Stevens, 1885, Recent progress in aerial navigation

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  • Walter Le Conte Stevens. "Recent Progress in Aerial Navigation". Popular Science Monthly, Volume 27, July 1885, 296-307
  • In a footnote the author thanks Gaston Tissandier for extensive accounts described here.

Here's a paragraph of interest from Stevens (1885) about Tissandier:

Tissandier 1881 mini electric motor and propeller from 1881 exposition, published in Stevens (1885), digitized by Wikisource's Ineuw

Tissandier conceived the idea of employing storage batteries instead of steam or hand power, as the immediate source of energy to actuate the propeller of an elongated balloon. He constructed a small experimental balloon, which was filled with hydrogen, the effective ascensional force being two kilogrammes. A motor, of the Siemens type (Fig. 2), weighing only two hundred and twenty grammes, was made to turn the propeller, which consisted of a pair of vanes, each ten centimetres long; storage-cell, motor, and propeller being supported on a light platform suspended by netting. This "dirigeable" aërostat was exhibited at the Electrical Exposition of 1881, and a bronze medal awarded to the inventor. It attained a speed of about three metres per second.

Sources


Original title Recent Progress in Aerial Navigation
Simple title Recent Progress in Aerial Navigation
Authors Walter Le Conte Stevens
Date 1885-07-27
Countries
Languages en
Keywords
Journal Popular Science Monthly
Related to aircraft? 1
Page count 12
Word count
Wikidata id