show that over 00 patents on flying machines of various kinds and their parts have been granted of which tiLty or more were ware issued during the last six months Two of these were granted to the Wrights rights for improvements on their aeroplane Rep Representative Representative Representative Butler Ames of Massachusetts Massachusetts grandson of General B F Butler has applied for a patent on a machine the principal feature of which is that the planes revolve on horizontal axes The Inventor Is said to have obtained the idea for tor this scheme by watching flutter to the ground a bent pasteboard card which I he had thrown Into the I The Aeronautical Experiment association association tion lion of which the moving spirits were Alexander Graham Bell of the telephone and G C Curtiss has been dissolved It was organized to perfect perfecta a successful ful flying ma machine machIne machine chine After a long series of experiments at Hammondsport N Y and in Nova Scotia SeOUL this was accomplished The as association built and ami the th Tun Jun Jim Bug the Red Wing g and nd the th Silver Dart all successful aeroplanes The Thelast Thelast Thelast last named was the first t air machine to fly in Canada Canade A factory for fO making similar machines has been established in that country Dr Bell recently r sailed Ailed for tor Europe on a vacation but while there he may get some new Ideas for tor improving his tetra tetrahedral tetrahedral tetrahedral kite Cygnet II This was suc sue successfully successfully flown in Canada last winter and Dr Bell Bil is satisfied that it can com corn compete compete pete with ith the aeroplane as soon as he be obtains a suitable engine for his machine Instead of having haing large planes Cygnet Ir IP Ie is made up of a number of small triangular cells which afford a larger larser surface for lifting than Ulan mere planes but which at the same time confine the air pr pressure to a small area of each cell so i that the apparatus is said to be very vel steady in gusty weather I A M 11 Herring of Philadelphia has con constructed constructed for the war department under undera a 00 contract an aeroplane to be tested at Fort Myer Myor He claims that the tha chief features of his machine are automatic control and an engine of extraordinary small size SIH and light weight Walter Wellman Veil man is in Paris and is III 1 due to start for the pole from Spitzbergen in an air airship airship ship In August His ship Is said to be bethe bethe bethe the second largest in existence Emile Berliner and J N Williams Imams are experimenting with a helicopter near Washing Washington ton which is the type of flying machine favored by b Thomas A Edison Aeronaut Aeronautics ca s Is becoming a practical science clence Flying machines are no longer toys Military experts say their utility in time of war for tor scout work for the quick transportation of dispatches and possibly po for transporting troops and forts torts and cannot be questioned In France scientists are finding an entirely peaceful use for tor the balloon On the approach of at a hailstorm explosives are sent up In one of the big ships of the air and when at a great ele sic elevation elevation ar are touched off for the purpose of or dissipating the storm which threatens the vineyards vineyard The United States weather bureau uses captive or free balloons and kites In iU its station at Mt ML Weather Veather Va Vs to ascertain a the Ute temperature barometric pressure wind velocity and nd humidity in high bl h altitudes Professor Todd a noted astronomer now proposes to ascend next September to a height of ten miles in a balloon equipped with wireless antennae In th the hope ho of catching some me of the signals signal which he be supposes the Inhabitants o oMars of Mars to be trying to transmit to th the earth Eventually it may be possible t to communicate with the sister planet i inot If not to visit it by means of or an airship The United States signal corps is equip equipping equipping equipping ping the army balloon balloons with wireless ap apparatus apparatus and Leo Stevens the celebrated aeronaut Is III using the wireless telephone with some of the balloons he Is making The United States war department I Is far behind the war offices of other pow powers ers era In the matter of ownership of means mean of air navigation The United States now owns ut one Military airship a small smal constructed by Captain Tom Torn Baldwin and several ordinary free and captive balloons Germany on the other othe band has seven tn huge dirigibles includIng IncludIng Ing on one of the Zeppelin Z One of this thi type 4 O feet long not long ago carried carrle a company of twentysix tx men across th the country count on a run and only a few days go o Zeppelin made a run o of about 85 30 miles mUss in a similar ship Ger Germany Germ Germany many m ny Is building airship harbors barbers and dockyards France has ha four bIg ig air airships airships ships of different types one attach at each o oher of her chief ch t fortified cities on the German frontier England has two airships Rus Russ sla Italy and Spain one each Belgium and Switzerland are each building an air airship airship aIrship ship Each of the continental nations has bas a awell awell awell well organized corps of aeronauts and ii In several veral of th them m there h 11 ia a commission o of experts considering a plan of defense through the application of aeronautics Congress refuses to appropriate money for tor military aeronautics In the United States although strategists say sa that a alast at least last half a dozen large diri din dirigibles gibles and a number of aeroplanes be besides besides sides several well wen equipped aeronautical stations station in different parts para of the Union are necessary nece eary to t insure the safety of th the country At present the army array has bas one satisfactory station at Fort Omaha Neb with a big balloon house wireless tower hydrogen gas galS generator and ad other fleece necessary necessary sary apparatus For lack of suitable equipment at Fort Myer and because the balloon tent there has been blown down several eral times the army dirigible and other balloons are being shipped to Omaha whence the aeronautical detach detachment detachment ment of five fie officers and ami an seventeen men mei of the signal corps corpe are being transferred for tor practice The American navy nary nav has tVis no flO airships al although although although though experts say ay it should have sev my several eral oral aeroplanes for scouting Lack o of funds explains the situation In this ease also alao An effort will be made to provide one next year ear Special artillery mounted on automobiles has been built abroad to pursue pur ue and destroy military aircraft and an artificial tog fog Is 18 planned to hinder binder their operations operation Numerous records In have been made and broken during the past few months Wilbur Wright flew continuous continuously ly for two hours houn and minutes and attained a height of feet The longest trip of the kind was made by the th German Gross which left Berlin carry carryIng carryIng Ing lag four tour passengers and returned to the starting point after covering miles mites In thirteen hours hour Point to saint balloon races have been held In worth North orth Adams Mass Mas To Henry Henr Farnam the Scotchman belongs belon the honor of ot having made the first c aeroplane flight He traveled seventeen miles on this trip at ata ata ata a speed of miles an hoar hodr in France the Frenchman In his monoplane not long ago flew an aft equal distance across aclO ll the country The Ameri Amen American can Captain Cody recently perfected an aeroplane for the British army The Aerial Navigation company compa y has been In Incorporated Incorporated Incorporated to do a freight and passenger business bu between Boston and New York YorkA A new code rode of ot laws governing the high highway highway highway way of or the air is I a recognized necessity nece elty Aeronautics has become so popular at LOB Los Angeles Angel that the authorities propose to Invoke the law against balloonists forbidding the dumping Of rubbish on an others premises premie prell this course being deemed necessary because of so much ballast be being beIng being ing thrown overboard onto private prop property property property erty Leo S favors governmental control of aviation and a system df elf aeronauts An International con congress grass gress on aeronautics to determine the rights of nations in the air they breathe is proposed Europe Is ahead of America in amour encouraging encouraging aging th the air navigator The old world has hall offered In prizes not to men mention mention tion Germanys prize of for tor a journey The first In International International international aviation races will be held beld beldIn in France for the valuable James Gordon Bennett cup and In cash prizes In Inthis Inthis this country the recent besot national cham championship race from rom Indianapolis will wilt be succeeded eded In the fall tall by a great air ar car carnival carnival carnival at St Louis and a series serl of apr aeronautical aeronautical contests In connection with the I celebration at New Now York The conquest of ot the air Is II already a fact tact Aeronautics has haa progressed ed further In n the past pact year than In any an previous decade The aeroplane and the dirigible are being operated o rated in nearly every used country It took centuries to evolve the Lusitania the locomotive was wa the re result cult sult of ot many long years year of ot development The automobile has hall been perfected in ten years It looks look as though aerial flight would reach ach something like full develop development development ment In less leu time I Copyright 1900 by b Frederic J Tomorrow Training the Body |