Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

accept the conditions imposed of turning from sin, repentance, faith in Christ, and a life of consecration thus excluding all hope of a future probation or of universal salvation." Belief in the visible and personal second coming of Christ to the earth, his reign here forever, and the renewal of the earth to be forever free from sin and death is further expressed. Christ, the approximate time of his coming being indicated in Bible prophecy, is believed to be near, and the proclamation of this truth to be the great duty of the hour. The statistics of the denomination have not been systematically compiled. A committee was appointed in 1900 to prepare an annual of denominational statistics. It secured returns from 32 out of the 60 conferences, and some local and scattered items in addition, and has published as the summary of the condition of these bodies the following totals: Number of ordained ministers, 716; of licensed ministers, 112; of churches, 646, with 23,590 members; of Sunday-schools, 341, with 11.870 enrolled members. Four publishing societies-the Advent Christian Publishing Society, Boston, Mass.; the Western Advent Christian Publishing Society, Mendota, Ill.; the Pacific Advent Christian Publication and Mission Society, Oakland, Cal.; and the Southern Advent Christian Publication Society, Lamar, S. C.-issue each a weekly religious newspaper, and a monthly periodical is published at Worcester, Mass., and quarterlies at Boston, Mass., and Sundayschool periodicals and helps as well as a considerable number of denominational books are published at the house in Boston.

The American Advent Mission Society was organized in 1865, primarily to labor among the freedmen in the South, but now includes foreign and domestic departments. In the foreign field it supports in whole or in part 8 laborers, with 15 native workers, and several free laborers at Nanking, Wuhu, and Han Shan Hsien, and several substations in China and in India, where a publishing house has been established at Bangalore, with a selling and lending library. Literature is printed at this establishment in 7 languages, and is distributed by agents in 15 centers" and other places." The work of the society in England has been of late years largely self-supporting. Portuguese missions are maintained in the Cape Verde Islands and in Taunton, Mass. Mission schools are sustained at Nanking and Wuhu, China, and Egmore and Renigunta, India. The society is also aiding 10 or more workers in the home field, besides assisting several conferences in their mission work. The home missions are largely in charge of the Western and Southern Home Mission Boards. A Church Extension fund is operated in connection with this society. The Advent Christian Helper's Union, organized in 1894, is a woman's society auxiliary to the mission society in its foreign work. The Woman's Home and Foreign Mission Society, organized in 1897, works through the mission societies, churches, etc., in home missions, but carries on foreign mission work on its own account, principally in India, where it supports several schools, 3 orphanages, 3 missionaries, and about 20 work ers. It publishes the All Nations Monthly, Rockland, Me. The young people are organized into the Young People's Society of Loyal Workers, consisting of the general Eastern and the general Western societies, which have together 116 local societies with about 5.000 members. The educational institutions are Mendota College, Mendota, Ill., founded in 1893, for both sexes, with 4 departments and 6 courses of study, and

the Boston Bible School, established in 1897, and incorporated in 1902. The Loyal Workers' Institute is a course of reading to be pursued at home.

II. Life and Advent Union.-The distinctive doctrines of this branch of the Adventists include the extinction of the wicked at death and the resurrection of the just to everlasting life. It holds a general conference in each year, 4 campmeetings-in Maine, Connecticut, and Virginia— and quarterly conferences in some places. The Life and Advent Missionary Society and the Young People's Life and Advent Missionary Society are organizations for carrying on home mission work exclusively. A considerable number of books, with the Herald of Life, the newspaper organ of the denomination, are issued from the publishing house at Springfield, Mass. Fiftyone ministers are registered on the rolls of the General Council, with about 24 churches; and there are other ministers whose names have not been enrolled. The number of members is not given in the reports of the body, but is estimated to be about 3,800.

III. Seventh-day Adventists.-At the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference of 1901 a new constitution was adopted and important changes were made in the organization of the Church. Among the more considerable of these changes was the grouping of the State conferences into union conferences, each representing a definite district or number of States, to take over a part of the work of the General Conference, and among which many of the functions and duties hitherto performed by it and its liabilities and assets were to be distributed according to their local relations and strength. Six of these union conferences were constituted in the United States, one in Canada, one in Europe, and one in Australasia. This change was accompanied with a readjustment of the affairs of the General Conference Association, the legal arm of the General Conference. Steps were taken late in 1901 to apportion the liabilities of this association to the union conferences according to the institutions within their borders and their ability to pay. The plan adopted contemplated the creation of a legal corporation within the territory of each union conference for the transaction of legal business and the transfer to such corporations by the General Conference Association of whatever institutions and church property it was holding in the several districts, with the assumption by them of the corresponding liabilities, in such a way that the General Conference Association should be relieved of a largeshare of its financial obligations and they should be assumed by those union conference organizations within whose borders the assets are located, whether in the form of church buildings, school properties, or otherwise. This arrangement was accepted by most of the union conferences. The General Conference Committee was. likewise reorganized to meet the new conditions in February, 1892, with such recastings as seemed called for of the Mission Board, the trustees of the Foreign Mission Board (constituting the legal corporation), the educational department, the religious liberty department, the Sabbathschool department, the General Conference Association, the Auditing Committee, committees. on German and on Scandinavian work in North America, and transportation agencies.

The European General Conference was organized July 23, 1901, and embraces two union conferences the German and the Scandinavian-together with the British and Central European

Conferences and the Oriental mission field. Each of the union conferences includes three duly organized local conferences, besides unorganized mission territory. At last reports 60 ministers and about 100 other workers were employed within its territory, with about 7,500 Sabbath keepers, from whom a tithe of nearly $50,000 a year was received. A missionary training-school, a health institute, a food factory, and an industrial school are located at Friedensau, Germany, where the conference was held; a health institute has been established in Denmark; and publishing houses are sustained in Norway and Sweden. The summary of the statistics of the Church in all parts of the world for the year ending Dec. 31, 1901, includes footings from the union and State and local conferences and missions as follow: Atlantic Union (9 conferences and missions), 8,430 members; Canadian Union (4 conferences, etc.), 1,093 members; Southern Union (8 conferences, etc.), 2,500 members; Lake Union (5 conferences, etc., and the church at Battle Creek, Mich.), 19,689 members; Northwestern Union (5 conferences, etc.), 11,791 members; Southwestern Union (6 conferences, etc.), 10,144 members; Pacific Union (9 conferences, etc.), 9,884 members; German Union, 3,818 members; Scandinavian Union, 2,059 members; British Union, 992 members; Central European Union, 492 members; Oriental missions, 236 members; Australasian Union Conference (7 state conferences or missions), 2,533 members; and the conferences or missions in Mexico, the West Indies, Central and South America, India, Japan, China, South Africa, and the islands of the sea, of which 25 are enumerated, 4,537 members; total, 78,188 members, showing an increase of 2,429 from the previous year. Other' footings of the table are: Whole number of laborers (553 ministers, 340 licentiates, 611 missionary licentiates), 1,591; of churches, 2,011, with 89,356 members; of companies, 356, with 5,239 members; of isolated Sabbath keepers, 3,593; amount of tithes, $578,628, showing an increase for the year in this item of $68,369. The Seventh-day Adventists have several publishing houses in the United States, including the one at Battle Creek, Mich.; other publishing houses in America, Europe, and Australia, issuing periodicals and books in several languages; a large sanitarium at Battle Creek, Mich., and other sanitariums in the United States and other countries; and a number of educational institutions in America and abroad.

IV. The Church of God.-This branch is the result of a separation from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which took place about 1865, on account of differences respecting certain points of doctrine and practise. The number of members is estimated at about 6,000. It has a sanitarium (controlled by a stock company) at White Cloud, Minn., and an orphan asylum at Renwood Park, Iowa. The meetings are mostly held in schoolhouses, so that the value of church property is estimated to be not more than $2.000; while the cost of the sanitarium was about $20,000. The General Conference was incorporated in 1899, and usually meets at Stanberry, Mo., where the denominational publishing house is situated, and where 3 periodicals and large editions of tracts are published. At the eighteenth annual Conference, held at Stanberry, Mo., in November, 1901, the treasurer reported receipts of $2,865 and expenditures of $2,900. Resolutions were adopted expressing belief "in the personal coming of Christ, the absolute mortality of man, his death and resurrection, Christ's future kingdom on earth and the perpetuity of God's

moral law, the Ten Commandments, including the fourth, which requires the observance of the seventh day of the week as the holy Sabbath of the Lord," as the truths which distinguish the denomination as a people, and directing that these subjects be made paramount in all the denominational publications and preaching. other resolution declared that the purposes of the General Conference include works of benevolence and charity.

An

V. The Churches of God in Christ Jesus (or Age-to-Come Adventists as they are popularly known) are a group of churches that look for the final restitution of all things which God hath spoken and the actual establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth with Christ as king; and for the literal resurrection of the dead, with immortality to the righteous and the final destruction of the wicked. In the absence of officially published statistics, it is estimated that they have 182 organizations worshiping in their own buildings and nearly as many in other rooms, with Sunday-schools maintained wherever there is an organization, and about 5,000 members. The business is transacted by the State or district conferences.

AERIAL NAVIGATION. All the recent comparatively successful attempts at navigating the air have been by means of the development and improvement of dirigible balloons; little has been done to carry forward the splendid experiments of Maxim and Langley in mechanical flight (see Annual Cyclopædia for 1897, p. 4). The idea of a spindle-shaped balloon, sustaining passengers and machinery, and impelled by a wheel composed of vanes or fans of canvas at one or both of its extremities, is not new, and such an invention was mentioned in a letter written by Francis Hopkinson to Benjamin Franklin as early as May 24, 1784. Rufus Porter exhibited models of such a machine in New York and Washington in 1835-40 which flew rapidly and were capable of sustaining themselves for a considerable length of time; but his large machine, its balloon 160 feet long and 16 feet in diameter, was a failure. He used steam as his motive power.

Giffard, Tissandier, Renard.-The first successful dirigible balloon was that of Henri Giffard, which was built in 1852, and used as a propelling power a high-pressure 3-horse-power steam-engine with a small boiler, together weighing about 500 pounds, actuating a screw with plane blades. His balloon was spindle-shaped, 3.66 diameters (144 feet) in length, and attained a maximum speed of 6.7 miles an hour. Twenty years later M. Depuy de Lome employed manpower in the impulsion of a balloon 118 feet long and capable of carrying 10 or 15 men, 7 of whom furnished the power, and attained a speed of something more than 6 miles an hour. M. Gaston Tissandier adopted the electric storage-battery, coupled with a dynamo-electric machine, as a source of power. He constructed for the exhibition of 1881 a model, 11 feet long and 4 feet in diameter, filled with hydrogen, and drove it at the rate of about 10 feet per second (about 7 miles an hour), as a maximum. With his brother, M. Albert Tissandier, he built another, 91 feet long and 29 feet in diameter, fitted with a Siemens dynamo, driving a screw nearly 10 feet in diameter, and supplied with a current from an accumulator of their own invention weighing about 400 pounds. This machine, carrying the two inventors, made at various times from 7 to 9 miles an hour for an hour or two together. Messrs. Renard and Krebs, experimenting, like their rivals, in Paris, also constructed a some

what similar machine, 165 feet long and 27 feet in diameter, impelled by a battery invented by M. Renard, a dynamo, and a screw 7 feet in diameter. This apparatus at various times in 1884 went from 12 to 15 miles per hour. The motor gave out about 5 horse-power, and the machine was able to take any course desired in a calm, and even to contend against a light breeze. This balloon made a number of voyages, occasionally to distant points, sometimes returning to its point of departure. Its car and impelling machinery constituted one of the most interesting of the exhibits of the French Government at the Paris Exposition of 1889.

Count Zeppelin.-New interest was awakened in the summer of 1900 by the successful ascents made by Count Zeppelin at Lake Constance. He employed in these experiments an immense bal loon, consisting of 17 cylindrical gas-bags confined in a cylindrical case with conical ends, 420 feet long and 39 feet in diameter. Beneath this was suspended a frame supporting 2 aluminum cars 20 feet in length, one forward and one aft,

cle, making noticeable headway and remaining in perfect control against a 7-mile wind. After completing its evolutions it alighted gracefully and gently to the surface of the lake where its balloon shed was placed.

Santos-Dumont. In 1901 much attention was called to the experiments of M. Alberto Santos-Dumont, a young Brazilian resident in Paris; especially when on Oct. 19 he succeeded in winning the prize of 100,000 francs offered by M. Henri Deutsche, one of the members of the Aero Club, in April, 1900, to the navigable balloon that, starting from the Aero Club Park, at St. Cloud, should steer around the Eiffel Tower and return to the point of departure in less than half an hour. Even before his arrival in Paris in 1897 Santos-Dumont had experimented with aeronautics, and on July 4, 1898, made a successful ascent from the Jardin d'Acclimation in the smallest spherical balloon that at that time ever had been made, 18 feet in diameter. At the same time he was constructing his first dirigible balloon, the Santos-Dumont No. 1. This

THE SANTOS-DUMONT NO. 6 CROSSING THE PORT OF MONACO.

connected by speaking-tubes, for the crew and machinery. Two rudders, one forward and one aft, served to steer the craft, which was driven forward or backward by 4-bladed screw propellers 3 feet in diameter, 2 geared to each motor. The power was furnished by 2 16-horse-power Daimler benzine engines, weighing 715 pounds each, and 1 placed in each car. The ship was made to travel in a horizontal or an inclined plane by means of a weight sliding along a cable beneath and parallel to the longest axis of the balloon shell. When it was desired to ascend the forward end of the balloon was thrown upward by sliding the weight aft; when a descent was to be made it was thrown downward by sliding the weight forward. When the weight was at the exact center the ship was in equilibrium and maintained a horizontal course. The first ascent was made July 2, 1900, with 5 persons in the cars. After rising 1,300 feet the ship traveled 3 miles in seventeen minutes in a prescribed direction, and was then forced to descend on account of an accident to one of the rudders. On Oct. 17 the ship remained in the air for an hour at an average height of nearly 2,000 feet; it traveled the 6-mile circumference of a cir

was in the form of a cylinder with conical terminations, 80 feet long and about 6 feet in diameter. The suspended basket carried a 34-horse-power gasoline motor operating a screw propeller. The ascent of this balloon, from the Jardin d'Acclimation, Sept. 20, 1898, almost resulted in disaster. It rose to the height of 1,200 feet, showed itself to be absolutely dirigible, and delighted the spectators with its marvelous evolutions. Suddenly it was seen to collapse and the wreckage with the aeronaut came tumbling to the earth. The air-pump supplying the small interior airballoon, designed to keep the outer envelope always swelled out, had proved insufficient, and under the weight the whole thing folded upon itself. Fortunately the mass of wreckage acted as a parachute, and M. Santos escaped unhurt. No. 2, built after the same plan, but much larger, and launched May 11, 1899, showed the same defects, and after an unsuccessful trial was abandoned, and work immediately begun on No. 3, which embodied many innovations. The inner air-balloon was dispensed with, although he has used it in No. 4 and the later models. It was cigar-shaped, 66 feet long and 11 feet in greatest diameter. There was no netting about the silk tissue, but a strong belt was sewn into the lower part of the balloon on either side to which short pieces of wood were attached. From them was suspended the so-called "keel," a long bamboo pole which supported the basket and other apparatus. A 41-horse-power petroleum motor worked a 5-foot propeller giving 2,500 revolutions a minute. A rudder of bamboo and silk with an area of about 25 square feet was used to guide the ship. At each end of the balloon was fastened 50 pounds of ballast controlled by guys. When the aeronaut wished to rise he let out the stern guy, and 50 pounds of ballast fell astern, throwing the bow end of the balloon upward at an angle of 25 or 30 degrees. To descend it was only necessary to let out the bow weight and draw in the stern weight. On Nov. 13, 1899, as

[graphic]

cending from Vaugirard he sailed to the Champs de Mars, and, after circling the Eiffel Tower several times, laid a straight course for Auteuil, and thence to the maneuver grounds at Bagatelle, where he safely landed. In No. 4 he improved on No. 3 by making his balloon less clumsy, 95 feet long and 9 feet in diameter, and by dispensing with the suspended basket. The 7-horse-power motor and the other mechanism was fastened directly to the keel, a long framework of bamboo strengthened by wires, and the inventor managed the machine from a bicycle seat fastened to the keel. The machine was completed in August, 1900, and made numerous short ascents during the Paris Exposition of 1900, notably on Sept. 19, in the Bois de Boulogne, in the presence of the International Aeronautic Congress. Balloon No. 5 was made by inserting into No. 4 a cylindrical piece sufficient to make its total length 109 feet. A 60-foot keel, framed of pine and piano-wire, supported a 16-horse-power motor with its appendages and a basket car for the aeronaut. With it, July 12, 1901, ascending from the Aero Club Park, he crossed the Seine to the Longchamps race-track, took the air-ship ten times around the track, and then sailed to the Trocadero, and after a slight delay, caused by an accident to the rudder, went round Eiffel Tower, back to Longchamps, and thence across the Seine to Aero Park. The following day was set for an attempt for the Deutsche prize. The start took place in the presence of the club members at nineteen minutes to seven in the morning. The Eiffel Tower was doubled at five minutes to seven, but a strong current of air caught the ship shortly after the turn, driving it toward Longchamps, where he landed in the gardens of Baron Rothschild. On Aug. 18 he made another attempt, but this time his balloon collapsed and the whole structure with its operator fell to the roof of the Trocadero Hotel. His new machine, No. 6, ellipsoidal in form and carrying a 20-horsepower motor, was built upon practically the same lines, and on Oct. 19, 1901, succeeded in capturing the coveted prize. The trip from St. Cloud to the tower was made in nine minutes, and the return trip, against the wind, in twenty minutes and thirty seconds. M. Deutsche's 100,000 francs were generously distributed by the victor among the poor of Paris and all the assistants who had contributed to his success. Soon after his success in Paris he was summoned to Monte Carlo by the Prince of Monaco, there to attempt the crossing of the Mediterranean Sea. He made a successful ascent on Jan. 23, 1902, taking with him his friend M. Aimé, and sailing about the bay and proceeding more than a mile seaward. On Feb. 14, while making his fifth trip across the bay the guide-rope caught in the screw. With the intention of freeing the entangled tackle, M. Santos threw his balloon into a perpendicular position, whereupon the petroleum began to escape from his motor. The aeronaut, fearing an explosion, pulled the emergency rope, tearing a great rent in the silk envelope, and the gas rapidly escaped, causing the balloon to descend into the sea. A steam-launch belonging to the Prince of Monaco's yacht picked up M. Santos with all possible speed; and the disabled balloon, which did not sink, was taken in tow and conveyed to land. This balloon, No. 6, with some slight alterations, was brought to the United States in July, 1902, and was used at Brighton Beach by Mr. Edward C. Boice in his ascent on Sept. 30, 1902.

Stanley Spencer.-On the afternoon of Sept. 19, 1902, ascending from the Crystal Palace in

[merged small][graphic][merged small]

ever attained by Santos-Dumont. While in the neighborhood of Herne Hill, Mr. Spencer caused the air-ship to perform numerous evolutionsdarting downward, as though falling to the earth; suddenly arresting the descent, and again rising. At Ealing, which was reached at five o'clock, an hour after the start, similar maneuvers were gone through over the principal thoroughfares. The course was then altered to northeast, and a safe landing was effected near Harrow. The machine was at all times under perfect control, and at the end of the trip alighted so lightly "that a child might have been under it without being hurt." This ship, built by the Messrs. Spencer, differs very radically in some respects from the Santos-Dumont type, and is de

scribed as follows in a current number of the Illustrated London News: "The main point of difference lies in the wooden screw, constructed en the Hiram Maxim system, which is fixed in front of the body of the machine and pulls or sucks it forward through the air, instead of propelling it from the rear, as in the Brazilian's airship. The framework is entirely of bamboos, lashed and bolted to one another, and, with the exception, of course, of the motor and steering board, there is practically no metal on the whole machine. The result of this is shown by the scales. The total weight, with everything fixed, is under 300 pounds, the frame accounting for 125 pounds of this. The car is novel, inasmuch as the place of the usual basketwork is taken by bamboo cross-bars and netting. The framework -which is 45 feet long-is in 3 parts, for convenience in transit. The driving-power is furnished by a Simms petroleum motor of 35 horsepower. The gas-bag is 75 feet in length, and is not covered with netting, it being found difficult to enclose properly a balloon of elongated shape. When the aeronauts-the vessel will carry two light-weights desire to descend, air is pumped into the envelope from a hand machine in the car as the gas is allowed to escape, in order that the balloon may always remain taut. Automatic valves release gas should the pressure become too great. The envelope has received three coats of special varnish, one outside and two in. By this means it is believed that the fabric itself will be undamaged by either the gas within or the air without." On Oct. 20 Mr. Spencer made another successful trip of 26 miles, ascending at Blackpool, Lancashire, and descending near Preston. A strong breeze was blowing when he ascended. When he reached a height of about 1,000 feet he made several evolutions against the wind, and finally sailed away in the direction the wind was blowing.

Severo and De Bradsky.-Aside from many minor accidents to balloonists and some deaths in various parts of the world, two shocking accidents mark the year's experiments in Paris. Señor Augusto Severo, a member of the Brazilian Congress and an enthusiastic aeronaut, made an ascension May 12, 1902, from the aerodrome at Vaugirard in his huge ship La Paix, in the presence of his family and a large party of friends. All seemed to go well, the air-ship turned toward Issy, whence the party were to follow in automobiles to witness the descent. Fifteen minutes later, at an altitude of 1,500 feet above the Avenue du Maine, opposite the Rue de la Gaité, the balloon suddenly turned, was enveloped in a flash of flame, followed by a terrific explosion, and Severo and his machinist Sachet, who had ascended with him, were dashed with the car to the earth and instantly killed. The explosion was probably caused by the ignition of escaping hydrogen gas from the balloon at one of the motors, but the exact cause never will be known. In general appearance La Paix resembled the ships of Santos-Dumont. The gasbag, 984 feet long and 40 feet in diameter, had a capacity of 70,000 cubic feet. The frame of the car was of steel tubing and bamboo and carried two petroleum motors, one of 16 horse-power at the bow and one of 24 horse-power at the stern, of the Buchet type. There were 6 screw propellers, one at the stern of the balloon, another at the stem, and a third at the stern of the car, two others working laterally at the right and left and steering the ship, the latter having no helm in the ordinary sense of the word, and a sixth screw designed to aid in ascent or descent,

as might be required. The mechanical parts were carried very little below the lower surface of the gas-holder, and the motor at the stern was very near the automatic valve designed to let off the excess of hydrogen as the envelope expanded through the rarefaction.

On Oct. 13 Baron de Bradsky Laboun and his assistant, M. Morin, were killed at St. Cloud through the breaking of the wires that held the suspended car and motors to the gas-holder. The de Bradsky ship was cylindrical with conical terminations, 100 feet long and 20 feet in diameter at the thickest part. A light wooden framework running around the balloon supported on steel wires a frame 70 feet long of steel tubes. It carried a car 16 feet long, suspended 10 feet below the envelope of the balloon, which guarded it against risk of fire from the 16-horse-power petroleum motor. The frame weighed 300 pounds. The air-ship was propelled by a screw 12 feet in diameter, and had a vertical screw placed beneath the car to aid in ascending and to keep the ship afloat, as it was built to displace exactly with the aeronauts its own weight of air. The rudder had a surface of 5 square yards. A notable feature was a sail apparatus consisting of wings made of light canvas, 36 feet long and 5 feet wide, fixed to the right and left of the envelope, giving it the appearance of an enormous aeroplane and intended to enable the air-ship to sail about or descend slowly in case the motor stopped. M. Emmanuel Aimé, the expert, in describing the ascent and the cause of the accident, of which M. de Bradsky had been forewarned, writes as follows: "As the air-ship advanced slowly, at an altitude of 200 meters, turning round and round as it went, sometimes advancing, sometimes moving backward, swinging to port and to starboard, in spite of the rudder, of which M. Morin held the tiller, and, in spite of its propelling screw, which was under the direction of M. de Bradsky, it was only too easy for the spectators to perceive that it was drifting at the mercy of the wind. In reality, though the airship obeyed neither rudder nor propelling screw, it obeyed only too well the disastrous action of the ascensional screw, the perturbing influence of which would have sufficed to paralyze the effect of both the propelling screw and the rudder, even if the motor had been strong enough to resist the light breeze from the southwest. The ascensional screw turned vertically under the car at a rate of 500 revolutions per minute and made the air-ship swing round at a rate of about one turn per minute. Under these circumstances the propelling screw and rudder were powerless. What was necessary was a second vertical screw, turning in a contrary direction to the first, to neutralize the tendency to rotation. M. Bradsky, however, had to give up the idea of making these changes on account of the extra weight it would have entailed. In spite of the recent augmentation of volume of the balloon, its lifting power was still too feeble to allow of any addition to the motor. The ascensional screw provided another, and still more disastrous effect, which did not escape the attention of those versed in aeronautics. From the Place de l'Opéra it was plainly visible that under the influence of this screw the axis of the balloon, obliged to turn by the resistance of the air, ceased to be parallel to the axis of the car, and that, in consequence, the steel wires which fastened the car to the balloon underwent a tension which tested their solidity." It was this strain that finally tore the wires from their fastenings and caused the fatal termination of the ascension.

« AnteriorContinuar »