TRAVELING THROUGH THE AIR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 79

TRAVELING THROUGH THE AIR.

(Glasgow Weekly Citizen, October 12.)

Are we on the eve of a great development in the art of aerial navigation? The earliest balloons, those of the brothers MontgoJfier, were constructed in the latter portion of the eighteenth century. To be exact as regards, dates-, the experiments of the Montgolfiers were made in 1782, while their first balloon was sent up into the air, rising to a height of 1500 ft, in the following year. Ballooning enterprises followed fast thereafter, one upon v the heel" of the other. However, they were" : can-" ducted, for over half a century, on similar lines to those of the Montgolfiers. Then balloonists set themselves to the task of seeking to fiolve the problem of how balloons (xiuM^iiet'steered. .One expeßist&>#6s tried after another, and at last a certain measure- of success was atttaiaed my Mr. Gaston .TiasajMlier Jgs. ,1883.^ !&> balloon travelled on* one occasion nifle' -miles,' rfnd on another 13 miles, and on each occasion came under a certain measure of control. However, for 10 years subsequent to 1890 little, in this country that is, was heard of scientific ballooning. Indeed, ballooning seemed to be delegated, in a great measure, to the region of acrobatic and otjher similar feate*. .But it was otherwise on the Continent." Fronv 1880 -onwards aya v German Count, Zeppelin by name, devoted himself to travelling through the air. One failure succeeded another, but the failures notwithstanding, .Zeppelin never lost heart When he started on his aeronautical career — he was then approaching middle life — he was the possessor of an ample fortune. By-and-bye this was spent in airship experiments. Happily his experiments had by this time attracted so much attention that i ths German Government, together •with a number of private friends, stepped in to bis aid, and he

was thus enabled to continue what he bad made the business of his life. Ultimately he constructed as airship which /• fulfilled/, or at least seemed to fulfil, cer.itaSa. of -lie primary conditions of snceess--tfl sferfar j naviga&in. List SetitaJ&er it travelled for £e*en "boars rouoaF Qi#*Xake of Constance — ci lakfHfcbich fcji*-sßtween Germany and S^J i |KrKn^^^"an«tetage rate of 31 miles per""hsßr. Then M. imaios Duioonti a weatthy Braxiliaji, his zj&z dressed himseifV" in Park, ijfcr a aeri«&H>f t -years*, to the solving of gfa&al pfrobfans; and has attained, like Cogai .Zeppelin, %p a certain- measure- of success* "Two J©teg*cans, the Brothers WrigK, alto lUftVase understood to have co*nsm*Bted airships ; which are more or less- under control. Colonel Capper is the leading British . buiider of airships, and his latest .work, the Nulli Sscundus, which recently -tra I*elled1 *- elled from Aldenshot to London, - is- re- ! garded as equal, in mansr; Jfospeet*-, -to ; the Zeppelin aeroplane which achieveti«uch a. marked success on thelj&ke of Constance. Boas all this mean ijhai in another 50 years people will travel through the air as they travel at present by water, or by railway or motor-oar? Germany and France have both, so it b stated, arranged to add a certain number of airships to their respective military establishments. If this be «o, Britain" i* bound to follow suit. The further development of aerial travelling will therefore be watched with close attention in both Europe and America. Ballooning was of old regarded as more or less of a pastime ; to-day it seem* to be ooming into the region of actual, practical life.