FLYING MACHINE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2198, 7 May 1891, Page 4

FLYING MACHINE.

Id an upstairs room in the Western house at Ballard has been developed within the past eight months what in the opinion of men of sound judgment will prove, if practical the invention of the age. Mr William Allan, a real es'ate broker and a former employee of the West Coast Improvement Company, has nearly completed the model of an aerial ship or flying machine. It consists of two oval or cigar-shaped bodies with tapering ends, the smaller suspended within the larger. Around the larger an immense thread of stiff canvas or some other strong but light material, winds spirally from end to end. Within the smaller body is situated the propelling power, which by means of a set of pulleys, bands, wheels, etc., revolves the interior oval body, and as it moves so it causes the larger machine on the exterior to move with corresponding greater velocity. The theory which William Allan has held and reasoned np»n for the last twenty years is this :—A screw by revolution forces itself through wood, so Mr Allan concluded if he could invent a machine with threads large enough to revolve in the atmosphere it will travel through space, and with great rapidity on the same principle. If Mr Allan be not a deluded inventor one may travel in this machine in any direction, with almost any speed and with perfect safety, by means of a steering apparatus and a special regulator, which are attached, and under the control of the aeronaut within the bowels of the invention. If this invention proves practical, and Mr Allan thinks it will, railways and ocean greyhounds, will be easily distanced. The details of the machine cannot be fully described, as only a working model had been constructed, and, although Mr Allan has obtained caveat, he does not wish to give away his secret until he has more substantial financial backing. Mr Allan has also constructed a huge unisycle, or as some paradoxically call it, a one-wheeled bicycle, It is 17ft iu circumference and has a tire one foot wide. The cyclist stands in the centre, and by moving his feet up and down on the pedals, turns a small wheel, which revolves the larger one at the same. As every revolution of the smaller wheel turns the larger it will readily be seen the cyclist goes a distance &f 17ft every revolution. Tho unicycle is now in the yard of James M’Lachlan, a contractor and builder, who is putting the finishing touches upon it under Mr Allan’s supervision, It is expected a public trial of this invention will be made in a short time.

Eecenlly, in conversation with a reporter, the inventor said :—“ there may be some sceptical people who deem my inventions impracticable, but the public thought Fulton was crary when he was building the Claremont, and when Columbus was trying to convince the monarchs of Europe that another world existed, even the children significantly pointed their fiogera to their foreheads when he passed by. But there was no screw loose in Columbus’ head neither was there in Fulton’s