AN AIR SHIP.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume 3, Issue 188, 23 June 1874, Page 2

AN AIR SHIP.

An air ship, with wings worked by steam, and capable of being driven one hundred miles per hour, bas, it is said, been constructed at last. It is the production of Mr L.B.Hunt, a tal ented and enterprising mechanic, of Auburn. State, of New York, and is thus described in the New York Sun : —“ The car destined to carry the passengers is made of wood, thirty feet Idugj eight feet high, and eight fee* wide. This is attached to the engine room, twenty feet above, by four wire cables, and the motive power iseteam, one of Slisby’s rotary fifty horse engines being used. The engine is so constructed as to turn upright shafts, one within the other, working in opposite directions, to which wings made of sheet iron, slightly concave are attached. These wings are eight in num ber—four a foot wide next the shaft, six feet at the extreme end, and twelve feet long, being attached to the outer shaft; and four of a similar shape and of the same dimensions being attached to the inner shaft, ten feet above the other. When the machinery is in motion, these wings lift the vessel, and the whole apparatus is steered by a sheet iron rudder, parallel to the shaft of the engine at the right of the machine, ten feet long by five feet wide From fbe car to the top of the shaft the vessel measures fifty-eight feet, and it has cost 12,000 dollars. It weighs sir tons, is capable of carrying six tons more, and will afford accommodation for forty persons. This, though placed in quotation, is a somewhat abridged account of this extraordinary vessel. But it contains all that is material, without going into more minute details. It should be observed, however, that no trial has yet been made of this vessel, although one is promised at an early day.