 |
| San Francisco Call, 29-November-1896 |
There were many sightings of unidentified flying objects in the United States during the late 1890s. I wonder what people saw.
Antonio Maceo Grajales was a Cuban rebel leader. I like the discussion of the ethics of bombing civilians from the air.
This is our eighth report from the San Francisco Call.
18-November-1895: "Claim They Saw a Flying Airship"
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2019/02/claim-they-saw-flying-airship-february.html
23-November-1896: "The Great Airship That is Startling the People of Many Cities"
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-great-airship-that-is-startling.html
24-November-1896: "The Apparition of the Air"
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-apparition-of-air-april-7-2019.html
25-November-1896: "Mission of the Aerial Ship"
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2019/03/mission-of-aerial-ship-march-7-2019.html
26-November-1896: "The Mystery Again Seen at the Capital"
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-mystery-again-seen-at-capital-may.html
27-November-1896: "It Is to Be Used to Destroy the City of Havana"
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2019/06/it-is-to-be-used-to-destroy-city-of.html
28-November-1896: "Attaches a Balloon to the Warship of the Air"
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2019/07/attaches-balloon-to-warship-of-air-july.html
THREE AIRSHIPS, SAYS HART,
Over His Signature the
Attorney Tells of His
Client.
THE WHY AND HOW OF
THE MYSTIC LIGHTS.
(And Again the Brilliant Shafts
Are Sighted Speeding Above
the Bay Counties.
INTELLIGENT TESTIMONY OF
STAID CITIZENS.
Spectators in Haywards Insist on the Aeronautic
Theory -- Professor Cross, the Linguist,
Adds His Evidence.
No one has as yet identified the aerial voyager that is supposed to be displaying
the mysterious lights that have shone down upon startled gazers in various parts of
the State, but the number of those who have seen what they are ready to swear was
an airship is constantly growing larger.
While even many of those who have seen the flitting and gleaming lights are not
prepared to decrare they are carried by a full-fledged aerial craft they admit they can
account in no ordinary way for the phenomenon.
There is, therefore, yet ample room for the mystery to be proved a fake, a
hallucination or a verity. Meanwhile, and until the mystery is completely solved,
THE CALL will continue to chronicle the news relating to it, taking nothing from nor
adding anything to the reports it receives. Whenever definite and conclusive proof.
however, is received. it will be given freely, fully and fairly, whatever it chances to
establish.
General Hart received a visit yesterday from one of the men who, he stated, has
been making trips with the mysterious inventor in his aerial vessel. This general
declined to give any information of these trips. He stated, however, that this man and
another mechanic in the services of the inventor had gone to the workshop of the
inventor to assist in the work of completing a third and much improved craft. This
remodeled vessel would be completed, he expected, in about a week.
It was to be a great improvement on the two airships already built, and when
it has been properly tested was to be at once dispatched for the scene of its
deadly purpose (Havana), which was to be overwhelmed with a shower of dynamite.
Considerable time will be consumed, according to the statement of General Hart, in
making the crew who are to go on the novel expedition familiar with the working of
the vessel.
General Hart has contributed a full statement regarding his connection with the
reputed warship of the air and tells some new and interesting things therein in regard
to it. He also takes up the defense of the Cuban patriots in a most patriotic and
martial spirit.
Professor M. S. Cross, dean of the University of the Pacific, now adds his testimony
to that of the believers, and Haywards people of prominence tell some additional
startling stories.
SEEN BY PROFESSOR CROSS.
The Dean of the University of the Pacific Testifies to the Passage of
the Conqueror of the Air.
Professor M. S. Cross, dean of the University of the Pacific and professor of
ancient languages, is one of the best-known scholars and linguists in the United
States. He is a brother of Senator Cross of this City. He stands very high in the
estimation of all students and professors, so that his testimony on the aerial wonder
will be received with profound attention. The following telegram, giving his opinion
on the subject, was received yesterday:
SAN JOSE, Cal., Nov. 28 -- Professor M. S. Cross, dean of the University of the
Pacifc, confirms the story of tbe airship's passage over East San Jose Thursday night
Professor Cross is known in this vicinity as a careful and conservative man of
unimpeachable veracity, and his testimony has won scores of doubting Thomases over to a
firm belief in the existence of an aerial craft in this vicinity. The fact that the head
of a Methodist representative educational institution on this coast has been fortunate
enough to view this nocturnal visitor has well nigh silenced the scoffers.
"It was just about 7 o'clock on Thursday evening when my attention was called to
the strange light in the air," said Professor Cross. "I was visiting at the residence of
Professor Worcester and was called into the yard by him to view the airship. Whether
or not it was an airship of course I am not prepared to say, but certain it is there was
a rapidly moving light in the heavens far too large and bright to be an electric street
light. To my eye it appeared to be about six inches in diameter. It was moving in a
southwesterly direction and apparently at a high rate of speed.
The motion was not steady. It wavered and swerved, rising and falling slightly.
The motion, however, was not that of a balloon. I have frequently watched balloons
in the air, and the motion of this light was in no way suggestive of the manner in
which I have always seen them behave. Moreover, it was a quiet night. What slight
breeze there was I think was from the south. Yet this light traveled rapidly in a
southerly direction. As it left us the light seemed to broaden. This suggested to us
that there might be two lights which an the craft swung broadside to us joined rays
and gave the appearance of a wide streak of light."
Professor Cross is confident that it could not be either a balloon or a natural
heavenly body that he saw. "I will be very much surprised," he declared, "if something
more than a balloon is not found to have been floating about. I see nothing very
wonderful in the construction of an airship. From experiments already made there
seems to be every reason to hope for success in aerial navigation."
The point where Professor Cross viewed the ship is about two blocks distant from
where John Bawl, whose account appeared in yesterday's CALL, saw it, and the two
accounts tally precisely in point of time, direction and general movements. The ship
was nearer the earth when Bawl viewed it.
PASSED OVER HAYWARDS.
A Mysterious Light Traced From a
Canyon of the Palomares Valley.
OAKLAND, Cal., Nov. 28. -- The residents of Haywards are convinced that the
peculiar thing, airship or something else, that they have been watching pass over
their town on numerous occasions, has its home somewhere among the canyons of
Palomares Valley.
To-night the marvelous light was observed in such a manner as to forever set
aside the idea that it is a star. Two parties, several miles apart, observed it. To
one it was to the eastward and to the other it passed westward. When notes
were compared it was agreed that it had passed over between the two observers.
Ed O. Webb, who is known all over the county as a man not prone to make assertions
unless be can back them up informed George Oakes, editor ot the Haywards Journal, that he saw the airship
traveling through the heavens in the direction of Castro Valley Wednesday
evening about 9:30 o'clock. The brilliant lightly
(sic - JT) was plainly seen at his home and
also by other members of the family.
Fred Hoyt also saw the light as it was floating leisurely along in the direction of
the Liedel place, near San Lorenzo. He was so interested in watching the moving
object and would no doubt have solved the mystery had he not lost his balance
and fallen into a ditch that he did not see was in his path.
Carl Mohr furnishes the most startling information. He told Mr. Oakes that he saw
the airship rise from a canyon near his place Thursday evening about 7 o'clock
and proceed in the direction of San Francisco, and also saw it return. Mr. Mohr
is very positive in his statement, and firmly believes that the machine is being
housed near Lone Tree Cemetery.
About the clearest statement yet made regarding the mysterious airship comes
from C. S. Long, C. W. Everett and H. Liedel, three of the best-known citizens of
Haywards, who were crossing tne railroad track at the depot in a buggy Tuesday
evening, about 6:30 o'clock, when their attention was attracted to an exceedingly
bright light in the direction of the bay and they watched it for some time. It
was moving very rapidly, and while they could not swear that it was an airship
they do not hesitate to say that it completely puzzled them.
"I was going home about 7 o'clock," said Mr. Hooson, "when I met my
brother, who called my attention to a remarkable light in the heavens. At the
first glance I could see it was a powerful electric light. It was slightly south of
east and was moving steadily across the country toward the bay. I have not been
a believer in the published accounts of airships, but must now say that I have seen
something that was not natural to the skies.
"The light was not a steady light like a star, but flickered like our arc lights here
on the streets, and it looked like one of them some distance away. One peculiar
feature of the light was the way it changed from time to time.
"It appears as if the operator of a searchlight was placing red and blue glass before
the light occasionally so as to make the light more noticeable to any one who
happens to be looking into the heavens. No star has ever done that in the past and
I am not ready to believe that one is doing any such capers at present. If this was
the first time the lights had been seen here I might not think so much of it, but
residents have been seeing a light come from the hills on a number of occasions
and make its way across the heavens toward the south. It was only corroborative
of these to-night when I saw it"
Editor George A. Oakes was another who saw the visitor to-night from his residence
in the northern part of Haywards.
"I saw the light to-night for the first time," said he, "and am sure it was no
star or fire balloon. It passed east of town and appeared to go across the bay, as if
headed for lower San Francisco. The white light was not steady, and changed
to a red occasionally. It is more than I can solve, and must be some one who has
finally solved the problem of aerial navigation."
Jesse Hooson, a student at St. Mary's College, had a good view of the visitor at
Haywards to-night.
"I was startled," said he, "on coming along the street to-night to see a very
bright light in the heavens. It was like an arc electric light, and, naturally, I
stood watching it. The thing was moving toward the southwest with the wind at
first, hut changed its course several times, and finally came up into the wind for
some distance. It finally disappeared over toward Redwood City. The thing seemed
to be operated by some one to see how it would answer a helm or guiding apparatus
of some kind."
These parties already referred to saw the machine to the eastward. Now comes
a story from a man who was evidently on the other side of it.
Steve Morrison of Haywards was in San Ramon, and coming home to-night
he saw the aerial visitor in such a manner as to fix its location approximately. "I
was driving over the hills from San Ramon," said he, "when I noticed a very
bright white light in the sky west of me. It looked like an arc electric light, but was
too high in the heavens for that, and then I knew there were no arc lights out in that
part of the country. It was a surprise to me and I watched the thing very carefully.
I first noticed it as I came up out of one of the small valleys and could see
it move about until I went Into another."
Marshal Ramage of Haywards tells a story which may result in clearing up the
mystery of the affair. "It has seemed very strange that this mysterious light
should be seen in this vicinity so often. It is possible that the thing, whatever it
may be, is being kept up here somewhere. I know of only one place where it would
be possible for an airship to be worked out, and I can hardly believe that even there
the material could have been taken in without exciting some suspicion, James
Spiers, of the firm of Hinckley Spiers and Hayes of San Francisco, resides out in
the Palomares Canyon, and is quite an inventor. His sons are great students also,
and it might be that they have been at work on something of this kind, and have
succeeded in getting a ship that will really travel through the air.
"I recently had a talk with a man who worked for them this summer, and he told
me that a new trail had been constructed from the house up to the table land near
the crest of the hill and in a canyon. I know the place, and it is hidden entirely
from view and would be an ideal place for such work.
"I asked him what the trail was being constructed for, and he said he asked the
same question and was told that all that was required of him was to do the work
and not worry about what it was for. After this he completed the work without
further questioning. He does not know to this day what the trail was built for, and I
know of no one who has ever been on the place or on the new trail."
An interesting story was told by W. H. Warren in Crane's store on Thirteenth
street. Warren is encaged in the chicken business above the Zeile place. According
to his statement he has succeeded in inventing a machine that he states he
made a trip in, reaching: the height of 100 feet. This took place at San Pedro not
over a month or so ago. He is quite a young man and a clever machinist. He
has a complete working model capable of carrying one man. It is made in the
shape of a cigar, with a round head, and built of a light frame covered with tin and
fitted with wings, and a tail like a fan.
The machinery is worked with gasoline. A trial trip was made and was a success.
The inventor objects to exhibiting his machine, as he has not yet secured a
patent on it. He says he secured his idea from watching the flight of the seagull.
The machine is now in San Francisco. He has not yet used electricity, but admits
that it would be a great improvement.
George R. Toyne, who interviewed Warren for the Haywards Journal, said to-night
that Warren had a partner whom he had sent to Oroville to see if he could
learn anything of the plans of the new airship for the purpose of comparison.
HART AROUSED.
His Martial Spirit and Patriotism
Expressed With the Ardor
of a Soldier.
All of General Hart's martial ardor and spirit of liberty was aroused when he read
the editorial in the Bulletin of Friday evening which called him to task for being
a party to the proposed use of dynamite for the purpose of destroying
Havana. The article in question reads as follows:
A man of former prominence in this State is announced through a paper of standing as the
agent or attorney of a man who proposes to destroy the city of Havana with dynamite.
In apparent unconsciousness of the horror with which dynamite plots are regarded in all
parts of the civilized world this degenerate invites a subscription of $10,000,000 to
furnish the means by which a rich, populous and beautiful city may be destroyed.
At a time when the world is devising ways to prevent wars with their Inevitable consequences,
this man, whom the people once honored with their votes for a high office,
plans a scheme by which the horrors of war may be increased a hundred fold. Whether or
not the plan is practicable does not matter. It tends to familiarize the public mind
with methods of destruction that have been considered too horrible to contemplate.
Assassination is a playful manifestation of hate compared to this plan of wholesale murder.
And all for what? It is not proposed to do evil that good may come of it. It is not
proposed to offer a sacrifice of lives in a forlorn hope to promote a righteous cause.
The assassins of tyrants have been in darker periods represented as acting under a
delusion that robbed assassination of its infamy. But this California lawyer, this man who was
at one time the head of the Department of Justice for this great State, now proposes to
make murder a speculation. For a sum of money he proposes to destroy the capital city
of the most populous island in the West Indies. This proposition is made without any
seeming sense of its monstrosity. It is discussed with the same disregard of moral sense
the hired bravado exhibits when asked to name his price for murder.
It is no wonder that an eminent clergyman said in his Thanksgiving discourse that
California is noted for the startling irregularity with which society advances. If this eminent
clergyman had seriously considered the dynamite proposition he might have added that
California is noted also for the startling irregularity with which civilization leaps
backward into the dark ages. The fact that a proposition of this nature could be placed
before the people of this State is a reflection upon our civilization. The least measure of
punishment that could be anticipated from a self-respecting community would be a protest that
would make the State an impossible place of residence both for the originator of the
infamous proposition and for the agents of dissemination.
That law and journalism should have combined to make the destruction of great cities
a legitimate speculation is much to be regretted. It is the province of law to teach
how evils mny be remedied through the exercise of reason. It is the province of
journalism to show how society may lawfully protect itself from nil kinds of desperadoes and
anarchists. But in this case a lawyer uses a newspaper to familiarize the public mind
with a scheme that an average jailbird could not contemplate without horror.
The day for the promulgation of this project was badly chosen. It was a day when peace
and good will were being invoked in public meetings and private residences. The churches
were open that the people might be taught the blessing of peace and charity. In public halls
all through the city the poor were invited to partake of the cheer of the season. On such a
day the conscience of the people was startled by a proposition to wipe a great city off the
face of the earth in consideration of the sum of $10,000,000.
Commenting thereon yesterday he said:
"My attention has been called to the editorial in the Bulletin of last night. All
I have got to say in reference to it is that the destruction of Havana by dynamite is
not half as horrible as the press dispatches of the butcheries of Cubans by the Spanish
authorities.
"Of course, in the event that Havana was to be attacked by the airship with
dynamite sufficient time would be given for non-combatants to leave the city.
"The apathy shown by the Government of the United States in extending belligerent
rights to the Cubans, in view of the atrocities of the Spaniards toward the
Cubans and American citizens, is such that it is not to be wondered at that the
genius of American invention should discover a means whereby justice can be
done to those heroes who are fighting for independence against the oligarchy of
Spain."
"For my part, I consider it far more noble to aid a struggling people
like the Cubans, who are trying to free themselves from the oppressions of Spain,
even though by dynamite, than to be silent and say nothing and practically wink
at the atrocities shown the Cubans by the Spanish authorities.
"In the event that it should become necessary to capture Havana, either with
artillery or dynamite, it would no doubt be horrible for those who are located in
that city. But at the same time if it is necessary to destroy Havana in order that
the Cubans may earn their liberty Havana will be destroyed. And, notwithstanding
the Bulletin, I predict that within ninety days Havana will be destroyed unless
it surrenders to the Cuban forces.
"It appears that the Bulletin is greatly afraid of dynamite, yet we all know that
the Government of the United States has been experimenting with dynamite guns
for months, and, in fact, they have reached such a point of perfection that it is
proposed to use it in guns for harbor defenses in the United States.
"Does the editor of the Bulletin think it is proper for the United States to throw a
few hundred pounds of dynamite at some foreign vessel and sink her or blow her up
and kill or maim those on board, and that such an act is not proper for the Cubans,
who are fighting for liberty? We would simply be trying to keep a vessel out of one
of our harbors, while the people of Cuba are fighting for the most precious boon of
mankind. I submit that it would be more proper for the Cubans to use dynamite
than for the United States to destroy a foreign vessel with a dynamite gun.
"In the event, as I have heretofore stated, that the airship should be used for
military purposes in and around Havana it would be better to haw a base of operation
within thirty or forty miles of Havana.
"There is no doubt that Maceo would throw dynamite into Havana giving
them ample notice of that purpose. But suppose that he should give such a notice
it is quite evident that the Spanish authorities would pay no attention to it. They
would simply remain there and doubt the feasibility of the airship and the horrors
of dynamite until they actually felt it, Therefore it seems to me that if the Bulletin
would use a little more force in trying to persuade the Government to recognize
the belligerent rights of Cuba it might save itself the horror of hearing
that a few hundred people had been destroyed by dynamite.
"It seems to be the American policy of late to permit all kinds of atrocities and
to permit its citizens to be trampled upon in foreign countries without making more
than a mere protest. As an American citizen who has known something of the
horrors of war, I protest against such a policy, and for one say that it is necessary
for the Cubans to begin using dynamite. The sooner they use it the better it will be
for Cuba and American civilization.
"Certainly the generalship shown by Antonio Maceo and his associates and the
fact that the part of the island of which they have control has opened free schools
on the system of the public schools of the United States convince me that Maceo
would be warranted in using anything that God has created or man invented to
give to the people or Cuba their political rights and freedom."
The attention of the Examiner has also been attracted to the Bulletin's editorials,
and it comments thereon yesterday as follows:
An evening contemporary gravely criticizes ex-Attorney-General Hart for his scheme to
destroy Havana with dynamite dropped from a cruiser of the air. The scheme is rather
blood-curdling, considered as practical warfare, but it is extremely interesting from the
point of view of romance. The romantic quality is highly developed in General Hart.
Personally he would not hurt a fly. He never did hurt one, as far as known. But he
received his nomination to office as a hero accustomed to revel in carnage on ensanguined
battlefields.
What more natural than that his mind should dwell on new deeds, even gorier than
those whose narration gave him his fame ? The exercise will please him, and it will do
nobody any harm.
We can think of no one better qualified to be the custodian of an airship than General
Hart. Our evening contemporary is wrong to chide him for the use he proposes to make of
his charge. The more exciting he can make its programme the more the gayety of the
commonwealth will be promoted. A reference to the airship was medicine that soothed even
"California's" gloom on Thanksgiving night.
To this the Bulletin in its editorial columns last nigh; rejoined as follows:
The Examiner gently chides the Bulletin for having taken the proposition to destroy
Havana by means of an airship seriously. The scheme our contemporary admits to be rather
blood-curdling, but is considered interesting from a romantic point of view. It Is not
supposed that military authorities have been greatly disturbed by menace of the airship.
In fact, General Weyler is more intent upon defending Havana from the insurgent forces
than from the California general who derives his title from a civil office. But there are lots
of people in the world who do not weigh either men or propositions scientifically. They take
a man seriously if he takes himself seriously. It Is not likely that California has heard
the last of this dynamite scheme. It will be dilated upon us illustrating the characteristics
of our people. The romance of the proposition will be visible indistinctly, if at ail,
through the smoke of a series of dynamite explosions.
People are now curiously awaiting further developments in this paper warfare,
with sympathy leaning toward the side of the Cubans' advocate and defender.
SAW IT FROM THE DOME.
Graphic Story Told by George
Scott, Assistant to the Secre-
tary of State.
George Scott, assistant to Secretary of State Brown, was at Sacramento on the
night of the first reported visit of the aerial wonder to that city. He gives a
graphic account of what he witnessed.
"Three friends and myself were standing in front of the Capitol," he said,
"when the strange light first met our gaze. I said that I saw the light moving
in the southeastern part of the city toward the northwest, but some one in the
group ridiculed the idea.
"He said it looked like a light in some distant house on the hills, and that the
appearance of its moving was due to the mistiness of the atmosphere.
"I had the key of the building in my pocket and suggested that we go up into
the dome and take a look at the phenomenon. We climbed up and there saw
the lights very distinctly, sweeping across the sky toward the northwest. There
were three of the lights, and they appeared to be attached to some body, of
which we could only discern a dim outline.
"It's no use trying to tell me that there is no airship," he sententiously concluded.
WAS NOT STARS.
Attorney Hurst of Woodland Satis-
fied Himself as to a Strange
Light.
WOODLAND, Cal., Nov. 28. -- M. D. Hurst, a well-known lawyer of this city,
discerned a bright and unusual light in the skies about 10 o'clock last night,
traveling in a southwesterly direction from Woodland. Nearly all Mr. Hurst's
neighbors also witnessed the phenomenon. Their first impression was that the
mysterious light was a group of stars, but closer observation convinced them that
this was wrong. The lights appeared to be electric and were watched for an hour.
Mr. Hurst is fully satisfied that if the mysterious object was a mechanical
contrivance it could not have been operated by a person on the ground. He watched
it upward of an hour from a window in his home. He does not pretend to say
that it was an airship, but insists that it was not stars. Two Salvation Army
officers, who were driving from Knights Landing to Woodland, corroborate Mr.
Hurst.
Heard Them Talk.
UKIAH, Cal, Nov. 28. — E. G. Case, grand chief ranger of the Ancient Order of
Foresters of the Pacific jurisdiction, and William Held, official stenographer of the
local Superior Court, left this afternoon for Potter Valley, a small town twenty
miles north of this city.
A telephone message was received from Held at 7:30 o'clock to-night containing
the startling information that they had seen an airship when within two miles of
their destination. The two gentlemen were driving along in a double team when
the airship passed so close to them that their horses were frightened.
The gentlemen distinctly saw the aerial wonder. It was cigar-shaped and was
evidently suspended from a balloon.
HART'S INVENTOR HAS THREE AERIAL FLIERS.
A Full Statement Made Over the Signature of the Attorney for the
Alleged Cuban Filibuster.
In reference to the airship which has been puzzling and astonishing many of the people of
California I will say this:
I have not seen it personally, but have talked with the man who claims to be the inventor. I
have spent several hours with him. He has shown me drawings and diagrams of his invention and
I am convinced that they are more adapted for the purpose for which he claims them than any other
invention making such claims that I have ever seen.
It seems to me that the evidence that THE CALL has been enterprising enough to collect in
reference to this airship, the character of the people who have seen the same, the fact that it moves
against the currents of air as well as with them, the fact that it has the power to dart from side to
side or forward, ought to convince the people that there is something in the invention.
I asked the gentleman who claims to be the inventor what his desires were in regard to carrying
on the business, and he stated that he did not desire any money ; that he didn't ask or want
any one to invest in it ; that he was not a citizen of California, and that he had come here to perfect
and test his airship as the climate and currents of air were most suitable to his purpose. He further
stated that he had progressed so far since coming to California that California certainly was
entitled to the honor of its invention, as it was in quite a crude state when he first came here; that
he had two airships already constructed. One, he said, was of large size, capable of carrying three
persons, the machinery, the fixtures and 1000 pounds of additional weight, and another that was
much smaller, capable of carrying one man, the machinery, fixtures and 500 or 600 pounds of other
matter.
He also stated that he was a cousin of Mr. Linn, who was Antonio Maceo's electrician, and
that he is expected to take it to Cuba for the purpose of aiding in the capture of Havana as soon
as he could perfect it and acquaint his associates with the handling of it.
He was a man of dark complexion, dark eyed and about 5 feet 7 inches in height and
weighed about 140 pounds. He looks considerably like the gentleman playing the part of Arion,
the aerial acrobat, but is a little taller.
He claims to have three assistants with him, all of whom are mechanics; that he uses two
kinds of power, gas and electricity; that his lights are sometimes produced by electricity and some
times by gas, with the aid of reflectors.
He claims to have moved 120 miles at one flight and in a little less than six and a
half hours, and at that time was not going wholly with the currents ; that he uses electricity for
propelling his vessel against the wind, and uses gas largely in going with the air currents. He does
this in order to save power.
He proposes to build another airship, and in fact one of the parties interested with him has
told me that they are now at work on the third airship, which is to be more commodious and more
perfect than the other two, and that it would be so constructed that in the event the machinery got
out of order and it should fall into the water it could be used as a boat by detaching a portion of the
airship. When this is completed and ready for use the inventor intends to leave California for
Cuba.
So far as the electrical power is concerned, the Fargo electric storage battery is of sufficient
capacity, as to power and lightness, to furnish the requisite power for aerial navigation, and the
inventor proposes to use this power in connection with the other for his operations. The battery can
be stored to its full capacity, which is 20 horsepower, in 17 minutes.
I am of the opinion that this airship will be a success, and that its success is far more probable
at this time than the Morse telegraphy was at the time he first offered the same to the public.
So far as the public is concerned this inventor does not ask any one to invest in the enterprise.
Perhaps this may be evidence of insanity. I will admit that this is the first time to my knowledge
that anybody had anything in California in which he did not want anybody to invest money.
