Show WHEELING IN THE AIE A bicycle that Is intended to fly liko a bird on fulch tho rider can jella or bend at will when perfected the machine will he H valuable war agent every little while some one announces that he has come near the solution of the problem of aerial navigation but the aeronauts aero are still far from evolving a practical machine some of them continue to experiment with flying machines doing away to greater or less extent with gas as a buoyant force and others make gas their mainstay confining themselves to means of controlling the balloon when once in the air everybody lias probably heard of prof carl myers alie famous aeronaut of frankfort N Y and readers of the illustrated express may remember several articles have appeared in this paper from his pen some months ago the express contained an illustrated article describing his balloon farm as he calls his headquarters at frankfort naturally prof myers is one of those who are studying the problem of aerial navigation and equally naturally in his efforts to solve that problem he does not discard the use of gas as a buoyant force one of his latest machines he calls an air bicycle and the novel point about it is that it provides its own wind A recent description says it is a curious and ingenious affair and looks like a large balloon or bag shaped like a boat turned uppermost it is rounded on top and flat at the bottom slightly hollowing toward the center as an inverted boat would the bag is filled with hydrogen attached to the netting which covers the bag are two stays which support a very light but strong skeleton of steel on this is placed a bicycle saddle with a bicycle handle in front and cranks and pedals below instead of wheels the pedals and the handles also when desired operate a piston rod which extends about fourteen feet ahead and on which is fitted a hollow tube ratcheted onto or cogged into the mechanism operated by the pedal at the extreme end of this tube is a rigid steel arm which when at rest lies at right angles to the head and about six feet nearer the rider is a corresponding arm rigidly fixed on the tubes on these two arms of steel is stretched a piece of light canvas hanging perpendicularly down in the same plane as from chin to feet of the rider and looking like the topsail of a ship beating to windward when the pedals are operated the steel arm at the extreme end of the shaft is turned back and forth and this action twists and untwists un twists the sail into a right and then into a lefthand left hand helix such aa would be produced by taking a square sheet of paper with one hand at each end and twisting the hands in opposite directions this action of the cloth produces a current of wind which strikes baci and upward against the under surface of the balloon and causes it so soar up in the air the machine is like tha toy balloons one buys at the dry goods stores for children which will not rise by themselves but blow under them and up they go the entire weight of this machine is about fifteen pounds the hydrogen is made from water by a patent process of mr ayere and its purpose is simply to counteract the weight of the rider there is no rudder to rise it is only necessary to lean backward and work the pedals to decena one leans slightly forward to turn to the right or left one leans in the direction desired in short it is like riding a bicycle except eliat there is no front wheel to turn to start the machine the rider places himself astride the saddle springs into the air and as the bicycle rises six or eight feet the rider works the pedals leans back slightly and up he goes prof myers claims that a head wind of ten or fifteen miles an hour will not interfere the machines progress but is rather an aid as far as labor and speed are concerned owing to alie backward tilt of the spindle the head wind rushes underneath forcing it upward instead of backward only prof myers finds no difficulty in rising to heights of one thousand feet or more and circling about at will he claims it is almost impossible to have an accident unless the rider throws himself off lie says the bicycle is not yet perfected although with patent varnishes new claths cloths and new styles of gearing them I 1 have produced balloons which will last for years instead of months my aim is to provide a suitable motor to drive it then it will be a machine indeed you remember that in the franco prussian war balloons were used for spying purposes and the conveying of letters and the prussians had to make special guns with which to shoot at them do you remember that only one or two of the balloons were ever hit although they were totally at the mercy of the wind currents well suppose I 1 get a motor for the bicycle and coming from ten miles away at an altitude of two thousand feet do you think anything in the shape of a gun would be likely to hit me suppose too eliat 1 sail over a fleet or an army with half a dozen dynamite cartridges hung on to the horizontal shaft properly weighted to drop and strike the ground with tho business end suppose one or two of these are cut loose by me at that height what would happen the air bicycle is capable of such work as well as carrying a lifeline life line to a wrecked ship or a thousand other things |