AERIAL NAVIGATION. 



what similar machine, 165 feet long and 2<i feet 

 in diameter, impelled by a battery invented by 

 M Kenard. a dynamo, and a screw 7 feet in di- 

 ameter This apparatus at various times in 1! 

 w.-nt from 12 to 15 miles per hour. The motor 

 cave out about 5 horse-power, and the machine 

 WM able to take any course desired in a calm, 

 and even to contend against a light breeze. Ihis 

 balloon made a number of voyages, occasionally 

 to distant points, sometimes returning to its 

 point of departure. Its car and impelling ma- 

 'hiiHTV constituted one of the most interesting 

 .,f 1 1..-' exhibits of the French Government at the 

 1'aii- K\ position of 1889. 



Count Zeppelin. New interest was awakened 

 in tin- summer of 1900 by the successful ascents 

 made by Count Zeppelin at Lake Constance. He 

 employed in these experiments an immense bal 

 loon, consisting of 17 cylindrical gas-bags con- 

 tin.-.! in a cylindrical case with conical ends, 420 

 feel I. m i: aii.l 39 feet in diameter. Beneath this 

 va-'-ur.|H?nded a frame supporting 2 aluminum 

 -JH tVi-t in length, one forward and one aft, 



THE 8ANTO8-DUMONT NO. 6 CROSSING THE PORT O! 



connected by speaking-tubes, for the crew and 

 machinery. Two rudders, one forward and one 

 aft, served to steer the craft, which was driven 

 forward or backward by 4-bladed screw propel- 

 I' i- 3J feet in diameter, 2 geared to each motor. 

 The power was furnished by 2 16-horse-power 

 Daimler benzine engines, weighing 715 pounds 

 each, and 1 placed in each car. The ship was 

 made to travel in a horizontal or an inclined 

 plane by means of a weight sliding along a cable 

 beneath and parallel to the longest axis of the 

 balloon shell. When it was desired to ascend 

 the forward end of the balloon was thrown 

 upward by sliding the weight aft; when a de- 

 Bcent was to be made it was thrown downward 

 by sliding the weight forward. When the weight 

 was at the exact center the ship was in equilibri- 

 um H nd maintained a horizontal course. The 

 first ascent was made July 2, 1900, with 5 per- 

 sons in the cars. After rising 1,300 feet the ship 

 traveled 3J miles in seventeen minutes in a pre- 

 scribed direction, and was then forced to descend 

 on account of an accident to one of the rud- 

 ders. On Oct. 17 the ship remained in the air 

 for an hour at an average height of nearly 2.000 

 feet; it traveled the 6-mile circumference of a cir- 



cle, making noticeable headway and remaining in 

 perfect control against a 7-mile wind. After com- 

 pleting its evolutions it alighted gracefully and 

 gently to the surface of the lake where its bal- 

 loon shed was placed. 



Santos-Dumont. In 1901 much attention 

 was called to the experiments of M. Alberto 

 Santos-Dumont, a young Brazilian resident in 

 Paris; especially when on Oct. 19 he succeeded 

 in winning the prize of 100,000 francs offered 

 by M. Henri Deutsche, one of the members of the 

 Aero Club, in April, 1900, to the navigable bal- 

 loon that, starting from the Aero Club Park, at 

 St. Cloud, should steer around the Eiffel Tower 

 and return to the point of departure in less than 

 half an hour. Even before his arrival in Paris 

 in 1897 Santos-Dumont had experimented with 

 aeronautics, and on July 4, 1898, made a suc- 

 cessful ascent from the Jardin d'Acclimation in 

 the smallest spherical balloon that at that time 

 ever had been made, 18 feet in diameter. At 

 the same time he was constructing his first diri- 

 gible balloon, the Santos-Dumont No. 1. This 

 was in the form of a cylinder 

 with conical terminations, 80 

 feet long and about 6 feet 

 in diameter. The suspended 

 basket carried a Si-horse-pow- 

 er gasoline motor operating a 

 screw propeller. The ascent 

 of this balloon, from the Jar- 

 din d'Acclimation, Sept. 20, 

 1898, almost resulted in disas- 

 ter. It rose to the height of 

 1,200 feet, showed itself to be 

 absolutely dirigible, and de- 

 lighted the spectators with its 

 marvelous evolutions. Sud- 

 denly it was seen to collapse 

 and the wreckage with the 

 aeronaut came tumbling to 

 the earth. The air-pump sup- 

 plying the small interior air- 

 balloon, designed to keep the 

 outer envelope always swelled 

 out, had proved insufficient, 

 and under the weight the 

 whole thing folded upon it- 

 self. Fortunately the mass 

 MONACO. of wreckage acted as a para- 



chute, and M. Santos escaped 

 unhurt. No. 2, built after the same plan, but 

 much larger, and launched May 11, 1899, showed 

 the same defects, and after an unsuccessful trial 

 was abandoned, and work immediately begun on 

 No. 3, which embodied many innovations. The 

 inner air-balloon was dispensed with, although he 

 has used it in No. 4 and the later models. It was 

 cigar-shaped, 66 feet long and 11 feet in great- 

 est diameter. There was no netting about the 

 silk tissue, but a strong belt was sewn into the 

 lower part of the balloon on either side to which 

 short pieces of wood were attached. From them 

 was suspended the so-called " keel," a long bam- 

 boo pole which supported the basket and other 

 apparatus. A 4-horse-power petroleum motor 

 worked a 5-foot propeller giving 2,500 revolutions 

 a minute. A rudder of bamboo and silk with an 

 area of about 25 square feet was used to guide 

 the ship. At each end of the balloon was fas- 

 tened 50 pounds of ballast controlled by guys. 

 When the aeronaut wished to rise he let out the 

 stern guy, and 50 pounds of ballast fell astern, 

 throwing the bow end of the balloon upward at 

 an angle of 25 or 30 degrees. To descend it was 

 only necessary to let out the bow weight and 

 draw in the stern weight. On Nov. 13, 1899, as- 



