AERIAL NAVIGATION. 389 



to design it so that the results shall not be disappointing. Those in- 

 ventors who expect to attain 70 to 100 miles an hour by some happy 

 combination do not know what they are talking about. 



It is interesting to speculate which of the above-mentioned navi- 

 gable balloons would, if competing, stand a chance of winning the 

 $100,000 prize which has been offered by the St. Louis Exposition of 

 1904, So far as can now be discerned, the only vessels which are 

 likely to develop the required minimum speed of 20 miles an hour 

 over the ground, which speed really requires about 25 miles an hour 

 through the air as there will almost invariably be some wind, will be 

 the Santos Dumont No. 7, the Lebaudy and the Deutsch air-ships, all 

 of them French. The English vessels of Spencer and of Beedle are 

 too small to lift sufficient power to drive them at 25 miles an hour. 

 The balloon of Dr. Barton might gain this speed if it were not 40 

 feet in diameter, besides being loaded down with aeroplanes, and it 

 remains to be seen what will be the effect of this combination. The 

 American air-ships all seem to be too small to lift enough power to 

 give them the required speed save the Stanley air-ship, 228 feet by 

 56 feet in diameter, begun in San Francisco. Should this be com- 

 pleted in time, and should the weights be kept approximately near 

 those stated in the circulars, it might have a chance to obtain 25 

 miles an hour, but it would need more than three times the 50 horse 

 power contemplated in order to do so, and the weight of the alumimmi 

 shell and framing would probably absorb much of the lifting power. 



Flying Machines. 



If the aeronautical contest at St. Louis were scheduled to take 

 place a few years later, thus giving time to consummate recent success, 

 it is not improbable that the main prize would be carried off by a 

 flying machine. This yet lacks the safe flotation in the air which 

 appertains to balloons, but it promises to be eventually very much 

 faster. 



The writer found, somewhat to his surprise, when on a visit to 

 Paris last April, that a decided reaction has set in among the French 

 against balloons. It seemed to be realized that the limit of speed had 

 been nearly reached for the present, and that but small utility was to 

 be expected from navigable balloons. They must be large, costly and 

 require expensive housing, while they are slow and frail and carry very 

 small loads. As commercial carriers they are not to be thought of, but 

 they may be useful in war and in exploration. 



Hence the French are turning their thoughts towards aviation and 

 propose to repeat some of the experiments with gliding machines which 

 have taken place in America. Even Colonel Eenard, the celebrated 

 pioneer of the modem navigable balloon, is now said to have become 

 a convert to aviation and to say that the time has come to trv the 



