IMPRESSIONS IN AN AIRSHIP

Grey River Argus, 2 March 1908, Page 1

IMPRESSIONS IN AN AIRSHIP

The Hon C. S. Rolls and Mr Frank Butler had a trip recently, by the invitartios of <Baro-n (Henry Deuthc de La Meurthe, in his airship the Ville d€ Paris Mr Rolls gave his impressions as follows— "I think," he said, "that Mr Butler and myself are the first Englishmen to go up in a private airship. The impressions made upon me is remarkable. M. pKapferer, the Baron's engineer, and a mechanician went with us. ,M Kapferer was in command, and communicated his odrers to the mechanician by an electric telegraph to the 'motor room,' if I may use such an expression. We rose immediately, and the very first feeling I had was one of vibratioh^nd of a slight tremor. You see that hithcTto all my experience4rit was the iooth ascent of Mr Rolls and Mr Butler — has bee n in the ordinary balloon, in which there is no vibration "We moved rapidly off towards Pari s intending to watch Mr Farman with his aeroplane, but the fog became very thick, . We therefore turned round, passing over Sartrouville, * Maisohs La fitte, ahd St Germain, where 't. he weather was perfectly clear. After hovering for a moment over the hotel where we had lunch for an hour before we circled ove r the town and forest of St. Germain. iin the forest we came down clos c to the trees to watch a hunt. "It is very curious to feel oneself being rushed through the air. In a balloon everything is perfectly still, and one moves with the wind and not against it. "But in an airship you are rushing through the air at railway speed, and the keen wind goes right to the (bone and makes a warm wrap a necessity I "What perhaps struck me more than anything was the complete control the captain had over the movements of the ship. He would make her do exafctly what" he wanted, either turn^ or go up or down, slacken or increase speed as required. No ballast or gas Twas necessary. .We moved up or down to the desired level by merely inclining the planes. At one ' moment we came down to within a few; inches; Tof the ground, and then, with a touch of the machinery, we moved rapidly up to a Height of 250 yards. T1& whole ship, balloon and platform, Sfeemed to form one solid block. W$ were able to walk to and ■ ■fro on thesTplatform as though on the deck of a sjip '» ' "After i tt.' hour. -and a half in the air, durinjf-%h&h our average speed was khirtwfMjjyjwUf?' an-hour in the -face of a^r^OT^Sv^f^Ver't'a'nic^-ba'ck to our shed at Montesson, where the Hon Mr Assheton Harbord and Mr Frank Lahm, the American aeronaut, were waiting to go up for ten minutes. Mrs Harbord was delighTfed with her short trip.

"I can sec wonders for the airship in the early future/ concluded Mr Rolls. "At one time we sailed right over a fort, „md, had we been an enemy, it would have been quite easy to throw a bomb into it

The climate is good, an<3 there is plenty of shooting and fishing. Tsets c fly and sleeping sickness. are the draw backs. '1 passed through a whole dis trict so affected near the Lualaba River. One curious effect of this illness is to drive the patient mad, and I had a very narrow escape at the hands of one of the natives who was in a state of frenzy,

"At Baudouinville, on the western shore of Lak c Tanganyika, there is a beautiful new cathedral, erected oy t-he French .Peres Planes. It is really a splendid building. Everything except the stained-glass windows had been made locally ; these were brought from Europe. I crossed the lake in a little native sailing barque, and entered German territory at Karema.

"I found no difficulty in getting through the country on the score •of language. That most generally spoken through Equatorial Africa is Kiswahili. which the missionaries are try ing to establish as the lingua franca of the Continent. J know this lan•kuare well, Nearly every district has its own language, not written ; but •Kiswahili will carry anyone through Equatorial Africa 'Jt has a literature of its own.