Reading for Everybody.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2051, 30 November 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

Reading for Everybody.

BRITAIN’S AERIAL WARSHIP.

A FIFTY-MILE TRIP CRUISE OVER LONDON. ROUND ST. PAUL'S: DESCENT AT THE CRYSTAL PA LACK. (By tlu> \V«r (V, ;i. penden t of the lata lion " Daisy Telegraph.’’) Over London, between noon anil one o’clock on Siitunliy. there came athwart the sk.v the forerunner of a new and .stariliug older of thing::. It was the Aldershot aerial warship, “Dirigible No. 1," which 1 find pursued by motor along the Bngsliot road from Fa-rn borough to the metropolis. And the navigable aerost it led me a dance all the way, ai d had all the best of it; no dust, no police traps, no risk of collision:;, and .no constricted streets impassable with congested traffic- to negotiate. As 1 said was .planned from the iiie.t, ' 'Omi gil/Ie Xo. .1 has carried ...at the programme, she has called at the AVar Office, nav. some people declare she lias dropped a bag upon the roof of that building, and siic has circled ‘St. Paul s. And we are oniy at the very beginning of aerial navigation, experimenting with a relatively crude and inefficient craft. <liven the order and the means to build a better airship, one capable of driving at twice the present vessel's speed, going anywhere, and under all ordinary conditions of weather, Colonel Caliper, 8..L0., and Mr C >•!> w ith confidence will g.iarautoe i.s ere l it ion. “Dirigible Xb. i,’’ .el - t be frankly confessed, is far Iron Icing a “Second to none.*' \iiho-. , .:di she has her one excellent qiudity, the elands by no means upon the slime plane of excellence aseitherthe French airships. > r the new Gorman • vessel. But in bob', t'-ese eases the Governments of tho-e eounliics have generously' -uppoyied the meet Li rs and designers of the coming air fleets. ' ENGLAND'S AIK-SHJP. Scant thanks are dim either to the Treasury or to the- Alar Office that there is to-day a craft in. this country like Dirigible No. I, which is capable of going to anil fro in the air. On Saturday she ran a total distance of over fifty miles, renvnining aloft for nearly three hours. She coursed with as well as aorocs and against the wind during her voyage. And the motor-engines had not exhausted half the store of petrol. To Colonel Templer alone is due the credit- of creating England's first air-warship. Five years ago. uiiaidcd, but full of faith in Ihe possibility of navigating the ail* by a motor-driven aerostat, lie set about giving practical illustration, of what could be done. Then, as now, people sneered about the futility <>. such means of locomotion, and with fossilised habits qf mind carped at the dangers of flight. Their an ostors did the same wileu gas was introduced, and idea m-imp idled vessels anil railways were first made. It is .the novelty that appals them, for really a properly-made aerostat is the safest vehicle for trav<~. as well as the most delightful" in existence: Aboard an airship you. are secure to flic third dimensions, thus: A railway vehicle can only go in one direction —that of the rails; in 'i motor you may go forward, b u-k----ward, or sideways; but in an »*rostat you can do aid that and more, for you may besides pass over or under another craft. The light fog ill it hung over towns and fields on Saturday seemed to indicate a period of calm. Towards ten o'clock tho sunshine had dispelled most of the mist, and an idle westerly wind of not more than five or six miles an hour was blowing. The season is advanced, and Saturday though it w’as, Colonel Capper decided to take out the .air-shin.

DIRIGIBLE No. 1. Made of goldbeater’s skin, of 110 feet in, length, by 30 feat in diameter, and filled with pure hydrogen, which is always used, and is made at the balloon factory, Dirigible No. 1 has a lifting capacity of over 4,0001'h. Rut the greater part of the weight is lifted an apparatus, including the doth, cordage, mc-tors, boat, etc. Colonel Capper, li.E., chief of the balloon or aeronautical departanenlt, weigjlis about eleven stone, Air Cody, the expert, about fourteen stone. The rest was made ,up with cyilinders filled with petrol, oil, waiter for cooling the engines, ■and in sand ballast. Rut if it bad ■been permissible, or was sadly wanted, Dirigible Nto. 1 might have forgone part of the ballast, etc., carried, arid takeni up nearly 200 b of dynamite or other high explosive. It was 10.30 a .in. when the great, high doors, some 70ft' in. height, of the b.illoon-slied wore milled aside, and, dipping her ctem, the aerostat was led in leash by a. squad of sappers iiiTo- ffhe open. Her goldhea-ter’s-skin envelope holds the hydrogen' gas foV 'i»<ekS : , .so that not a ■particle esca.pe.4. ; And this by the way: one of tin? congenital growls of the Treasury,- and even the War Department lias long -contracted the same little mannerism, is-the expense of free balloon ascents, owing to the ■waste of gas. Now a “dirigible” will in the end be more economical as it will go and come without having to have money spent to be refilled. .All was, sis' usual, “in rt a diner's for a ruii. 'Automatic apparatus recorded the gas pressure in the cnvcilope. The gauges showed . the tanks were filled witih petrol, oil and water. And there wero other “tell-tale” instiniinejits .for dotting gas sscape, aneroid barometric machines. with clockwork attachment to mark heights, etc. The car of No. 1” is a canvas-shaped canoe, which is suspended and Inw'ilit in from the hollow steed rods slung below tdie airship. There is a wooden keelson, to that if the airship accidentally bumped the .ground, neither the passengers nor tliesuperstrueture would sustain damage. The eight-cylinder Antoinette ■motor- I engine !•> encased in an ollii plica] a den fiame-work. placed amidships he front p.irt of the caaioe-ear.

THE START. There were but two who ascended iu the car, Colonel Capper, U.E., who sat in the stern-sheets and manipulated the tiller ropes, imd Air. Cody, the aeronautical expert, who attended to the motor and its working, and also' to the doubledecked planes, which, as inclined, cause the slii.p to dip or to lift. As

1 have raid, she steers to right or left, and up and down. Colonel Capper, 11. K., wore his uniform. Mr. Cody a motor cap and dust-coat as he stood by his wheel, for instead of a starti'iig-h’uulle lie has a wheel to his engines. Two >. clt vis protrude, one on either side of the name-work, laid upon the canoe like a bridge. The thin, stub-ended blades are of aluminium, the diameter of the propellers about Bft lOili. All the loose guide-ropes except two were taken inboard and made iart. Tilie airship, almost balanced, was allowed to lift slightly; lxion Cody tunned his wheel, anil, with a rattle and a whizzing sound, engine and screws began racing. A.lmost i n.vt a.utily the craft got way on, a-ltd moved ahead ijuieker than a screw steamer leaves a pier. There were very lew .-pel-fators, for no one expected .the Dirigible to start- before high noon, and she was afloat and off from Kami borough or Gove Common at exactly 10. ■v/ a.in. ’lie circled around overhead to test the stecrl-ng-gear, lo see thait all the lines were freely working. AYi h '.no hcllm a quarter over the ship circles smartly—Tudeed, die answers to her rudder as quickly and honestly as a crack racing yield, and canno-t miss stays. 'But, o-wii g to her blunt bow and stunted shape, the steersman lias to be constantly on the alert, lezt the raws and falls u-way in the cross air-currents. [everything being in good order. Colonel Capper headed “'Dirigible No. I,*’ her official and only name, eastward for London. THE ROAD TO LONDON. There seemed to be a alight head wind at-first, but the airclliip went whizzing along, her motor amt screws making overhead a strange, uncanny noise. It was 10.45 n.m when she commenced her journey to town. 'Within five minutes she was a lii'le and a half o-n the way, having tini! over the noble mausoleum wherein repose the bodies of Napoleon 111. and his son, the Prince Imp i 11. The Empress Eugenie, who M-.idas at Earn borough, takes a kct-,ii inti relit in the march of modern invention, and neither sorrows nor years prevent- her from keeping posted ill all the latest developments of science and art. By II a.m.

•‘Dirigible No. I” b id run to Trim lev-green, where it struck into a number of cross-currents, and l'lu into a r lightly favoring westerly wind. The good “Airgoer,” “Dirigible No. 1,” runs under economic speed b;'tween 15 arid lb miles an hour, which is a better rate h in th e 7 to 10 an hour of the first steamboats. Nay, if pressed, she could speed up to about- 20 miles in the CO minutes. As a measure, of precaution, Lieut. Waterloo and five sappers from the balloon department, with the foreman. Air. --cQuadc, followed below in a motorcar. I hunted in another automobile of Lawes, of Aldershot. At an altitude of from 400 f- to 000 ft. the “Airgoer” .-hot onward, speeding at over 24 miles an hour. She moved right and left for a time, i-iut'to test that she property answered her steering gear. ‘Then, beyond i'.nim-ley-green.. Eilie came back over the Bagshot-roail, overhead which she travelled with the sappers in the motor well in view. They called out to each other as they ran for miles, the one over the other, straight along the highway. Thus they continued by Bagshot, Elgha.m, towards Brentford anil Hounslow, near which the airalfip headed more to the south, towards Shepherd's-busli and Ke.n.sin"ton Palace. ENTJEBiING TE E AIETR-OPOLIS. Except when she was flying low anil the noise of the machinery attracted people’s attention,- it was strange how few actually saw her pass overlie ill - Which, it may he said, goes to show that most of us have our- thoughts buried an the ground, and only a few carry theiir heads aloft or use their eyes in searching the -heavens. But those who had 'tlieir attention attracted to the airship were in a breath perplexed, astounded, and pleased. Alost of them, I fancy, a-t first thought their senses had tricked them. Not half of Brentford saw Hie ship, so “Dirigible No. 1” might hope to spy out an enemy’s lines and camp without attracting too much attention to herself if she voyaged at an altitude of 1500 ft. i%e motorists got left behind a:;*' we closed .in to the metropolis. As Colonel Capper and Air. Cody told me subsequently in .conversation, the airship, after passing over Shep-herd’s-biish, was headed towards Kensington Palace. She sailed by Old Kensington and above the Albeit Aiemorial at a height of about 700 ft to 800 ft. Crowds caught sight of her in Hyde Park. Keeping farther south, the ship crossed Buckingham Palace, drove down the Aliill, and made for the new AVnr Difice building in Parliameiiiit-street. I had wired my friends in London a-t 11 a .'in. the'airship was coining, and the same was done by others to the War Office. The officials there were a,IV on the look-out, so at I2.ZJ, when she hove in sight, most of the heads of departments had ascended to tile spacious promenades upon the roof. Amongst thoso on top were General Sir AV.iiliam Nicholson, Colonel Sir Edward Ward, the Adju-tant-General Douglas, amd the Mas-ter-General- of Ordnance, General Hadden. Believers and sceptics of the claims and uses of aerial navigation, they crowded to see the event of the day. But seeing,- as we all know, is not always or necessarily believing, and the public probably will have to light the battle lor the airships with the awt-boritics, as it has had to do time immemorial, cvifii down to these d i.vs of s-tciam, ■ironclads, breech-loading weapons, and high explosives, all of which in | turn, stage- by stage, unwilling offi-1 out Is were forced to adopt. | ST. PAUL’S TO THE PALACE, j Having sailed of deliberate pur- , pose over the- M ar Office building, ! the airship, deflecting .. ’owmvnril, j inline over the Stroud. There traffic wVis blocked for a while and crowds gazed upward anil cheered. There wo; a dense throng by l-lie comer id AY- V Ir gLui-streeil and the Gaiety The'fee, nlid there was more cheering aril shouting. The noise of the motor:; prevented Colonel Cappei ami Air. Cody from distinguishing the cries, but Cody, with a Texan’s impetuosity, snatched off Jiis cap, and bending down waved it joyously to the people’s enthusiastic greeting. ' Colonel Capper, who is English sang-froid personified, oven beamed for us, feeling at last, ftne ‘

weary last, his day of reward and triumph had come. The thing ilnad berm done, am airship that was neither a show advertisement nor a toy had boon, built and proved her fihmss to navigate the air, going contrary to the wind’s behest. A new era, a new condition of things hud been ushered in to public attention. It- is net Cmnanter and a I,il'"call ia of she empyrean blue, but all .u good time. it cuiuot ntrni a knot breeze nor face a hurricane, but neither could the first i.tia.'Uboats beat up against a gale or dash through a- ton ■'knot tideway. Nor call a motor-boat or a dinghy cross the raging Atlantic. from the Strand down the world's printing centre —immortal Elect-: t root — hastened* “Dirigible No. screws whirring iOO revolutions a mi'iiuite. -.Rising up to 800 ft, to -'oat the trail ropes should clear buildings and dangerous live wires, the uirf.liip was hamlleil so that it parsed directly over the goklcm ball land cross of 6’t. Paul's Citihcdral. -■ i-iant was the journey’s set limit. So i> circled the majestic fane, and (Ilium stood off, intending to rcitum to Earnhorough. Bait Elite, in the shape of Boreas, interposed a temporary veto! Over the Thames Lo the Surrey side it passed, taking a straight compass course for home. But there were io-ts of laaiilm irks for steering by well lcuown to- Colonel Capper, who lias learned his craft in those sailing ships, free balloons. The highest altitude attained on the voyage ivus 1300.-, and that was when they struck a warm current near Prim ley Green. DUBIOUS ENBEIMEN CES.

There are no harbours of refuge vet- built for airships, and I'Yirnborougb was their only lliaven. Bravely they buffeted a head wind which had risen in the upper air to eight to ten miles an hour rate. They struck acres the oval, and at Stoekwell passed into another current of hot upward air. It was lioying and baffling to the steering for a minute or two, and the dli.i.p yawed and shook, as 1 have seen a bag, powerful steamer do ru the Straits of ALessina between Scyilila -and Chary,bdis. I wonder if it was the hot (dusts from the generating station near the Orphanage that sent the airship yawing But she ran through tile current, which, however, had 'lifted the ship several hundred feet. Beating •; at ton miles an hour, she pas, .axhall, and made for "Wandsworth a,id Kingston direction. But the wind was freshening rapidly in the mver-air, and quickly rose to twelve aad then to !i, toon lilies an hour rate. So L'lflonel Capper and Air Cody, like discreet navigators of an old-time craft, decided to heave to until the ‘ -.'.'ester” or south-wester was spout. Deal and the Downs was down below for them, anil the nearest point at the moment was spacious Claphain-common. 1 hither they turned aside, and Indued at the open-playing grounds for a place to land. They circled about, and as I drove up in my motor 1 could see they had the air-ship under perfect control. Nay, they were able to stem till- fairly stilf breeze, going on working tip tho motors at the rate of seven miles an hour against the wind. I hallooed to them, and for nearly half an hour they manoeuvred about keeping within the area of a few acres. They let. the air-ship uoseend gently until the ropes were within 20ft Of the common. Colonel Capper saw there were two policemen, but his own motor had not- arrived. But he also 'saw a huge Saturday football crowd collecting, so acting upon Air Cody’s counsel, tlie ••Dirigible” went, ahead, rose, and turned to the south-east, makin for the shelter of the CRYSTAL PALACE GROUNDS. Her approach was promptly heralded, anil flag-signalling was resorted to ill order to attract Colonel Capper’s notice. She came sailing over the' west tower, whereupon the manager, Air George O. Starr, seizing a megaphone, invited them to descend. Circling about, searching for a snug spot, they decided to come down within the area of the cycling track. Slowly, gently, ns I said of a former occasion, as a falling snowflake, Dirigible No. 1, all tlie while under perfect control, came to the earth, at 2.7 p.m., or, rather, 2.11 p.m., upon the greensward in tho centre of the cycling enslosuro.