Airships past and present, together with chapters on the use of balloons in connection with meteorology, photography and the carrier pigeon . kite, to be driven, as before, bypropellers and steam engine. Phillips made a curious form of flying machine in 1862. Itsomewhat resembled a Venetian blind, supported on a woodenframe. The height was 9 ft. 3 in., and the breadth 21 ft. 8 whole thing was mounted on a carriage, shaped like a boat,and running on wheels, 24 ft. 6 in. long. It was driven round a FLYING MACHINES. 97 circular track, 600 ft. long, by a small steam engine connectedto prope
Airships past and present, together with chapters on the use of balloons in connection with meteorology, photography and the carrier pigeon . kite, to be driven, as before, bypropellers and steam engine. Phillips made a curious form of flying machine in 1862. Itsomewhat resembled a Venetian blind, supported on a woodenframe. The height was 9 ft. 3 in., and the breadth 21 ft. 8 whole thing was mounted on a carriage, shaped like a boat,and running on wheels, 24 ft. 6 in. long. It was driven round a FLYING MACHINES. 97 circular track, 600 ft. long, by a small steam engine connectedto propellers, making 400 revolutions per minute. The weightof the whole was rather less than 3 cwt. It was anchored by arope to the middle of the track. The tests showed that a deadweight of 72 lbs., placed on the front wheels, could be lifted30 ins. into the air, and this proved that the principles of con-struction were correct. It seems curious that after suchpreliminary success nothing further should have been the difficulty is to determine the right position for thecentre of gravity, and to ensure a reasonable amount of stability. Fig. 51.—Phillips flying machine. when in motion. These points can only be settled after theexpenditure of much time and money. Some of the most interesting experiments were carried out bySir Hiram Maxim in 1888, with the assistance of the late Pro-fessor Langley. The aeroplane cost over £20,000, and wasdesigned on a large scale. It consisted of a big sail with anumber of smaller sails to the right and left of it, havingaltogether an area of 3,875 square feet. They were connected to aplatform, 40 ft. by 8 ft., by means of a framework, built up outof thin steel tubes. The platform contained a seat for thedriver, together with the boiler, engine, etc., and the boiler wasfired by a gas-burner, which was fed with naphtha. The burner A. h 98 AIRSHIPS PAST AND PRESENT. itself consisted of a cylinder with a number of horizontal tubesand about 7,650
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpubl, booksubjectaeronautics
