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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0617.PDF
JULY 6, 1912. fjjGHf] AIRSHIP NEWS. Zeppelin Success and Failure. FOLLOWING on the news of a remarkable oversea trip from Hamburg to Heligoland and back of the Zeppelin cruiser, " Victoria- Louise," came the news of the disaster to the " Schwaben" at Dusseldorf. The " Victoria-Louise " left Hamburg at 6.15 a.m. on the 27th ult., and reached Heligoland at half-past nine. The return journey was made via Norderney, Wilhelmshaven, and Bremer- haven, and back to Hamburg. She arrived back at Hamburg at a quarter-past two, having covered a distance of about 250 miles during a voyage of eight hours, during which she carried twelve passengers on board. On Friday morning the " Schwaben " arrived back at Dusseldorf after her usual trip to Frankfort, and as in view of the strong wind it was deemed inadvisable to attempt to dock the dirigible, she was anchored outside her shed. About 1.30 p.m. one end of the airship was torn from its moorings by a violent squall and in consequence the airship broke her back and in some way the escaping gas became ignited. The fire quickly spread from ballonet to ballonet, and in a very short time the magnificent airship was a mass of wreckage, while a number of the soldiers who were guarding the airship were injured by being thrown down violently. The Vaniman Airship Disaster. THE second attempt to cross the Atlantic by dirigible has failed at the cost of five lives, including that of Mr. Melvin Vaniman, who was the moving spirit in this latest attempt, and chief assistant to Mr. Wellman in his first attempt. The "Akron," as the dirigible was called, was built by the Goodyear Rubber Co. at Akron last year to the designs by Mr. Vaniman, and the general arrangement followed the lines of the Wellman dirigible, " America," although the envelope was somewhat larger. She was transferred to Atlantic City for testing at the end of last year, but only one essay was made, when indifferent results were obtained. Another trial was made a week or two back, but this was ended by the long equilibrator becoming entangled with the propellers. On Tuesday morning everything was ready for another trial trip, and at 6.30 a.m. Mr. Vaniman, his brother Calvin and a crew, consisting of Fred Elmer, Walter Guest and George Bourtillon on board, the airship was taken from its shed and steered out to sea. First she was at a height of about 100 ft., but the airship rose very rapidly to 1,000ft., apparently owing to the expansion of the gas by the heat of the sun. Suddenly the envelope was seen to explode, then flames burst out, and from the cloud of fire and smoke the car of the airship dropped into the sea. All the occupants must have been killed instantly. AERONAUTICAL ® ® ® ® SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN. OFFICIAL NOTICES AS SUPPLIED BY THE SECRETARY. Wilbur Wright Memorial Fund.—A subscription list has been opened to found a memorial to the late Wilbur Wright, as an appreciation of his great work and also as some small recognition of the support he gave to the Society. The memorial is to take the form of a Premium Lecture on Aeronautics to be delivered annually, and to be called the " Wilbur Wright Lecture." It is hoped that members will give their generous support to enable this lecture to be given in perpetuity and to be of such value that it will become the greatest honour of the year. The fund will be administered by trustees. The following is a list of donations already received :—Patrick Y.Alexander, Esq., £100; Lord Northcliffe, £50 ; Alec Ogilvie, Esq., £50; Messrs. Short Bros., .£50: F. K. McClean, Esq., £26 5-r. ; Griffith Brewer, Esq., £10 105. ; Mervyn O'Gorman, Esq., .£10 las. ; T. P. Searight, Esq., £\o ; M. Atkinson Adam, Esq., £5 5-r. ; Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P., £5 ; Major-General R. M. Ruck, £z y. ; V. Le Cren, Esq., £2 2s. ; Major B. F. S. Baden-Powell, £1 Is. ; A. E. Berriman, Esq., £1 I*. ; T. W. K. Clarke, Esq., £1 is. ; J. W. Dunne, Esq., £1 is. ; H. Massac Buist, Esq., £1 ; Col. H. S. Massy, 10s. 6d. ; T. O'B. Hubbard, Esq., 105. 6d. ; H. F. Lloyd, Esq., 105. 6d. ; H. A. Turrill, Esq., 10s. 6d. 11, Adam Street, Adelphi. T. O'B. HUBBARD, Secretary. ® ® ® ® A Babylonian Representation of Flying Men. PROBABLY the oldest representation of flying men is that engraved on one of the Babylonian stone seals in the Berlin Asiatic Museum, a photograph of which is reproduced on this page. Every citizen of Babylon, according to Herodotus, had his own seal, which was either engraved on round plates or else on cylindrical stones, and our illustration is from the cast of an original cylinder. This cylinder dates back to at least 2000 B.C. From the characters depicted it is surmised that the work is of about the period 2800 B.C. The tale illustrated is well known to the present generation from Babylonian inscriptions. Etana is sitting on an eagle and is flying from earth to heaven ; on the left of Etana is the moon, on his right the sun ; under him is a man with uplifted hand, and dogs looking up ; on the left a shepherd and his flock ; at the top left f / A Babylonian representation of flying men from one of the stone seals in the Berlin Asiatic Museum. 617 corner a potter at work ; on the right of him a baker baking cakes. In the story it is stated that Etana looked down, and on the seal is represented by the artist what the passing life was as he actually saw it. The Daily Mail Flying Tours. ON the 26th ult., M. Salmet crossed the Bristol Channel from Weston-Super-Mare to Cardiff, taking twenty-one minutes for the trip, being buffetted about by the gusty winds. On the following day he started to go on to Pontypridd, but had to return owing to engine trouble. He was then unfortunately taken suddenly ill, and returned to London in order to undergo an operation, which was carried out successfully on Sunday last. This will prevent him from flying for about another week at least. In the meantime, arrangements have been made for S. Nardini, with a Deperdussin monoplane, to continue the tour in the Midlands, and he was to have arrived at Birmingham on Thursday. Mr. W. H. Ewen, who is conducting a tour for the Daily Mail in the North of England, started from Hendon on Thursday of last week on his Caudron biplane. He was away very early and at 5 a.m. arrived at Cambridge after a journey of 44 minutes. A crowd of about 10,000 people assembled and were greatly interested in a demon stration flight of three two-mile circuits. On the following day he started very early for Peterborough from Cambridge, but the wind blew him off his course and he was forced to make a landing at St. Neots, from which point he went on to Peter borough in the evening, the 37 miles then being covered in 28 minutes. Two demon stration flights round Peterborough were given on Saturday, but on Monday when starting for Lincoln the machine was Drought down suddenly by the remoits from some trees, with the result that the pro peller and skids were damaged, necessitating some delay.
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