STRANGE SHIPS THATSAIL INTHE

SKIES.This is the age of the airship. Theevolution of the balloon to the flyingmachine is nearly complete, and it is1not improbable that within a few yearsgreat aerial vessels for passenger serv-ice and monster engines of war andcommerce will be seen sailing throughspace.Recently the newspapers of the wholecountry have been exploiting stories ofairships seen hovering over varioustowns and country places in districtseery far apart. The testimony seemsunimpeachable, especially in the face\u25a0i' sc many witnesses, but certain de-I;ils arc always lacking to completethe evidence. Now it is a story of awonderful vessel s.een on the Pacific*oast in the neighborhood of San Fran-t maybe Sacramento. Next a

TROUYES MECHANICAL BIRD.report comes of one having been seenn Nebraska, or a farmer in some lowacounts reports seeing a bright lightand moving object in the air on a darknight. Then the scene shifts, and aman or a score of men report seeing1wonderful what is it from some otherremote quarter of the United States.On the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 17,itlast year many citizens of Sacramen-i were surprised by the sudden ap-pearance directly over the city of astartling aerial craft. The peculiarnight visitant made its appearancefcbout 7 o'clock. People standing on thesidewalks saw coming through the sky»ver the house tops a huge and brilliantlight propelled swiftly by some myste-rious force. So brilliant was the lightthat as it flashed past suburban resi-liences the inmates ran to their doors•xpecting to tind a neighboring housen flames. Instead they saw a wonder-ful craft of the sky.It BWiftly drew near the city, sail-

.ng evenly to the southwest.Then it dropped nearer the earth,

but suddenly shot up into the air again,is if the force that whirled it throughBpace were sensible to the danger of:ollision with objects on the earth.So much hundreds of prominent

residents of Sacramento saw, and iti-aused consternation in all parts <.'fthe city, where groups gathered at Jhecorners until far into the night listen-'ng to the tale of those that had seent.On reaching the extreme end of the:lty the strange object, as if carelessDf its obligation to maintain a straight-forward course, descended dangerous-y near the tall chimney of the electricrailway power house, and an anxious/oice was distinctlyheard to exclaim:"Lift her up quick! We will hit the:himney!"The startled employees of the car

stables ran to the corner and discerneda wonderfully constructed oblongsphere, brilliantly illuminated andseemingly under perfect control.Clearing the chimney, it quickly shotinto the sky, as if obeying some mystictouch, and, ascending to a considerableheigh!, continued on its southwesterly.\u25a0 arse and soon passed out of sight.Experiences and scenes like the abovenave been reported almost daily everlince from different parts of the coun-try, and one man, a farmer, claims tonave in his possession a note droppedby the occupants of an airship on tolis house.Such things force the belief that thetreat problem of the age, the ability

THE CARL ERICKSON AIRSHIP.to navigate the air, has at last beensolved by man.There has always been a species oftvaitare carried on among the differentInvintors of vessels to sail in the airDcean as to the lighter than air orheavier than air problem. One partybelieves in balloons, filled with someBOrt of gas, that rise because they arelighter than the surrounding atmos-phere.The other side won't have anything

to do with them, but pins its faith tovessels that rise by means of sails,wings, fans or other contrivances inthe manner of birds.Arctic explorers have taken up theidea of reaching the pole by means ofthe air, but they always propose tomake use of balloons.Professor Andree's much talked of

expedition that was to leave Spitzber-gen last summer has not yet materializ-ed, but the project has received agreat boom from the fact that KingOs-car of Sweden is behind an expeditionwhich will be managed by the Andreeparty. It is scheduled to start fromSpitsbergen about July 1.One of the principal claims made forflying machines is that they would beuseful in time of war. The aerodromistssay they could fly over an enemy'scountry and drop dynamite and otherexplosives over his camp, but the ma-chines would not be much more valua-ble for that purpose than balloons. TheUnited States army has balloons pre-pared for such an emergency, but Gen-eral Miles, the eminent commander,does not think that they would bemuc-h of a factor incase of war.The problem of how to travel through

the air is one that has been tackled fora very long time past, but especiallyso by Americans during the past quar-ter of a century. The patent office inWashington teems with the devices ofanxious inventors who thought theyhad solved the great problem.M. Gustave Trouve, the celebrated

electrician and inventor, who had takenout up to the end of IS9O some 81 pat-ents and who is frequently referred toas "the French Edison," has construct-ed several working models of flyingmachines. His latest mechanical bird,so far as Is known, is shown in the en-graving. He believes it to be the first

my hands with no more effort than itwould take to raise and lower my arms.The machine can be sent to any heightdesired to take advantage of any aircurrent and lowered at will by simplystopping the machinery. When de-scending, the wings can be adjusted sothat they willact like a parachute, anda descent can be made from any height.in perfect safety. The proportions ofthe machine are all arranged in ac-cordance with the sea gull's size andshape, and Ihave no doubt that it willtlylike a bird."Professor George Wellner of Vienna,who is a professor of engineering andmachinery construction at the Technic-al High school of Brunn, has patentedan airship which he is positive will sai!and soar through space at the rate of90 miles an hour without any trouble.Professor Wellner has explained his

airship as follows:"Myhope of its future success lies in

the construction of the sail wheel. Itwas patented in England as 'a rotarysail for flying machines.' It is an in-vention of my own. The wheel workson a fixed eccentric, and the air bladesattached to the spokes have therebyan oscillating as well as a rotary mo-

JAMES SLEDON COWDON'S INVENTION.which has risen into the air by its ownunaided force, and also that its explo-sion motor covers the principle whichmust become the primary base of allflying machines. The bird consists oftwo wings connected through a Bour-don bent tube, such as is used in steamgauges, the peculiarity of which is thatwhen pressure increases within thetube its outer ends move apart and re-turn toward each other upon dimin-ished pressure. M. Trouve increasesthe efficiency of this action by puttinga second tube within the first, and heproduces therein a series of alternatecompressions and expansions by ex-ploding 12 cartridges contained in a re-volver barrel, which communicateswith the Bourdon tube. These explo-sions produce a series of strokes of thewings, which, with the aid of a silksustaining plane, both support and pro-pel the bird in the air.This bird has flown 80 yards, and

after its motive power is exhausted itflutters gently to the ground, the wingsand silk body acting like a parachute.For practical flyingmachines M.Trouveproposes to derive most of the motivepower from the atmosphere by takingup a supply of compressed hydrogenonly. This when mixed with a duequantity of air forms an explosive mix-ture which he expects to use.John Alfred Jonasson, a Norwegiansailor in whose brain the flying ma-chine idea bided for some years, cameout a couple of years ago with a modelwhich he claimed would fly. Here ishis description of his invention:"There are two wings, each 16 feet

long. They are oval in shape, and it ismy intention to inflate them with gas.The liftingpower of these wings will,Icalculate, be sufficient to support myweight and the weight of the car. Thewings follow the curve of the boat onthe inner side and are attached to amechanical device of my own inventionwhich willenable me to move the wingsas rapidly as Ilike. The rudder isbuilt upon the plan of the tail of a birdand is 10 feet long and 8 feet in diam-eter at the outer edge. Between therudder and body of the boat is a largecanvas propeller having four blades,and there is an auxiliary propeller inthe bow of the boat as large as the onein the stern, which can be used to pro-pel the boat in one direction or can beworked against each other in case therudder should be disabled."Ican operate the rudder with my

feet and the propellers and wings with

DR. WELLS' BALLOON.

tion. When this air blade reaches thehighest part of its circle and just whenabout to descend, the oscillation of theeccentric causes it to suck in the airand force it downward into the insideof the wheel."There are four blades to each wheel,

and the canvas is stretched over them,givingthe resemblance of a drum openat both ends. This is the main secret

of the machine, this rotary oscillatingblade motion that gives it support inthe air and a rapid forward motion.The rest is mere detail."A small car, a compressed air en-

gine, the steering gear and a crew com-posed of two individuals, a steersmanand an, engineer —these are the details.But this is for a flyingmachine of thesmallest description. Ihave measure-ments for machines to carry also 4, 8,16 and 20 persons. The latter numberis, Ithink, the safe maximum, thoughgreater calculations could still toe car-ried out. For eight persons steam en-gines must be substituted of at feast200 horsepower. Sufficient for a prima-ry trial, however, is the small flyingmachine to carry two persons."The late Mr. Marriott of California

spent thousands of dollars inperfectinghis ship. It was built in a speciallyconstructed building on his place. Onesummer day in 1869 he invited a num-ber of his friends to go down to witnessthe trial trip. Judging by the skillfulsoaring of the model, there was noreason to suppose the big ship wouldnot skim the empyrean like a lark ona pleasure tour. When everything wasarranged, it was noted that the gentlebreeze had increased perceptibly untilit had become a northerly gale.Mr. Marriott was confident and de-

lighted, for the greater the wind the

THE SAINT PAUL GLOBE: SUNDAY, MAY 9, 1897.

better the machine ought to travel onceit rose above the tree tops.When the roof doors of the airship's

cage were opened, the tremendous bulkrose in good order. The engines wereset to work, and the hawsers that heldthe colossal bird to earth were about tobe loosed when a tremendous gust ofwind took, a hand in the proceedings.It tore the airship from its moorings.It dashed it madly over against a bigoak' tree. The silken covering and thedelicate mechanism were ripped andtorn. In a h&lf njlnute that dastardlybreeze destrojyed ithe careful work ofyears. Mr.Marricjtt became discour-aged. The wjondeirful craft was neverrebuilt, and jall further proceedingslooking to the! securing of a patent wereabandoned, jOne of the !most remarkable of the

recently invehted airships was that de-signed by CaJ-1 Erlckson and exhibitedat the recent mechanics' fair in SanFrancisco. I|t Combines the silk bal-loon, filled with hydrogen gas; thecylinder, containing the motive mech-anism, and the balancing wings.Electricity is the propelling force. Thepropeller, made of aluminium, regu-lates the speed. The car, which car-ries 12 passengers, is made of alumini-um and prepared paper. Underneathit are regulators to control the upwardand downward flight.

Electricity could also be used, but asboth steam and electricity can be se-cured from very small engines of greatpower he willnot decide this point u^-til after several experiments.Beneath the cylinders will hang the

car containing the passengers. This carwill be of wickerwork or some similarmaterial and will hold about 20 peo-

One of the most startling of recentairships for which patents have beenapplied for at Washington is that 'ofJames Sledon Cowdon of Vienna, Fair-fax county, Va. The claims which Mr.Cowdon makes for his invention are soastounding that to most people theywill appear incredible, but he declaressolemnly that he has actually solved theproblem of aerial navigation and thatthe only obstacle that now stands inhis way is the necessity of conscriptingcapital with which to put his airshipupon a basis of commercial operation.The new machine is modeled not on

the bird principle, but rather upon thatof the fish in the water. While a birdcannot remain at rest in the air, a fishcan poise at perfect rest and can raiseor lower itself by inflating or con-tracting its bladders. Mr. Cowdonbases his theory upon this idea.He has also rejected the old balloon

notion. The balloon, he argues, is en-tirely at the mercy of the wind and iscompelled simply to drift with any cur-rent, thus being rendered practicallyuseless for purposes of volitional trans-portation, but; with, his own machineMr. Cowdon claims' to be able to poisein the air at- any distance from theground and to rise and fall as softly asa feather would go to earth. He canwith his apparatus,: he declares, travelthrough the afr at the rate of 100 milesan hour in the face of any current, and,what is more,' the machine is alwaysunder the control of the engineer.The Cowdon machine consists of threecigar shaped ,cylinders, two of whichare placed on a level, and the third,which is midway between the two, iselevated several feet above them. Thesecylinders are filled with hydrogen orany similar gas and when inflated willhave a liftingpower in proportion totheir size. They are so shaped as topresent the least possible resistance tcthe wind and yet give a good surfacefor expansion of the gas.Few American inventors have up to

now made any machine with cylinders.Though this idea has been adopted bothby the French and Germans, who, itIsconceded, are far ahead of us in aerialexperiments, the inventors of boththese nations have thus far used but asingle cylinder. Mr.Cowdon's employ-ment of three cylinders is for the pur-pose of giving steadiness to the ma-chine, preventing any possibility of up-setting and \u25a0•\u25a0re&ucfKjj! danger to- the-minimum.The ends of the cylinder are fash-

ioned in a telescopic way, so that the

JONASSON'S FLYING MACHINE.pie. Sections can also be reserved forthe conveyance of express matter.Another machine is the invention of

Henry Nuhen of New York. He callsit a bicycle flying machine. "I triedfor three years." said Mr. Nuhen, "ev-erything that Icould think of in theendeavor to secure some practical formof aerial transit. Everything failed,and at last Istarted to build a cigarshaped machine, with propellers on top

and electricity for a motive power.This machine did fly for fiveor ten feetand then fell to the ground."In my next machine Iused cigar

shaped tubes built of aluminium, whichcontain compressed air and a secretfluid for which, inventors have beenhunting for years. Iequipped the ap-paratus with a bicycle attachment."Inthe model which Iused the work

AN AIRSHIP WITH BALLOON ATTACHMENT.length can be increased or decreased bymachinery. In this point lies the pow-er to rise or fall at will. The liftingpower of gas has been demonstratedto be incM||p!£l in proportion as itssurface is increased, so that alengthening of the cylinder gives alarger gas surface and causes a riseof the machine, a shortening in thelength of the cylinder being followedby a corresponding decrease of surfaceand a consequent lowering toward theearth.Itis in the placing of the engine and

propellers that Mr.Cowdon also claimsto have developed an entirely new idea.In all of the models made in Americaand Europe the propellers have beenplaced in Ihe rear. This is the casewith the French machines, which canmake a speed of only seven miles anhour, as an increase over that willcause a tiltingof the ship on accountof the uneven 'balance. The two pro-pellers of the Cowdon machine, beingat the ends, balance^perfectly.Just betweeij eacfc of the propellers

•and the enginp are( the two rudderswhich steer th§ affair in the face of thewind or enable theY engineer to tackagainst it, as may be desired. The mo-tive power, MryCowdon expects, willbesteam. He is experimenting with a newengine which P gives' enormous forcewith very littie expenditure of coal.

of the two men was done by the aid ofthe machinery taken from two smallalarm clocks. These were located inthe saddles of miniature bicycles, andthe weights were so adjusted that theclocks bore the same relation to themodel in the matter of avoirdi pois astwo men would to the full sized ma-chine. We went into a field at Jamaica,N. V., to make a first test. The ma-chine rose in the air for 200 feet andthen started off at a terrific rate. Itflew about the length of \^k cityblocks,and then the air and fluid, which had

NOT AT ALL. IMPRACTICAL.

been arranged to escape when theclock stopped, gave out, and the ma-chine came to the ground."Then there is a young man named

Charles Sigors who has invented a fly-ing machine which is to have a pecul-iar use. It is not an airship. It ismerely a flying attachment to be fittedto a bicycle. Experiment has been

made with this wonderful machine, andthe results, the inventor says, makeordinary cycling seem as ancient andclumsy as a joltingjourney in the wag-ons of our grandfathers.The flying machine attachment is to

be fastened to the handle bar of thebicycle. The wings will be of canvasstretched over aluminium frames. Theywill be 8 feet long and about 4 feet inwidth. They will be rectangular in

PROFESSOR WELLNER'S AIRSHIP.shape, and one will be fastened on ei-ther side of the air cylinder, which willbe inthe center.In the cylinder lies the secret of the

success of the device. It will be 4 feetin length, with a diameter of 15 inches.Itwillbe constructed of aluminium andsome alloy of sufficient resistance to al-low 100 pounds pressure of compressedair to the square inch.The passing away of Professor Otto

Lilienthal in Berlin in August last issincerely mourned byall aeronauts andthose interested in the flying problem,for he had made marvelous successwith his machine. For over five yearshe had made short flights at intervalsand was a daring and intrepid experi-menter. His machine as described byhimself "consists of a wooden framecovered with cotton twill shirting. Theframe is taken hold of by the hands,the a~i ins resting between cushions, thussupporting the body. The legs remainfree for running and jumping. Thesteering in the air is brought about bychanging the center of gravity. Thisapparatus Ihad constructed with sup-porting surfaces of 10 to 20 square me-ters. The larger sailing surfaces movein an incline of one to eight, so thatone is enabled to fly eight times as faras the starting hill is high. The steer-ing is facilitated by the rudder, whichis firmly fastened behind in a horizon-tal and vertical position. The machinesweigh, according to their size, from 15to 25 kilograms (35 to 55 pounds)."The experiments of Mr. Maxim, the

inventor of the famous maxim gun, atBaldwyn's park, Bexley, England,have been very successful, and remark-able developments are looked for dur-ing the next few years. His machineis built on the kite principle with largepropellers.Professor Langley's machine is call-ed an aerodrome. InMay last he madea flight that was extremely successful."No one could have witnessed these ex-periments," writes Professor Alexan-der Bell, "without being convinced thatthe practicability of mechanical flighthas been demonstrated." Langley's ma-chine is made of steel and driven by asteam engine. It resembles in form anenormous bird soaring the air withextreme regularity in large curves. Atthe trip last May the machine went adistance of a half .mile in H/& minutes.The many stories in the newspapers

recently in regard to the appearanceof airships in different parts of theUnited States has stirred up the crankson that subject, and Washington teemswith men applying for patents.

StatesmenWiff Play

At Chess.For some time past a spirited con-

test has been waged among the chesaplaying members of the house of repre-sentatives for the purpose of determin-ing who should have the honor of beingselected to represent the house in theforthcoming international chess matchwith a team picked from the membersof the house of commons of the Britishparliament.The first step toward the match was

taken by a member of the British par-liament a few weeks ago, just beforethe adjournment of the short session oithe Fifty-fourth congress. SpeakerReed one day received in his mail a let-ter from the Britishers which statedthat several of the members of thehouse of commons desired to arrangea friendly game of chess with a simi-lar number of members of the houseof representatives. Speaker Reed is notan authority on chess matters, butknowing that Congressmen Shannonof New York and Pearson of NorthCarolina were both much interested inthe game he turned the communicationover to them. They at once made a fewinquiries among their fellow membersand found that quite a number of themhad played chess more or less andwere willingto undertake a match withthe Englishmen.At a meeting of the enthusiasts whichwas called by Mr. Pearson a commit-tee was appointed composed of the fol-lowing men, who were instructed toreply to the informal challenge andarrange the details of the proposedcontest: Congressman Richmond Pear-son of Asheville, N. C, General JoeWheeler of Alabama, General David B.Henderson of lowa, Judge De Armondof Missouri, Richard C. Shannon ofNew York, Robert G. Cousins of lowaand Claude Swanson of "Virginia.Mr. tearson was nominated and

elected as chairman and opened com-munications at once with Mr. J. Hen-nicker Heaton, who is acting as themanager for the British team.Congressman Pearson, who is con-

ducting the negotiations on this sideof the water, willdoubtless be the cap-tain of the American team. Inthe gen-eral fryingout process among the can-didates of the house to determine whoare the best players the North Caro-linian has had little trouble in van-quishing them all. The Americans willbe at a great disadvantage in selectingtheir team, as so many members of thehouse are new men, and it is thereforadifficult to find out who are familiarwith the game. The subject has beengenerally discussed on the floor of late,however, and it has been found thatno less than 60 congressmen are moreor less expert inmanipulating the ivoryfigures.General Shannon of New York is also

an excellent player and is able to giveCongressman Pearson the closest ar-gument of the congressional contin-gent. Judge De Armond plays a care-ful and conservative game and passesmr.ny an evening with General JoeWheeler at the latter's rooms over achessboard. General Wheeler has notgiven much attention to the game ofrecent years, but when a young man hewas able to give any one in his nativetown a stiff argument. His play is rap-*id and oftentimes brilliant^in character.Congressman Pearsor v been mak-ing a strong effort to gc jneral Hen-derson of lowa to try for'ffplace on theteam. Cousins of lowa, who also playsa good game of chess, says that out inlowa General Henderson has the repu-tation of being the best player in thestate.Congressman Foote of New York is

also known as a good chess player. He

CONGRESSMAN PEARSON.is a general all round sportsman, tak-ing great interest in all athletics. Heis himself a fine athlete, having pulledan oar on a Columbia varsity crew, andbesides is an expert with the gldves andfoil. General Spaulding in the prelim-inary games has shown himself to be acareful player, and Congressman Beachof Ohio moves the men about the boardwith great skill. Bodine of Missouriand Shafroth of Colorado make a goodpair, and Parker of New Jersey is aclever player.Congressman Pearson has received

the names of the men who are to repre-sent the house of commons in the com-ing match. They are Mr. ArthurStrauss, member for Cornwall; Mr.Horace Curzon-Piunkett, member forthe south division of Dublin county;Mr.Arthur Atherley Jones, member forthe northwest division of Durham, andMr. John Howard Parnell, brother ofthe late John Stewart Parnell. mem-ber for Southmeath. These four willselect another man, who will probablybe either F. W. Wilson or CharlesShaw.This is said to be an excellent team,

most of whom are veterans at thegame, and they will therefore have animportant advantage over their Amer-ican opponents, who know practicallynothing of the habits of play of theirfellow members. The British team re-cently played a match with the Quillclub of London, an organization com-posed of newspaper men, and defeatedthem handily by the score of 4% to2Vi games.

Where do the swallows of England gofor the winter? Some go to Rome,some to Nice and Monaco, some to Al-giers and some to Egypt. A naturalistwho tied bits of red silk to swallowscaught inEngland identified one of thetame birds in the neighborhood of thepyramids.Seme sdes of ths terrific force withwhich a WrS passes through the airmay ">«\u25a0 sra^ieS through the fact that a

ti??.^ ago a common cutifew flew

BEASTS, BIRDS AND FISH.right through a piece of plate glass aquarter of an inch thick at Turnberrylighthouse. Ayrshire.The famous black Arab horse of Gen-eral Boulanger is new being driven ina cab, and visitors to the stables of thePasteur institute at Garches can seethe former charger of Marshal Canro-bert, which figured so prominently atthe funeral of the last of the Frenchmarshals. This charger is now usedfor the production of serum, and so far

the noble animal has given 80 liters(about 140 imperial pints) of his bloodin the cause of suffering humanity.An inventor proposes to scare away

rats, moles, etc., by placing about arti-ficial figures of cats made of plaster orterra cotta and having eyes of phos-phorescent material.A good story of a duck comes from

Chideock. Frequenting an orchard, thebird found plenty of apples lyingabout,and. mistaking these for eggs, she col-lected 18 into a nest and sat on themfor a whole fortnight in the expecta-tion of producing a brood of ducklings.Those who have partaken of peacock

declare that g6rgeoii& bird to be decid-edly tough eating, while it is said ofthe swan that the fact of its ever hav-ingbeen a familiar dish speaks highlyinfavor 'of ancient English cutlery.Robert Bonner mentions the strik-ing fact that when he bought his firsttrotting horse, in 1856, only 19 horses,livingand dead, had trotted a mile in2:30. Now there are more than 13,000on the list.Among birds there are few better

fighters than a goose, or a gander moreparticularly. The ragged, white Rus-sian geese bite ferociously. It is not amere peck -with them. They bite and

hang on withall the tenacity of a bull-dog.The nest which is made into soup and

eaten by the Chinese is that of a birdclosely allied to the swift. The nestsare made of a gelatinous secretion fromthe mouth of the bird.It is estimated that about 250,000 ca-

naries are raised every year in Ger-many. The most important market isthe United States, which imports over100,000 birds per annum.Baron Finot's St. Claude, winner of

the grand steeple chase at Auteuil in1890, is among the inmates of the Pas-teur stables at Garches, while General

Gallifet's charger, although in the bestof health, is daily the subject of scien<tiflc experiments.A new species of rabbit has beenfound in Mexico at an altitude of9 000 feet, on the volcano Popocatepetl.It is very small and has short ears andno tail.There are nearly 400 varieties of hum-ming birds.

Prince Albert of Thurn and Taxis isspending on his clothes the fortune ac-cumulated by his ancestors while theyheld the monopoly of the post as hered-itary grand postmasters of the Holy

Roman Empire. He wears a new suit,perfumed with attar of roses, everyday, spending $15,000 annually on histailor, who keeps 20 employees constant-lyat work for him. He puts on a newnecktie three times a day and uses up200 pairs of boots a year. He spends$1,000 a year on cigarettes and $75,000on sports. The prince is 30 years ofage and is married to an Austrian arch-duchess.

Menelek's capital will soon have allthe attractions of Paris. The negushas ordered from a Mtiningen artist apanorama of the defeat of the Italians.

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