Astounding News by Express, Norfolk! -- The Atlantic
Crossed in Three Days! Signal Triumph of Mr Monck Mason's Flying
Machine! -- Arrival at Sullivan's Island, near Charleston, S.C., of
Mr Mason, Mr Robert Holland, Mr Henson, Mr Harrison Ainsworth, and
four others, in the Steering Balloon, , after a passage
of Seventy-five hours from Land to Land! Full Particulars of the
Voyage!
The subjoined with the preceding heading in
magnificent capitals, well interspersed with notes of admiration,
was originally published, as matter of fact, in the, a daily newspaper, and therein fully subserved the purpose of
creating indigestible aliment for the during the few
hours intervening between a couple of the Charleston mails. The
rush for the 'sole paper which had the news', was something beyond
even the prodigious; and, in fact, if (as some assert) the not absolutely accomplish the voyage recorded, it
will be difficult to assign a reason why she not have
accomplished it.]
The great problem is at length solved! The air, as well as the
earth and the ocean, has been subdued by science, and will become
a common and convenient highway for mankind. and this too without
difficulty--without any great apparent danger--with thorough
control of the machine--and in the inconceivably brief period of
seventy-five hours from shore to shore! By the energy of an agent
at Charleston, S.C., we are enabled to be the first to furnish the
public with a detailed account of this most extraordinary voyage,
which was performed between Saturday, the 6th instant, at 11 A.M.,
and 2 P.M., on Tuesday, the 9th instant, by Sir Everard Bringhurst;
Mr Osborne, a nephew of Lord Bentinck's; Mr Monck Mason and Mr
Robert Holland, the well-known aeronauts; Mr Harrison Ainsworth,
author of, etc.; and Mr Henson, the projector of
the late unsuccessful flying machine--with two seamen from
Woolwich--in all, eight persons. The particulars furnished
below may be relied on as authentic and accurate in every respect,
as, with a slight exception, they are copied from the
joint diaries of Mr Monck Mason and Mr Harrison Ainsworth, to whose
politeness our agent is indebted for much verbal information
respecting the balloon itself, its construction, and other matters
of interest. The only alteration in the MS received, has been made
for the purpose of throwing the hurried account of our agent, Mr
Forsyth, into a connected and intelligible form.
'THE BALLOON
'Two very decided failures, of late,--those of Mr Henson and Sir
George Cayley,--had much weakened the public interest in the
subject of aerial navigation. Mr Henson's scheme (which at first
was considered very feasible even by men of science) was founded
upon the principle of an inclined plane, started from an eminence
by an extrinsic force applied and continued by the revolution of
impinging vanes in form and number resembling the vanes of a
windmill. But, in all the experiments made with models at the
Adelaide Gallery, it was found that the operation of these fans not
only did not propel the machine, but actually impeded its flight.
The only propelling force it ever exhibited, was the mere acquired from the descent of the inclined plane; and this
carried the machine further when the vanes were at
rest, than when they were in motion--a fact which sufficiently
demonstrates their inutility; and in the absence of the propelling,
which was also the, power, the whole fabric would
necessarily descend. This consideration led Sir George Cayley to
think only of adapting a propeller to some machine having of itself
an independent power of support--in a word, to a balloon; the idea
however, being novel, or original, with Sir George, only so far as
regards the mode of its application to practice. He exhibited a
model of his invention at the Polytechnic Institution. The
propelling principle, or power, was here, also, applied to
interrupted surfaces, or vanes, put in revolution. These vanes
were four in number, but were found entirely ineffectual in moving
the balloon, or in aiding its ascending power. The whole project
was thus a complete failure.
'It was at this juncture that Mr Monck Mason (whose voyage
from Dover to Weilburg in the balloon, , occasioned so
much excitement in 1837) conceived the idea of employing the
principle of the Archimedean screw for the purpose of propulsion
through the air--rightly attributing the failure of Mr Henson's
scheme, and of Sir George Cayley's to the interruption of surface
in the independent vanes. He made the first public experiment at
Willis's Rooms, but afterward removed his model to the Adelaide
Gallery.
'Like Sir George Cayley's balloon, his own was an ellipsoid.
Its length was thirteen feet six inches--height, six feet eight
inches. It contained about three hundred and twenty cubic feet of
gas, which, if pure hydrogen, would support twenty-one pounds upon
its first inflation, before the gas has time to deteriorate or
escape. The weight of the whole machine and apparatus was
seventeen pounds--leaving about four pounds to spare. Beneath the
centre of the balloon, was a frame of light wood, about nine feet
long, and rigged on to the balloon itself with a network in the
customary manner. From this framework was suspended a wicker
basket or car.
''The screw consists of an axis of hollow brass tube, eighteen
inches in length, through which, upon a semispiral inclined at
fifteen degrees, pass a series of steel-wire radii, two feet long,
and thus projecting a foot on either side. These radii are
connected at the outer extremities by two bands of flattened wire-the whole in this manner forming the framework of the screw, which
is completed by a covering of oiled silk cut into gores, and
tightened so as to present a tolerably uniform surface. At each
end of its axis this screw is supported by pillars of hollow brass
tube descending from the hoop. In the lower ends of these tubes
are holes in which the pivots of the axis revolve. From the end of
the axis which is next the car, proceeds a shaft of steel,
connecting the screw with the pinion of a piece of spring machinery
fixed in the car. By the operation of this spring, the screw is
made to revolve with great rapidity, communicating a progressive
motion to the whole. By means of the rudder, the machine was
readily turned in any direction. The spring was of great power,
compared with its dimensions, being capable of raising forty-five
pounds upon a barrel of four inches diameter after the
first turn, and gradually increasing as it was wound up. It
weighed, altogether, eight pounds six ounces. The rudder was a
light frame of cane covered with silk, shaped somewhat like a
battledore, and was about three feet long, and at the widest, one
foot. Its weight was about two ounces. It could be turned, and directed upward or downward, as well as to the right or
left; and thus enabled the aeronaut to transfer the resistance of
the air which in an inclined position it must generate in its
passage, to any side upon which he might desire to act; thus
determining the balloon in the opposite direction.
'This model (which, through want of time, we have necessarily
described in an imperfect manner) was put in action at the Adelaide
Gallery, where it accomplished a velocity of five miles per hour;
although, strange to say, it excited very little interest in
comparison with the previous complex machine of Mr Henson--so
resolute is the world to despise anything which carries with it an
air of simplicity. To accomplish the great desideratum of aerial
navigation, it was very generally supposed that some exceedingly
complicated application must be made of some unusually profound
principle in dynamics.
'So well satisfied, however, was Mr Mason of the ultimate
success of his invention, that he determined to construct
immediately, if possible, a balloon of sufficient capacity to test
the question by a voyage of some extent--the original design being
to cross the British Channel, as before, in the balloon.
To carry out his views he solicited and obtained the patronage of
Sir Everard Bringhurst and Mr Osborne, two gentlemen well known for
scientific acquirement, and especially for the interest they have
exhibited in the progress of aerostation. The project at the
desire of Mr Osborne, was kept a profound secret from the public-the only persons entrusted with the design being those actually
engaged in the construction of the machine, which was built (under
the superintendence of Mr Mason, Mr Holland, Sir Everard
Bringhurst, and Mr Osborne) at the seat of the latter gentleman
near Penstruthal, in Wales. Mr Henson, accompanied by his friend
Mr Ainsworth, was admitted to a private view of the balloon, on
Saturday last--when the two gentlemen made final
arrangements to be included in the adventure. We are not informed
for what reason the two seamen were also included in ...
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