Show THE WELLMAN WELL OCEAN MP AIR TRIP vivid account of toe trip by mr Vai vaneman niman after months of preparation and weeks of 0 patient waiting while the public grew dally daily more clamorous and censorious the wellman expedition was finally launched on the morning of 0 october scarcely a breath of air was stirring and sea and land were covered with a heavy fog making the conditions for launching the airship almost ideal with the break of day the decision to make a start was announced to the local fire and police headquarters and with the assistance si of 0 these departments the balloon was taken out ot of its hangar bangar the lifeboat nas w as made fast to the car and the th long was attached and hauled to proper position at 8 the airship drifted out to sea followed by a tug which endeavored to keep in communication with it as long as possible the experiences or of tile members of the expedition on tile the voyage thus begun have been fully recounted in the newspapers but the flight as viewed by an experienced engineer has been told us by mr Van linan who designed the craft and his story differs in I 1 important in technical particulars from those that have so far been published starting with a southwesterly breeze and using the after engine the ship made good progress in a northeasterly direction everything had been in III a state of readiness weeks before the start and thorough tests had been made in the hangar of every vital part of the construction tile the details of the car were published in our issue of october it seems as though nothing could have leen been overlooked but there was one vital element that had escaped the keen observation of engineer Va haninian ninian tile after engine as was previously explained was arranged to drive its propellers through the medium of bevel gearing so that the propeller shafts which were disposed at right angles to the driving shaft of the engine could be gwun swung bodily about in a complete circle thus making it possible to employ the thrust of the propellers in any diorec dign desired the fatal mistake consisted in not furnishing this engine with a I 1 flywheel for four hours it was operated steadily not missing more than two explosions in this entire period but the absence of the flywheel produced a pounding action and the keys ot of the bevel gearing eventually worked loose rendering the engine useless how serious this loss would be was not appreciated until the next day as will presently b be explained I 1 during saturday evening the airship was in danger of being blown onto the shore of long island by a southerly shift ot of the wind and it was necessary to use the engine to keep her headed offshore the fag still persisted and there was constant tear fear that tile the two ton I 1 tor trailing in the water would strike some vessel which would result in III immediate disaster to the airs airship hipo for it would draw it down into the sea furthermore it might do a great deal of damage to the vessel encountered the moon was full but owing to the fog it was impossible to see anything ahead two lookouts were stationed to endeavor to present collision with any ship suddenly the sound of a fog horn was beard and almost immediately the mast of a schooner loomed up dead ahead but the airship responded beautifully to the tiller and swung to one side just clearing the vessel by a narrow margin this experience as recounted by the captain of the essel was nas most thrilling lie he had no knowledge of any contemplated voyage by airship across the ocean arid and he was greatly frightened when villen the air craft suddenly loomed lip out of the fog with the sparks streaming from its red hot exhaust pipes and making a terrific racket with its engine lashing with one tank empty due to of gasoline wras was being pounded by tile the water div ing a w eird hollow sound that added add much to the terror of his crew ahn was nas the only approach to a collision experienced mr air had had no idea that his engine was throwing sparks until this was shown at night the haust pipe terminated directly back of the propellers so that the sparks were carried off in the wake of the propellers and there was little likel likelihood I 1 of their lodging in the fabric of the balloon furthermore the art arl ship had been traveling through tog fog ever since it started and was dripping wet throughout through out so that there was practically no danger ot of fire sunday morning the fog still continued and the wind veering to the west began to freshen eshen tr so that it was unnecessary to use the engine but with the freshening of the wind a new danger arose the airship had started out of atlantic city with an extra supply of gasoline aboard so that it hung very low over the water all but sl six x tanks of the twenty nine in the being submerged with the freshening wind it was found necessary to throw over surplus gasoline so as to lighten the airship had this gasoline been left behind to start with the airship would have made better progress and would have been much farther on its way when thu the wind freshened but the extra gaso une was taken on in the expectation hat the fog would eventually lift and under the heat of the sun the gas in the balloon would expand and lift the airship to its normal position however wever the sun remained hidden by clouds of fog sunday afternoon and evening the wind had reached a velocity of thirty five miles per hour the night grew very cold shrinking the balloon and making it necessary to throw out more gasoline then a peculiar motion began to manifest itself it will be recalled that tile the purpose of the was to hold the airship at a practically constant level above the sea in other words the alis airship bil and the sea were to divide between them the burden of supporting the two ton it if the ship showed a tendency to rise it be weighted by having to lift a greater weight off the sea and it if it showed a tendency to descend it would be lightened by letting more of the be floated on the sea with the result that the airship would be held at a tactically uniform form elevation above the water however when the wind freshened the drag of the began to sot set up lip a surging motion it would pull the airship down slowly but surely until it almost touched the water the then the airship would rebound with gathering momentum pulling the brator out of the water tank by tank arid and block by block until it was lifted clear of the surface the aquil brator would now swing forward like a pendulum and as its weight ly overcame the buoyancy of the balloon it would strike the water and the dragging action would again commence in this way the airship kept constantly oscillating up and down the period of the oscillations being about ten minutes on oil one occasion the big balloon swung so near the water that the waves struck the lifeboat cradled below it there seemed to be no way of preventing this it was then that mr realized the loss of his after motor for had he been able to use these propellers to lift the airship when it showed shunned a tendency to be dragged down the oscillation cil lation could have been largely if not entirely prevented and the vessel could have been kept at a constant normal height the thrust of the propellers which might thus have been used was pounds and this would have been more than sufficient to correct the surging movement had the airship been further lightened it might even have been possible to lift the free from the water when there would woud have been no drag to contend with and it would have been possible to steer the craft into the wind As it was the airship was helpless it was drifting broadside to the wind As long as the oscillatory motion kept up it would have been perilous to have pointed the vessel into the wind for then it would have been tipped up and down on its beam ends As long as the wind held from the right direction it mattered little whether the engine was used or not but the oscillatory motion was nerve racking and not at all calculated to inspire tile the crew with any feeling of security the pounding of the waves on the about which so much has been published amounted to practically nothing according to sir mr the jars were not at all serious but considering the experiences they had bad gone thru the crew was ready to exaggerate tile the slightest unusual shock and the harmless pounding appeared to assume dangerous proportions sunday was a night of grave apprehension it was found nei necessary to throw over a large quantity of precious gasoline as well as the damaged engine in an effort to prevent the airship from being dragged down into the water monday morning however the sun rose clear and hot and beat upon the huge gas bag there was no wind to counteract the heating effect because the vessel was drilling drifting with the wind and the gas heated rapidly and expanded so quickly that it lifted the balloon despite its heavy to an altitude of feet before it could be checked the rise was so rapid as to make the crew dizzy and affect their ear car drums mr operated the valves to let out the hydrogen in the meantime watching the for the first warning of the beginning of descent despite the utmost precaution and the most careful handling of the valves the decent took place quite as suddenly as the ascent As the balloon tell fell it gathered momentum and also lost buoyancy due to the contraction of the gas bag in the increasing density of the lower strata 0 air this contraction a e ti 0 n 0 the e 9 gas a bag rod luce sd contro tin ill bag p produced a constant n s t a nt downward w w ar accelerating force greatly increasing the speed ot of the descent however were was nothing to tear fear because of the great suspended below them this served as a cushion to case their tal fall it entered the water at enormous speed and sank until the last can was submerged before the airship relieved of it weight could recover and rise aga again in this one experience was sufficient to show ane value of the had there been no such device provided the airship must inevitably have been carried into the sea at tile the end of its downward plunge phinie striking the water at such velocity as to crush out tile the lives of all on board had the airship started out without an it would frequently have been necessary to throw over ballast to prevent such descents and it would as frequently have been necessary to open the gas valves to prevent ascension ascension to dangerously high altitudes mr states that without the the airship could not have kept afloat a single day monday the sailing was good but the wind had veered around to such a direction as to drive tile the airship southward it was then planned to head bead tor for the azores islands and later in the day a further shift of the wind made it necessary to lead head toward bermuda the oscillatory motion continued under action of the wind and it was necessary to lighten the balloon ot of still more gasoline cheti early in ill the morning on tuesday the lights of the steamship trent were made out on the horizon it was decided that further continuation of the voyage would be foolish there thera remained but little gasoline in the main tank and much of the gas in the balloon nad been wasted there was every pro bality that the airship could keep afloat throughout the day but the chances of staying in the air at night when the reduced gas supply in the envelope would be condensed by cold were were rather slim furthermore there was the difficulty ot of launching the lifeboat with the heavy trailing in its wake and it seemed tar far more prudent to undertake to launch the boat while a vessel stood by ready to give assistance the problem of launching the boat was no small one the airship was drifting broadside to the wind at the rate of fifteen knots this meant that the boat which could not be swung athwart the car would have to be launched sideways the valves were opened until the boat dropped to within four feet of the water all al the materials that were saved from the airship were stowed in the bottom of the lifeboat to serve as ballast at a given signal the automatic shackles which held the boat to the airship were released and the boat dropped into the sea despite tile the fact that it was traveling broadside at a rate of fifteen knots it did not ship a gallon of water As soon as the balloon was released of this weight it shot up into the air and the was whipped out of th the e water striking the boat and crushing the forward air compartment fortunately tuna tely above the water line be foie cutting loose from the airship mr tied a heavy can to the gas valve so that tile the balloon would lose its gas thus obviating any danger of its rising out of the sea and acting as a menace to the rigging of 0 vessels or to buildings along the coast when last seen the balloon was settling nose down into the water thus ended one of the most remarkable voyages ever undertaken and certainly the most remarkable re rescue acue at sea the results accomplished were tuo to records for dirigibles one of duration which consisted ot of 71 12 1 2 hours in the air as against 37 hours which was made by zeppelin and the other of distance which was put at loos 1008 miles by navigator si simon in his log book the previous distance record having been made by zeppelin when hen lie he covered miles without coming to earth however the object of the expedition was not to establish records the underlying idea of 1 mr ar wellman and sir mr danl man has been to stimulate interest in ill dirigible saloons ba loons to study their behavior under varying conditions and to promote their development it is a wonderful tribute to the skill of the engineer who designated mr air Well mans that on its first voyage without any preliminary trial it broke all previous records and as tar far as the machinery Is concerned with the exception of 0 the one detective defective engine maintained every part intact not a stay was broken arid and not a nut needed to be tightened during the voyage scientific american |