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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 1237.PDF
DECEMBER 28, 1912. keep an eye keenly on the watch for some friendly spire, some sign of a well remembered meadow or spread of water, indicating the location of the aviation field to which a safe descent can be made. But it is never hopeless, for the aviator knows that if darkness supervenes, it will, in all probability, disclose the beacon fires of watchers on the field. If one has not flown too far away, he can easily recognize, from his commanding place of vantage, the blazing pile where the watchers wait. "Why should anyone be lost in the air? It is the easiest thing in the world. The landmarks you see, as you walk or ride on the surface of the earth, are not recognized as such by the flyer. On the earth you see these things straight ahead, or at the side, within the horizontal range of the eye. From a balloon or an aeroplane you see them from the standpoint of the perpendicular. You see the roof, not the sides of a house ; the pinnacles that pierce the sky, not the majestic towers that command the vision from a side view. " Recall your own experience and your exclamations of surprise after you have gone to the top of the Washington monument at the national capital, the arch d'Triumphe in Paris, the top of Bunker Hill at Boston, or of a skyscraper in any city. You find yourself puzzled as to the points of the compass. The most familiar buildings, streets and avenues are almost indistinguishable except as you study the vista spread before you. " Is it a wonder that one gets lost in the sky ? Remember that from the dizzy height of a monoplane as one looks over the side of the car, the earth seems flattened out, the rivers shrink until they become no larger than brooks, the hills are levelled and fields of variegated colour appear like spaces on a checkerboard. The earth is flat, not round, as the aeroplanist sees it. But I could always pick my landing at any time when I was lost, for I kept sailing about until I found a suitable place. Then I came down and was happy !" The closing sentence of this last unfinished manuscript of Miss Quimby recalls a sealed message she left for her parents before she went to Boston to make her last flight. In that message, which carried with it a sad premonition, she said that if ill-fortune should befall her, she would meet her fate " rejoicing." Surely this brave girl, the first in the United States to secure a pilot's licence to fly, deserves a fitting memorial. We are glad to say that contributions to her Monument Fund are still being received by us. They will all be acknowledged in due time.— Leslie's Weekly. German Airships and Foreign Orders. Berlin, December 18th. A section of the German public still professes to be indignant at the prospect of a Parseval airship being sold to England, but the agitation against the sale seems to be somewhat forced. In view, however, of the number of letters of protest addressed to it, the Vossische Zeitung applied directly to Major von Parseval, and has received the following statement from the company which constructs Parseval airships : " Our company will never sell an airship to a foreign country unless it is sure of the acquiescence of the Imperial Government, and fortunately the latter has a different standpoint from that assumed by some of our newspapers. Our Imperial Government takes the perfectly correct view that our private airship industry must be dependent on orders from abroad as long as our defensive forces cannot keep it employed to an extent that is remunerative. In the case of Count Zeppelin the matter is different in so far that he administers the National Fund, and is thus under a moral obligation to place his products at the disposal only of the German defensive forces. Members of our company, as you know, placed ^50,000 at the disposal of a motor-airship experimental company, a fonds perdu, in order to enable the non- rigid system to be developed to its present perfection. When this sum was exhausted no further capital a jondsperdu was forthcoming, but, on the other hand, practically the same persons were ready to invest capital in a new company, the Luftfakrzeuggesellschatt, in order to make the construction of airships a paying business. This is the only means by which we shall be enabled to proceed with the construction of non-rigid airships. Every new airship that we build, whether for Germany or for a foreign country, increases our experience and furnishes us with fresh funds, and our defensive force is thus indirectly benefited by orders from abroad. The names of the members of our company are a sufficient guarantee that we shall never act in opposition to the intentions of the Imperial Government." In a leading article on the subject, the Vossische Zeitung quotes the opinion given by Bismarck in reply to protests against the sale of German war material to foreign countries. The great Chancellor said it was evident that it was not necessary for foreigners to bay such material in order to learn the secrets of its construction. As it was impossible to keep such matters secret, he considered that manufacturers who could not be kept fully occupied by home orders I I/JJCHTJ were perfectly justified in selling abroad. " Take orders," he said, " wherever you can get them." Bismarck is further reported to have said : " Provide for the maintenance of your factories and make as much money as you can out of the Russians and the French." The Radical organ considers that the Parseval Airship Construction Company is in a similar situation, and that Bismarck's advice can be well applied to it.—Morning Post, December 19th. ® ® $ ® Aircraft History at South Kensington. ON Monday last there was opened in one of the galleries of the Science Museum a most Inter eating collection illustrating the history of aeronautics, as well as the research side of the science, and all who cm, should make an effort to inspect the exhibits. These include full-sized machines and models of aeroplanes and dirigibles, as well as a large number of instruments of various kinds, while at one end of the gallery is a Meteorological Station. The collection remains on view until the end of January. A Lengthy Balloon Trip. COMPETING for the City of Paris price, M. Rene Rumpclmaycr, accompanied by Mdme. Goldsmith, left St. Cloud on the evening of the 14th inst. Travelling in a westerly direction they passed over Luxemburg and Bohemia and eventually landed at Bogozslo in Salecia, a distance of 1,200 kiloms. from Paris. They were received by the military, who were a little suspicious of their aerial visitors and did some damage to the balloon with their bayonets. The Langley memorial tablet which has been executed by-John Flannagan, of New York City.
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