| Show A NEW AIR SHIP THE nayl navigation gation of the air has been many times attempted without results of sufficient success to recommend the inventions from which great things have hae been expected there is a certain amount or 31 fascination in the idea that men may mount manefa aured wings or some contrivance answering the purpose and cleaving the air like a bird travel to dis tant points without noise or smoke or steam or any of the drawbacks to terrestrial locomotion the balloon has been but a toy on a large scale and cannot be relied upon except as a plaything it is at the mercy ot of air currents and atmospheric disturbances and does not at all ali answer the end in view an airship however has been constructed which gives some promise of utility and of being a step in the desired direction lc ic is a french invention and has both a propelling and a steering apparatus ana its first voyage has been a triumph it is called tile the torpil leur it started from cherbourg Cher bourg in france at 11 one night bound for london and arrived safely at 0 6 in the morning in that is a distance in an air line of f bout about miles the rate is a little over twenty miles an hour this is CArst time within the memory of man so far as known that an air machine has started for a given iven point and arrived there with precision and safety for half a century clever men have been working at the problem of travel in air it is claimed that wind storms only prevail a certain distance above the earths surface and that when locomotion and control are secured the airship can rise above the storm level and proceed with safety further experiments peri ments with the Torpil leur will be looked for with interest |
