Aerial Locomotion.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 122, 30 April 1883, Page 2

Aerial Locomotion.

A bold suggestion is made by a St Petersburg correspondent m the columns of the Engineer, flff en have not yet learned- to flr through space like birds, but why should they not take a hint from the Engineer, and construct an serial line worked by electricity ? Loclootivs are almost useless off the rails, and aeronauts may be well content if they learn to fly along wires. The proprietor wou'd substitute for the ununwieldy balloon a light, stout plane, shap d like a kite, balanced by a car, and propelled by a screw driven at a good speed by a dozen or more Trouve machines arranged m couples along the propeller shaft. By a line of stout telegraph wire led on poles from Berlin to Paris, or from Pekin to St Petersburg, he would trausmit 100 horsepower along the wire by power r ul dynamos at stations, say a hundred miles apart, which would be taken to the fly* ing plane by two light wires, having contact carriages at the lower ends. The wire would have to be strong to stand the strain of a heavy wind on the buoyant kite, but it is much more probable tbat men will learn to &y along wires before they are able to fly alone " promiscuously" through the air.