The Flying Machine.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVI, Issue 1323, 28 August 1894, Page 7

The Flying Machine.

MR HIRAM MAXIM’S REMARKABLE

INVENTION. [Nta/s Special Correspondent.]

London, July 13.

The flying machine upon which tin American inventor Hiram S. Maxim has been engaged for the last eight years, and wherewith he hopes to revolutionise the locomotion of tin future, was on Tuesday last submitter to the inspection of a small party ot experts. They were Lord Kelvin, anu Lord Rayleigh, Sir Douglas Gal ton, Earl Russell, Professor Vernon Boys, Sir Guilford Moles worth, Professor Bell Pettigrew (of Edinburgh), and the science correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette. After a short inspection of the beauties of Baldwyn’s Park and the house, guarded by a formidable-looking Maxim gun placed in the entrance hall, the party were escorted to where the monster flying machine stood facing the 300 yards of track on which it is allowed to run. Everyone got on board for a preliminary spin, and began to inspect the construction. The platform seemed to be an oblong framework covered with a wooden grating, and running like a “ bogie ” on four heavy flanged wheels. A web of stays and steel supports stretched upwards from this, bearing aloft the main aeroplane, a double-stretched sheet of balloon cloth, like an awning, tilted slightly upwards in front and covering, so it was stated, 1,400 square feet. With this the machine is just enabled to run lightly, on tiptoe as it were, without any risk of its leaving the track and projecting itself into space When all the canvas is on there are 10 of these aeroplanes, arranged in tiers or decks, and measuring across the extreme tips of the wings 150 ft. It is impossible to say yet what would happen if the machine were started with all of these trappings, for Mr Maxim is too careful a man to run risks until he has made sure of every individual detail. THE START. At the stern end, starting from shafts some ten feet from the floor, were two enormous propellers, on which the interest began to be concentrated. A turn of a lever set one of these in motion, and as the revolutions became swifter and swifter the slender framework shivered and shook. When the second one started a hurricane grew up. The machine rocked violently backwards and forwards, straining at the anchor that held it, and threatening to break all to pieces ; clouds of shavings and debris rose behind, showing what the force of the push must be ; and, at last, when everything was ready, and the propellers were at maximum speed, a shrill whistle gave the order to “let go,” and the great birdlike structure bounded forward with the speed of an express train upon its brief career across the meadows.

It was rather alarming. The lightness of the frame cave a feeling of instability, and when the litt came on to the aeroplane one hardly seemed to touch the ground, livery heart rose to its respective mouth, and every hand grasped convulsively at some solid object, as though life depended on holding on, and the general sensation was one of rushing through space on the crest of a tornado. When the end of the track canoe in view it seemed absolutely impossible that one could scop. A rope was stretched across the course ; we crashed through it, then through a second, then a third ; and, 10, we drew up in the gentlest and most graceful manner imaginable within a few feet of a thickset hedge. It was an extremely clever piece of brake work. The ropes were wound round friction capstans, and the pull increased as they were paid out, until the combined action became sutScient to arrest the enormous impetus of the machine rushing at 40 miles an hour. Then everybody laughed and declared it was delicious, and decided to try it again.