A NEW AIR-SHIP.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 61, 8 February 1884, Page 3

A NEW AIR-SHIP.

*s* (Public Opinion.} A sxxcul despatch from Bridgeport, Conn., says Charles F. Ritchel, of this citv, has invented a ship designed to sail through the air. Mr. Ritchel claims that it can be made to rise or fall as desired, without throwing over ballast or losing gas, as in balloons, and will always float right side up. It is cylindrical in form, and the ends are cut off square. To this great cylinder, which is intended to float in the air in a horizontal position, is attached by ropes to the framework of the machine. There is no rudder, Mr. Ritchel having found that, with the present progress of invention it is impossible to steer an air-ship with any degree of accuracy. Under the floor, or network, as it might more properly be called, is a series of canvas shutters on iron frames, lapping one over the other when closed, thus malting a permanent air-resisting floor. This latter feature is one of the principal features of Mr. Ritchel’s invention. He says that the tendency of a baloon, when in mid-air, is to move either up or down from one stratum to another with ever-increasing velocity. These movements have been checked hitherto by ballast-throw-ing, and by the losing of gas. He proposes to remedy this by the floor-shutters, and by the means of a canvas screw-propeller, rigged below this floor and geared to several cranks, which may be driven by men from the network of the basket above. The propeller worked one way tends to push the balloon or ship upward, and, by being reversed, draws it toward the earth again. When an ascent is about to be made the balloon is cut loose from the earth, the shutters are opened so as to afford a resistance to the air as the machine rises upwards, and if necessary the screw propeller is worked to aid in fanning the machine towards the clouds. After the desired altitude is reached the screw is stopped, the shutters are closed, and the voyage proper commences. The descent can be made in the same way. Another new feature which Mr. Ritchel has introduced in ballooning is a new style of cloth for balloon covering—a light and very strong substance, which rain will not affect in either cold or hot weather. It is so strong that it cannot be torn with the hand, and, though very thin, is almost impervious to light. He will soon publish an illustrated description and plan of the new ship.”