NEW YORK TO LONDON IN THIRTY HOURS.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3000, 26 September 1878, Page 2

NEW YORK TO LONDON IN THIRTY HOURS.

Mr F. W. Schroeder, formerly a Lieutenant in the United States service, but a German by nativity, is proposing at ' New York to cross the Atlantic in an airship.; -The gasbag will be 91ft. long - apd 20ft. in diameter, in the form of a cylinder pointed sharply at each end, so at to offer the least possible obstruction to rapid motion. Over the bag will be a roof of stout canvas, which, ih case of accident, is so arranged as to gather air and break the descent. The gondola beneath is tied all the way round to the edges of the canvas by means of f tays and guyropes. It is 19ft. shorter than the balloon itself, nearly pointed at each end, and 4ft. deep at the middle—a simple boat composed of thin strips: of white pine strengthened with a strong frame-work. At one end (the stern)' is a delicate rudder; at the other, which is the bow, & screw propeller,, driven by an electric engine of one-half horse power at the rate of from 1,000 to 1,500 revolutions per minute, pulls the' ship" through . the thin atmosphere at from 45 ,to \65 miles an hour. The open space between the car and the balloon is 20ft. high. A. pair of gigantic wings, convex above, concave beneath, ecoupy a part of this space. A single flap of these powerful engines, of elevation will, Mr Schroeder calculates, lift the balloon 30ft. into the air. Their strokes can be made as rapidly as onoe every second, thus lifting the ship I,oooft. in half a minute. Once at this altitude, which is hot nearly so appalling as it appears when observed from beneath, the propeller comes into action, and the long air vessel moves at the rate of a lightning express. Mr Schroeder considers that * he can easily beat his way against''the strongest air currents.—Times. ■ '. " '