Octave Chanute's party, now carrying on experiments with air machines
on the lake shore near Dune Park, Ind., did not make any additional launches of
their machines yesterday owing to unfavorable wind conditions. A steady breeze from
the north, having a velocity of not more than twenty miles an hour, is wanted. This
is demanded because the experiments ahead are to proceed from the end of a wooden
chute facing the lake. As soon as a suitable wind blows the test of Mr. Paul's machine
will be made
The special wind craft is shaped like an ark and differs from the other
machines which Mr. Chanute and Mr. Herring are practicing with, in that the operator
gets entirely inside. He has room to move forward and backward several feet, which
the maker expects will give him control over the movements of the machine sufficient
to guide it. The ark is made of light sticks banded together with thin wires, and
is extremely light for a structure big enough to hold a man and the expansive sail
surfaces which furnishes the power in the teeth of a lake wind. .
Mr. Paul has full faith in this craft and says it is not a question
of theory with him. He says he has been in the skys lots of times with it and has
sailed around for half an hour at a time. He is from Mammouth Cave, Ky., and says
he there successfully soared over his farm without a mishap. His plan is to adjust
the ship upon the chute, then get in it and have his helpers push it off. It will
strike the air at a point about thirty feet from the sand slope and if it slides
into the air some yards, it will double that distance to the ground.
The experiment with this machine is not properly a part of the scientific
work being done by Mr. Chanute. The machines the engineer is concerned in are patterns
of his own and Mr. Herring's invention. But Mr. Paul has such unlimited faith in
his ark flyer and claims so much in the way of previous experiments, that the Chicago
party is doing all it can do to help him prove his plan. But neither of the other
inventors expects to take a trip in the Paul air boat.
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NOTES:
1 Throughout many of the newspaper
accounts of the Chanute party's experiments William Paul Butusov is referred to
as "William Paul" only. No explanation is known, but one might surmise that he was
tired of spelling his name for reporters.