The Story of Great InventionsBurns, Elmer Ellsworth
History
The Story of Great Inventions
Burns, Elmer Ellsworth
Inventions -- History
A larger air-ship, the _Deutschland_, built later by Count Zeppelin, was
the first air-ship to be used for regular passenger service. The
_Deutschland_ is shown in Fig. 92. The _Deutschland_ carried the crew
and twenty passengers. It operated for a time as a regular passenger
air-ship between Friedrichshafen and Düsseldorf, a distance of three
hundred miles. The _Deutschland_ was wrecked in a storm on June 28,
1910, but it was successfully operated long enough to give Germany the
honor of establishing the first air-ship line for regular passenger
service. This is an honor perhaps equally as great as that of
establishing the first commercial electric railway, which also belongs
to Germany. An American army air-ship is shown in Fig. 93.
[Illustration: FIG. 92--COUNT ZEPPELIN'S "DEUTSCHLAND," THE FIRST
AIR-SHIP IN REGULAR PASSENGER SERVICE]
[Illustration:
Copyright by Pictorial News Co.
FIG. 93--THE BALDWIN AIR-SHIP USED IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY]
The Aeroplane
The aeroplane is a later development than the dirigible balloon. The
aeroplane is heavier than air. So is a bird and so is a kite. What
supports a kite or a bird as it soars? Every boy knows that the strings
of a kite must be attached so that the kite is inclined and catches the
wind underneath. Then the wind lifts the kite. In still air the kite
will not fly unless the boy who holds the string runs very fast and so
causes an artificial breeze to blow against the kite. In much the same
way a hovering bird is held aloft by the wind. In a dead calm the bird
must flap its wings to keep afloat. If the kite string is cut the kite
tips over and drops to the earth because it has lost its balance. The
lifting power of the wind is well shown in the man-lifting kites which
are used in the British army service. In a high wind a large kite is
used in place of a captive balloon. It is a box-kite made of bamboo and
carries a passenger in a car, the car running on the cable which
attaches the kite to the ground. Now suppose a kite with a motor and
propeller in place of a string and a boy to run with it, and that the
kite is able to balance itself, then it will sail against a wind of its
own making and you have a flying-machine heavier than air.
The first aeroplane that would fly under perfect control of the operator
was built by the Wright brothers at Dayton, Ohio. When they were boys,
Bishop Wright gave his two sons, Orville and Wilbur, a toy flyer. From
that time on the thought of flying through the air was in their minds. A
few years later the death of Lilienthal, who was killed by a fall with
his glider in Germany, stirred them, and they took up the problem in
earnest. They read all the writings of Lilienthal and became acquainted
with Mr. Octave Chanute, an engineer of Chicago who had made a
successful glider. They soon built a glider of their own, and
experimented with it each summer on the huge sand-dunes of the North
Carolina coast.
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