THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.
This is the method by which I regulate, at my pleasure, the ascension and the equilibrium of the mechanism. At the bow of the air-ship is attached a guide-rope, weighing a hundred pounds and sixty yards in length. Under these conditions, the contents are distributed from one end to the other of the air-ship, so that the axis of the frame-work, which is also that of the screw, may be perceptibly parallel to the horizon.
Near the middle of the guide-rope, is attached to it the end of a small cord which is under the control of the aëronaut, and thus permits him to bring the weight of the guide-rope, more or less, toward the centre of gravity of the mechanism.
At the moment of departure, I pull upon the cord; the guide-rope is thus brought toward the centre, and the bow of the air-ship, relieved of a part of its weight, rises at the same time that the stern lowers itself; for the entire mechanism is rigid owing to the pressure of the hydrogen.
The screw then acts at the extremity of an axis inclined obliquely to the horizon. Its action is diverse. It not only propels the air-ship, but causes it to mount, following the inclined plane which contains its axis in space. To arrest the upward motion and to adjust the air-ship to the altitude which I desire to maintain, I direct its axis toward the horizontal plane by allowing the guide-rope to return, more or less, toward the bow. If I desire to descend, all that is necessary is to let the guide-rope return to its normal position, that which it held before the start. Besides, I have, in the frame-work, bags of ballast, which I can move by means of small cords, for the purpose of lowering the bow of the air-ship and descending more quickly.
In a word, I can move myself in a vertical direction, without getting rid of the ballast and without loss of hydrogen, by simply varying the inclination of my tubular aëroplane of hydrogen under pressure.
My air-ship differs, then, essentially from the ordinary balloon, which mounts or descends only by losing either ballast or gas—that is to say, by the rapid exhaustion of its means of aerial existence.
The air-ship which I have invented has certainly more resemblance to an aëroplane, properly so called, than to a balloon. I hope to make the resemblance closer still, and even to arrive at a complete identification of the air-ship and the flying-machine,
