News Items from The Kansas City Journal ~ Old News That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

January 2, 1910

BUILDING LARGER,

LIGHTER BIPLANE.

KANSAS CITY INVENTOR'S MA-

CHINE TO CORRECT DEMON-

STRATED FAULTS OF OTHERS.

J. A. McCallum Expects to

Be Ready for Trial Flight

Within Two Months.

THE M'CALLUM STYLE OF AIRSHIP.

A flying machine that has a greater spread of wings, coupled with less weight than any other now in use has been constructed by J. A. McCallum, president of the Midland Electric Company, Gibraltar building. The machine has a thirty-two foot span, a five foot four-inch cord, or breadth, and tips the beam at precisely 550 pounds.

The big skeleton, for it has not yet been covered with the cloth, occupied the better part of a hall on the third floor. In appearance it is very much like the Curtiss plane now on exhibition at Overland park.

For as long as he can remember Mr. McCallum has been interested in the navigation of the air. When he was a little boy, which was not so many years ago -- he is now 31 -- he made many models of flying machines, some of them of the Darius Green kind, and calculated to break the neck of the adventurous aviator who tried them out.

CORRECTS WEAK POINTS.

The idea on which the present machine is built came to him after careful study of the Wright and Curtiss planes, six months ago. It seemed from the drafts of the successful flyers that there were many weak points in their construction, and McCallum set about improving them.

In the first place, he believed that the life of the army officer who was killed while testing a Wright would have been saved had the heavy motor been in front of the operator instead of just behind him. He reasoned that all the accidents so far had been with the machine hitting the ground head on and the engine piling on top of the person in the seat. Suppose, he said, that the engine was in front; why, then the operator could reach down and make his temporary repairs in case it stopped working. Sometimes the engine stops with nothing more the matter with it than a detached sparker, a defect that can be remedied by a turn of the wrist, and before the power is really shut down.

WILL WEIGH 550 POUNDS.

Another shortcoming he found in the foreign machines was the position of the weight of the man, the running gear and the engine above the center of gravity.

Place the operator, passengers, running gear and all beneath the wide spreading wings and in case of a catastrophe in the air the big bird would soar rather than tumble end over end to the ground.

"I will have my machine ready for a trial flight in a couple of months," Mr. McCallum said yesterday. "The engine is on the way here from London and the cloth covering, also an invention of my own, is ready. Perhaps I shall borrow a motor for a few days and make a flight in Overland park early in February.

"This bi-plane of mine is different from all others from the fact that it is intended to carry passengers. If it is a success, you can imagine how many passengers it will support. When I tell you that the Voisin plane of France weighs 1,312 pounds and carried three passengers while this one weighs, without sacrificing strength, only 550 pounds, and has a much greater spread."

LIKE AUTOS IN FIVE YEARS.

Mr. McCallum says that in five years flying machines will be as plentiful as automobiles in Kansas City. He believes a central spot in the downtown district will be reserved for a large shed to cover the machines of business men flying to and from their offices.

"A machine to thus become popular needs to be practical in the extreme," he went on. "It is needless to say that a flying machine which has to run at a rate of forty miles an hour in order to take wings is not practical. With my huge wings and light weight I am able to leave the ground at a speed of fifteen miles an hour, but, of course, this is entirely theoretical. No one can tell what a flying machine will do until after the trip. There is that inevitable chance that it won't work at all."

MAY NOT FLY ALONE.

"Will you make the first flight yourself and alone?" was asked.

J. A. McCALLUM.

"I may, but that is not necessary," was the reply. "Before making the maiden flight an expert aviator will examine the craft to see if it is airworthy, and if he declares it is, he will probably be as eager as myself to be in it at the start.

"The trouble with getting someone else to operate the machine is that it is so different from all the others in its leading principles. For instance, the manner in which balance is preserved by Curtiss and the Wrights is by several levers which tilt the wings. In my flyer we will accomplish the same result by merely shifting the weight of the engine, passengers and running gear, and there will be one lever to do everything."

Mr. McCallum has worked at the biplane constantly since he decided to build one six months ago. He has had several helpers at times, but usually he has worked alone. The finer plans, he says, have been worked out at night in the library of his home near Northern boulevard station on the Independence street car line.

Labels: airships, Independence, Overland Park

December 29, 1909

AEROPLANE BOWLS

OVER A CONSTABLE.

OFFICER GETS IN TRACK OF CUR-

TISS AIRSHIP AND PREVENTS

ITS DESTRUCTION.

Grabs Machine and Holds On,

Though Dragged for

Thirty Feet.

The several hundred people who attended the airship exhibition at Overland park yesterday afternoon and were treated to some genuine thrillers, and although Aviator Charles K. Hamilton succeeded in making only two flights in his Curtiss aeroplane, no one could complain because there was not enough excitement.

In his first attempt to fly Hamilton gave a pretty demonstration of the feasibility of the machine for aerial navigation until he tried to land in front of the grandstand. Just as the supporting wheels reached the ground a strong gust of wind caught the planes and despite the fact that the aviator had all the brakes on the machine fairly skidded across the field at a rate of about twenty miles an hour.

SAVES MACHINE; IS HURT.

It seemed inevitable that the aeroplane would crash into the grandstand and accomplish its own complete destruction, but Homer Breyfogle, constable of Johnson county, Kas., was standing near by and before he could get out of the way, the machine struck him and knocked him about fifteen feet. Officer George A. Lyons, a member of the motorcycle squad of the Kansas City police force, rushed to the rescue, but when he grabbed the swiftly moving machine he was hurled into the air and dragged to the ground. However, he "stayed with the ship" and was dragged fully twenty feet before the machine came to a standstill.

With the exception of a few bruises about the limbs, Officer Lyons was uninjured, but Constable Breyfogle sustained a painful cut on his neck and severe bruises on the face. Aviator Hamilton wrenched his foot in an effort to stop the airship.

HARD LUCK AGAIN.

The plane with which Breyfogle collided was so badly damaged that it required an hour to repair it, but at about 5 o'clock Hamilton was again soaring down the field majestically, and for a few seconds it appeared that he was at last to make a record-breaking trip, but after he had t raveled over a mile and was trying to turn for the homeward stretch, the engine suddenly stopped and the machine landed in a snowbank.

"I simply can't conquer that wind," said Hamilton after his last flight. "One can't imagine how strong this wind is until you get a few feet in the air and then it seems to be twice as fierce. It was all I could do just to keep the machine from capsizing just now, because the wind twisted me in every shape in a cyclone fashion. Dangerous business on a day like this, but I always hate to disappoint the crowds, and if there is any flying to be done, I'll do it no matter what kind of weather prevails.

"Aren't there too many trees and hay stacks around here to make aerial travel very safe?" asked a spectator.

HIGH WINDS HIS ENEMY.

"Yes, there isn't hardly enough room on this field, but if the wind would only go down for one day, I'd make some surprising flights. We may get some ideal weather yet. How's that? No, I don't imagine the North Pole district affords any desirable aviation fields. Anyway, we're not going to attempt any emulation of the Dr. Cook stunt. I am heading for sunny California, where I expect to carry off some prizes in the contests to be pulled off next month."

Hamilton will make the usual flights this afternoon at the park, and he promises to avoid any further attempted "assassinations" of police officers.

Labels: aeroplanes, airships, California, daredevils, Overland Park, police, visitors

December 22, 1909

TOYS THAT ATTRACT

GROWN-UPS, BOUGHT.

BIG DEPARTMENT STORES ARE

OPEN EVENINGS THIS WEEK.

Crowds Down Town at Night -- Fire

Department Playthings Most

Popular, Patrol Wagons

and Aeroplanes Next.

The announcement posted early that most of the big department stores would be open evenings this week up to Friday night inclusive brought the usual Christmas crowds to the down town districts last night in all the stores people who had braved the crisp winter air to be present with their shopping bags meant business.

The department stores which did not open last night were Emery, Bird, Thayer's, John Taylor's and Bernheimer's. The music stores did not close and while the crowds in them were only comfortably dense their sales were large from the viewpoint of the money taken in.

Some of the heavy sellers among toys last night were mechanical fire department outfits, patrol wagons and flying machines of different patterns.

Fire engines and hose wagons, toy salesmen say, have always been favorites. This is because a fire is spectacular and exciting and inviting to the imagination of old and young people alike. A child is most apt to get the toy in his stocking Christmas Eve that his elders enjoy and appreciate, they say, and so the manufacturers try to please both. Patrol wagons have always sold next to fire apparatus until this year.

Now they are running a distant third with miniatures of Wright's invention in full working order and capable of making short flights running close to first.

The theory of all toy shopmen interviewed last night was that little boys and girls might appreciate a good many gifts more than a flying machine, but that their parents, brothers, sisters and other relatives are anxious to see how the machine works.

Labels: airships, holidays, retailers, toys

December 5, 1909

FORMING AN AERO CLUB.

Kansas City Men Anxious to Join

Advanced Organization.

"George M. Myers has just informed me that he has received the names of twenty-five Kansas City men who are anxious to become charter members of the Aero Club, which is to be formed Monday afternoon at the offices of the Priests of Pallas," said K. L. Bernard of New York city, who is interested in aviation meets to be held in this country next year, and who represents a number of European aviators and manufacturers of heavier than air machines.

"Kansas City people are more enthusiastic over this proposition than I dreamed they would be," said Mr. Bernard. "I will remain here until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week or until the club has been formed and application for the membership made to the Aero Club of America. It is necessary for the club to have a membership of forty, but it is probable that there will be 100 Kansas Cityans as charter members of this club."

Labels: aeroplanes, airships, New York, organizations

November 1, 1909

WILL FURNISH POWER

FOR AIRSHIP BY HAND.

J. D. DOUGLASS MACHINE IS

SHAPED LIKE A BAT.

Craft Is Designed to Actually Fly by

Movement of Planes Like

the Wings of a

Bird.

In a sign painter's establishment at 214 West Nineteenth street suspended to the ceiling is a motley array of bamboo poles, cogwheels, chains and strips of fine steel, apparently jumbled in such a way as to have the appearance of several umbrella frames thrown together.

When strips of cloth are attached to the bamboo poles, giving the apparatus twelve planes, it will have the appearance of a multiple winged bat. It will be, according to the inventor, J. D. Douglass, his first successful model of an actual flying machine, not an aeroplane.

For nine years Douglass has worked on flying machines. One after another he has knocked to pieces after he has found fault with parts considered by him to be important. This last machine, he declares, has exemplified every previous idea and it has been built so that these ideas will be carried out and their value easily ascertained.

When the machine is given a trial, which will be in a few weeks, Douglass will furnish the motive power with his hands and feet.

"If I succeed in rising from the ground I will be satisfied," said Mr. Douglass, "for then I will be sure my ideas as to aerial navigation and flight are compact. It will be an easy matter then for me to build a larger machine and to attach an engine which will give me the motive power."

The machine which will have the general sh ape of a bat will be twenty feet wide and about fifteen feet in length. Complete it will weigh less than 150 pounds and it will have twelve planes. These planes are all employed in the duty of raising and propelling the machine.

At the top of the machine will be two propellers which will revolve in opposite directions. These will give the machine the first lifting power. Once in the air, the planes come into motion and with the movements patterned after those of birds in flight, give the craft its propelling power.

Mr. Douglass is a retired farmer. Aviation has been a lifelong study with him. He thinks a great deal of the monoplane as well as the biplane, but also believes that when he has completed his aerial craft that his experiments will mark an epoch in the airship industry.

Labels: airships, inventors, Nineteenth street

September 30, 1909

CARRIE INVENTS AIRSHIP.

Mrs. Nation Declares She has Aero-

plane at Sterling, Kas.

An aeroplane is said to be housed in an airdome at Sterling, Kas., and will soon be given a trail flight. The inventor is Carrie Nation of hatchet fame. The temperance lecturer was at the Union depot yesterday morning and amused a large gathering in the depot with a description of the machine. The police finally had to disperse the crowd so that passengers could pass back and forth in the station.

Labels: airships, prohibition, Union depot, visitors

September 5, 1909

R. B. EUBANK, JR., DEAD.

Died on Day Set for Test of His

Flying Machine.

R. B. Eubank, Jr., died yesterday afternoon at his home 3400 Flora avenue, from the effects of an operation performed last Wednesday. He had been ill several weeks.

Death came on the day an official test was to have been made a flying machine Mr. Eubank had invented. The test was to have taken place in Convention hall before Louis W. Shouse, manager of the hall, the other interested parties. Mr. Eubank had been working on the dirigible for more than a year.

As an inventor, Mr. Eubank was well known in the scientific world. He was 51 years old. He is survived by a widow, four sons and a daughter. His family and Jerome D. Eubank, a brother, were at his bedside when he died. His father, R. B. Eubank of Marshall, Mo., will arrive in this city today. Funeral arrangements have not been made.

Labels: aeroplanes, airships, Convention Hall, death, Flora avenue

August 23, 1909

TOY AIRSHIP TO TEST IDEAS.

Kansas City Men Building Craft

Near No. 19 Fire Station.

In a shed near No. 19 fire station at Shawnee avenue and High street, Kansas City's most prominent aerial craft is almost completed. It is being constructed by a fireman, Frank Marvin, after designs of his own and those of Edgar C. Faris, an architect.

Mr. Faris fell from a street car Monday and sustained a broken ankle, but expects to be ready to experiment with the air craft by the time it is completed. The present ship is the third built by the two. The former ones were not successes. The second one was demolished when it dashed to the earth in a trial flight.

The airships are merely toys by which ideas of the two inventors are being tried out. The one under construction now is much larger than either of its predecessors, being ten feet long and four feet wide. The engines used in former experiments will not be large enough to drive the new ship. Two were used, each having one-sixteenth of one-horse power. The power will probably be quadrupled. When the ship is ready to fly, an electric light wire will be attached to it to furnish power for the engines. It then will be loosed and the value of the ideas used its construction will be learned.

Labels: airships, architects, Fire, toys

August 12, 1909

HOPES HE WILL FLY

TO THE SOUTH POLE.

BRITON WILL COMBINE BAL-

LOON AND BIPLANE.

Captain Webster, F. R. G. S., British

Army, Retired, Estimates the

Cost of His Antarctic Expedi-

tion at $200,000.

To fly to the South pole in a combined dirigible balloon and aeroplane is the purpose of Captain R. V. Webster, F. R. G. S., formerly of the British army, and now a wealthy tea and rubber planter of Ceylon, who is in this country learning all he can about the latest in American aeronautics. Captain Webster is now on his way to Washington, where he will have an audience with the members of the government aeronautic board. He was at the Baltimore hotel last night.

The Walter Wellman plan of going in a balloon is all right as far as it goes, thinks Captain Webster, but the explorer must be sure that he can readily return.

"Wellman may get to the North pole, all right," he said last night, "but I entertain grave doubts as to his ability to get back to civilization again. Gas, you know, may gradually be dissipated from a balloon on such a trip. It might carry an explorer to the pole, but I'm afraid he'd find to his horror that he would not have enough left to return.

Captain Webster is of the opinion that the South pole can be found by combining heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air craft, so that if one fails the other will be left to depend upon.

Although his plans are thus far tentative, his idea now is to suspend a biplane, perhaps of the type used by the Wrights, from an elongated balloon shaped like Count Zeppelin's huge dirigible.

This military and aeronautical Eurasian has the right to write F. R. G. S. after his name, as well as Captain before it, for he holds a life fellow hip in the Royal Geographical Society of London . To this society he says he has given the English equivalent of $60,000 for the purpose of financing an antarctic expedition which he will command. It will take a total of $200,000 to pay for such a trip.

Labels: airships, balloons, England, Hotel Baltimore, visitors

July 31, 1909

SEEIN' THINGS AT NIGHT.

Observers Note Regular Appearance

of Light in Western Sky.

Now Kansas City has the aeroplane fever.

Leastwise, there are people in this city who have been seeing thing which have led them to believe that there is some daring aviator making nightly flights over the city. Whether it is an aeroplane of the Wright model or a monoplane built along the lines of Herbert Latham's comparatively miniature machine, or one of Zeppelin's monster gas bags with the wickerwork baskets below, the nocturnal observers have been unable to determine.

But this they do know: that each evening about 8 o'clock -- at 7:55 to be exact -- a light has appeared just over the west bluffs which grows in brilliancy as it covers a course toward the horizon and finally disappears at a point just north of the Coates house. Lat night this light made its appearance at a point between the Coates house and the Catholic cathedral on Eleventh street, and in a slowly moving arc finally disappeared somewhere in the distance north and west of the Coates house.

The brilliancy and size of the light has discredited the idea in the minds of observers that it might be a star. Also, the movement of the light, it is said, is entirely too swift for one of the heavenly bodies. ergo, it must be an aeroplane, a monoplane, an airship or a toy balloon, or---

It may be the star Venus wending its nightly course through the heavens.

Labels: aeroplanes, airships, Coates house

February 7, 1909

CALL'S AIRSHIP LINE

TO CHARGE BY WEIGHT.

FAT MEN GET WORST OF IT ON

ATMOSPHERIC LIMITED.

As for the "Gent" With Large Fam-

ily, He'll Have to Charter a Spe-

cial -- Franchise Through

the Clouds.

WEIGHING IN.

If you are a large, fleshy man you had better begin to train down if you expect to obtain cheap rates on new passenger airships or aeroplanes which Henry Laurens Call is preparing to manufacture in Girard, Kas., to compete with the railroads. This is where the little fellow will have the advantage of the big one, because the passenger rates on the airships will be based on weight. The man who weighs 100 pounds will have to pay half as much as the man who weighs 200 pounds.

Space will have something to do with it, too. The woman who insists on wearing the Merry Widow hats will have to pay more than the woman who wears a traveling cap. When a woman buys a ticket on one of these airships she announces her weight and breadth to the ticket agent. She doesn't have to tell her age. If it appears from her size she is telling the truth she is given her ticket without being weighed.

PASSENGERS MUST WEIGH IN.

After you travel on a certain line frequently the ticket agent will learn your weight without troubling to ask you. When the airship stations are perfected the passengers will stand on scales before the ticket windows so the agent may tell in an instant what your ticket will cost you.

Babies will not be carried free. The man with a wife weighing 200 pounds and nine or ten children will have to charter a special airship if he expects to obtain reasonable rates. It is said that the most objectionable thing about this airship navigation is that it will discourage the raising of large families. There may have to be some legislation along that line to protect the man with a large wife and family.

Henry Laurens Call is in Kansas City arranging to have a plant installed at Girard, Kas., for the construction of a large number of aeroplanes and airships of passenger carrying capacity. He not only is planning the construction of these airships for passengers and light freight traffic, but he is planning for the comfort and relief of passengers and the equipment in the matter of stations and other things necessary for a first class line. There must be a landing place, you know, as well as a place of ascension.

Mr. Call has incorporated a company for $20,000,000. It is feared by some that he may attempt to obtain a franchise on all the space between Kansas City and St. Louis, or Girard, Kas., and the balance of the United States.

MAY CHARTER THE AIR.

It is only reasonable to suppose t hat when the airship line Mr. Call will establish begins to pay big dividends others will construct lines or airships to compete with his. It is a certainty that all the ships can't sail along the same route at the same height, because those Call airships are going to be air splitters and go so fast it will be necessary to ride backwards to breathe. Mr. Call may charter a certain line of space within 200 feet of the ground between Kansas city and St. Louis. Other lines established later will have to go above him. Just how high these airship lines finally will get no man can tell.

There will be dangers in airship navigation in cloudy weather, Mr. Call says. An airship going faster than you can think through low, dark clouds, might collide with another ship. There will be a crash like a thunder storm in the clouds above and then it will begin to rain human beings down below. To avoid these dangers it may be necessary to soar above the clouds.

"How are you going to tell when you get to St. Louis if you are above the clouds and can't see the earth," Mr. Call was asked yesterday.

"How does a ship tell when it reaches a port in a fog?" Mr. Call asked by way of explanation. "Just as simple as can be."

The question of relief ships and hospital ships is troubling Mr. Call. An airship may become disabled and light at the wrong place. If the roads are bad where it lights it must be carried back to a place where there are good roads to gain the necessary start, because an aeroplane must gain a speed of thirty miles an hour on the ground before it rises into the air. Just think about going thirty miles an hour in anything over some of these country roads!

To relieve this situation, Mr. Call plans to construct relief and hospital ships. It is only reasonable to suppose that if a ship falls several hundred feet through the air and lights heavily on the ground, somebody will be hurt. The injured will be loaded in the hospital airships and taken to the nearest hospital. At the same time a rope will be attached to the disabled airship and it will be sailed back through the air to the repair station.

All this is just as easy as building air castles.

Labels: airships, St Louis, visitors

February 6, 1909

AERONAUTICS DEPENDS

ON GOOD ROADS - CALL.

GIRARD, KAS., INVENTOR AD-

VANCES A NEW THEORY.

He's Planning Boulevards for Run-

ways and a Fleet of Aeroplanes.

To Put the Railroads

Out of Business.

Good roads are absolutely necessary to the successful sailing of airships or aeroplanes. That is the reason there are so few aeroplanes. That is what Henry Laurens Call of Girard, Kas., says, and what he doesn't know about airships isn't worth kinowing. In the first place the so new fangled aeroplanes, or airships, must first acquire a speed of thirty miles an hour along a road or a specially constructed track before they can rise into the air, he says. Mr. Call is building a new airship or aeroplane in Girard, Kas., and he also is constructing a mile of roadway in the nature of a boulevard. On this he expects to start the new ship sailing.

If one of these aeroplanes breaks down in a country where the roads are bad and where it is sandy, then it will be necessary to hitch a team of horses to it to pull it out where it may sail again. It will require the assistance of horses until the "relief ships" are intended to sail around a crippled airship like a fishhawk around a lake, making a dive down after it, lift it into the air and sail away to the repair shops with it.

PULLMAN CAR ACCOMMODATIONS.

The new aeroplane or airship Mr. Call is preparing to build will have an observation apartment, sleeping apartments for passengers, dining room and a gasoline cooking stove. Pancakes will not be on the bill of fare. They are too heavy. The new ship will be constructed of aluminum, will weigh only 1,500 pounds and preparations are being made to manufacture thousands of them for commercial use, to be in active competition with the railroad passenger departments. It will take up where it is cool in summer and down where it is warm in winter.

Henry Laurens Call of Girard, Kas., the only man who owns a caged airship in this part of the country, was at the Coates house in Kansas City yesterday and will be here today and tomorrow. He is returning to Girard from the East, where he went to purchase aluminum and other materials for the manufacture of airship No. 2. He also is purchasing equipment for a machine shop, which will be one of the additions to the airship building and repair plant at Girard.

"That was a fake story sent out about the wind wrecking the shed in which my airship is stored at Girard," Mr. Call said yesterday. "The ship was damaged very little and $75 will repair the damage. I have employed an expert gasoline motor engineer to take charge of the shop at Girard, and we are going to manufacture aeroplanes and airships that will sail. We are not going to manufacture them for sale. We will only lease them. First we will start a line between Kansas City and St. Louis as an experiment, and inside of six months we will put the passenger trains out of business.

ATTEMPTS NOTHING ORIGINAL.

Mr. Call then explained why that airship he owns at Girard has never sailed.

"There are too many trees in Girard, and the roads are not very good," he said. "I have never been able to get up a speed of more than 18 miles per hour on the roads near Girard on my aeroplane, and it is necessary to get up a speed of thirty miles an hour before the ship will rise in the air. Wright brothers, who have made such a success of their aeroplane in France are nothing more than trick bicycle riders. No one else could take their ship and run it like they can. It took them seven years to learn the trick of riding that machine. That is too long for an apprentice airship chauffeur to serve. It isn't good for practical purposes. The thing we are trying to accomplish is to make a simple aeroplane which anyone can operate who understands a gasoline engine."

Mr. Call modestly said that he is not attempting anything original. "I am availing myself of what has been accomplished," he said.

Labels: airships, Coates house, hotels, inventors, visitors

February 1, 1909

JEALOUS OF AN AMERICAN.

French Trying to Outdo Wilbur

Wright's Aeroplane.

"Wilbur Wright made all France jealous over the complete success of an American in mastering air navigation," W. S. Wittinghill of Enid, Ok., an attorney, who has just returned from a business trip in England and France, said last night at the Kupper hotel. Mr. Wittinghill is on the way home after an absence of several months.

"The Frenchmen are trying to outdo Mr. Wright, and all kinds of experiments are being made with air ships and aeroplanes of French manufacture," Mr. Wittinghill said. "But the proper recognition is given to Mr. Wright in Paris just the same. He is very much in demand and he has been entertained lavishly.

"A thing most admirable about him is that he has not forsaken his American manners and manner of doing things. His success has stimulated the efforts of those who want to fully develop their air navigation ideas. The only thing that humiliates an American when he is abroad is to see some ex-American heiress making a monkey of herself by hanging on the arm of some empty-headed nobleman."

Labels: airships, Kupper hotel, oklahoma, visitors

January 25, 1909

KANSAS MUST HAVE AIRSHIP.

Call Determined to Build One That

Will Fly.

"Kansas must have an airship that will fly, and be just as successful as the Wright aeroplane which has opened the eyes of the people in France and the whole world," Henry Laurens Call of Girard, Kas., who made an unsuccessful attempt to sail his airship a few weeks ago, said yesterday at the Blossom house in Kansas City. Mr. Call is very determined in his efforts to build an airship that really will fly, and he has set about once more gathering material for the Call airship No. 2.

"Kansas is never behind the times in anything it undertakes to do, and it is not going to be behind the times in this airship business," continued Mr. Call. "My second airship will be constructed on practically the same plans as the first, but the defects in the first ship will be remedied and changes will be made where necessary. I was the subject of many newspaper jokes while attempting to find atmospheric conditions at Girard, Kas., a few weeks ago that would permit me to make a successful demonstration of my airship, but it was no joke with me. I am thoroughly in earnest and the plans I am working on will prove to the people that no joke has been perpetrated on them by me."

Mr. Call intimated that may seek some other place to experiment with his new airship, though he may decide to make a public demonstration at the same place. You can't talk anything about wheat growing, cattle raising and dry farming with Mr. Call. It is all airships with him and he says he is going to stay right with it until he has mastered the art of air navigation.

"A fellow should never become discouraged over one disappointment," Mr. Call said. "That isn't the way things are done in Kansas. When a thing is possible, and we know the airship has been successfully demonstrated, the only way to make a complete success of it is to keep trying. That is what I propose to do."

Mr. Call already has begun the construction of his second airship, and before the end of another year he hopes to be sailing over the plains of Kansas. He says that if his ship is successful he will stay in America instead of seeking foreign plaudits.

Labels: airships, Blossom house, hotels, visitors

December 17, 1908

LAST OF AN AIRSHIP DREAM.

Suit Is Filed for Non-Compliance

With Anti-Trust Laws.

Dreams of airship fame and their crumbling may be read between the lines of a suit filed yesterday in the circuit court against the Shultz Airship Manufacturing Company. It is a perfunctory matter, in no wise different from the 405 others which were brought against Missouri corporations which have failed to make anti-trust affidavits to the secretary of state.

The Shultz airship was the creation of George D. Shultz, an insurance man, who now lives in Independence. At the time of the company's incorporation his residence was Westport. His flying machine was the first attempt in this part of the country to solve the problem of heavier-than-air machines, a type which does not depend upon a balloon to give it buoyancy.

In the company were also Frank Pelletier of the company bearing his name and J. M. Cleary, attorney, who drew the papers. There were others, too, but their names have been forgotten.

Shultz worked for a long time on his airship, but when it was nearly completed two of the men who had supplied a large part of the funds and were looked towards for more, died. No more money being available, the project had to be left as it was.

It was in 1903 that the company was formed. Since the funds ran out it has practically ceased to exist. So there is little matter, say some of the incorporators, if the state declares forfeited a charter which now is of no value.

"There were a number of inquiries for the machine when it was announced that it was building," said one of the incorporation yesterday. "Had it been completed and turned out all right, the honor of imitating the bird's flight would have brought fame to Kansas City and Shultz, not to the Wrights and Delagrange, Ohio and France.

Labels: airships, business, circuit court, history, Independence, inventors, Westport

December 5, 1908

PARIS SHOWN IN PICTURES.

"Travelogue" of French Capital In-

terests a Large Audience.

Looking at the beautiful palaces and gardens which abound in the city of Paris, a large audience at Convention hall last night listened for an hour and a half to Wright Kramer deliver a travelogue by Burton Holmes describing the sights of that interesting city. Pictures of the famous halls and buildings were shown, besides street scenes and incidents of Paris life.

In the first part of the lecture the audience heard of the traveler's night behind the scenes as a scene shifter and were then allowed to view samples of the French cartoonists' pictures. A visit was made to the famed Parisian dressmakers where plain men measured and fitted the costly gowns.

Women cab drivers, of whom there are eleven now in Paris, were described, and Mr. Kramer told of how the women succeeded in gaining munificent tips. The students section of Paris, or the Latin quarter, was of interest to many, but the exhibition of aerial navigation with balloons, aeroplanes and flying machines was unique and exceptionally interesting.

During the second part of the lecture Mr. Kramer exhibited pictures of typical street fairs given in Paris. After explaining that most of the moving pictures seen in the 5-cent theaters were manufactured in Paris, he described how the factories utilized the public streets in taking their pictures.

After having a number of famous and historical buildings and statues shown upon the screen, the lecturer spoke of the well-known race courses, and gave scenes of different races that have attracted attention the world over.

Labels: airships, Convention Hall, travelogues

September 24, 1908

CROWDS AT THE FAIR.

Six Thousand Saw the Atractions at

Independence Yesterday.

Crowds at the Independence fair yesterday were doubled over that of the opening day. Six thousand paid admissions were received. The airship made the usual flight. Women crowded the art department and textile exhibits, but the greater of the crowd gathered around the mountains of bread which came from all over the state to contest for a prize -- bread from Carthage, Platte City, Memphis, Palmyra, in fact from several different states. Machine and handmade bread was in competition.

Today wil be Kansas Cityday and some of the best races have been reserved for this day. The county offices will be closed to permit employes to attend the fair.

Labels: airships, amusement, food, Independence

September 20, 1908

FAIR OPENS NEXT TUESDAY.

Independence Has Made Preparations

for a Gala Week.

Independence is to have its third annual fair beginning next Tuesday and continuing for the balance of the week. There will be something doing every minute as plenty of special attractions are provided. The judging of stock etc., will be done in the forenoon and the afternoon will be occupied with harness and running races, to be followed by an airship flight by Charles Strobel of Toledo. He promises to make the flight from Independence to Kansas City if favorable weather prevails.

The grounds cover fifty acres and the seating capacity for the races is 6,000. While the fair is promoted by Independence people and is called the Independence fair it is generally looked on as a Jackson county fair.

Labels: airships, amusement, Independence

September 18, 1908

REAL AEROPLANE HERE.

Only It's Small Enough to Be Shown

in Window.

High above the autumn flowers it sailed, an exact miniature of the famous aeroplane, which, under the guidance of its inventor, Orville Wright, made so splendid a record at Fort Myer. The "demonstration ground" in this instance was the front window of the store of the William L. Rock Flower Company, 1116 Walnut street, and the aeroplane, although perfect to the last detail, measures only six feet in width. It was secured by William L. Rock while on his recent trip to the East. The great interest in the future of aviation taken by people of all walks of life caused the tiny aeroplane to be widely commented upon.

Labels: aeroplanes, airships, flowers, retailers, Walnut Street

August 22, 1908

ELECTRIC HAS AN AIRSHIP.

Man Named Mars, but From Omaha,

Is Inventor and Navigator.

For the last three days patrons of Electric park wondered what was in a large tent that was pitched near the monkey cage. Even the park employes couldn't guess what was in it. Yesterday afternoon, without any announcement, Charles Baysdorfer and George E. Yager opened up the front of the tent and helpers carried out a lemon-shaped gas bag to which was hung a light frame, carrying a small gasoline engine.

Baysdorfer climbed on the frame, started the engine and sailed away.

Then M. G. Heim and his able corps of press agents heaved a sigh of relief. The thing really flew.

It gyrated around over the park, then started for nowhere in particular, landing at Thirty-seventh street and Brooklyn avenue when a battery went wrong. A new batter was procured and the airship sailed back to the park and to its tent. A flight lasting half an hour was staged yesterday evening. J. C. Mars -- fine name for an airshipper -- sailed the thing on this flight.

The airship is called the Baysdorfer-Yager "Comet." The men whose name it bears made it in Omaha, their home.

They will attempt to sail twice a day, but the park management promises nothing. Baysdorfer will attempt to come down town with the ship this noon.

Labels: airships, Brooklyn avenue, Electric park, Omaha, Thirty-seventh street, visitors

January 11, 1908

AUTOS MAY THEN BE PASSE.

Kansas City Dealers Propose to Fur-

ther Navigation of Air.

The charter of the Kansas City Automobile Dealers' Association, which will conduct a show in Convention hall February 3 to 8, has been received from the secretary of state. A careful reading of it and of the articles of incorporation indicates that the dealers have been looking far into the future, to the days when they may have ceased selling automobiles and are pushing the latest model 1925 airship.

Among other purposes of the incorporation, is given the following:

"To promote scientific investigation into the problems of aerial navigation."

As yet, no member of the association has expressed his desire to become a sky pilot.

Labels: aeroplanes, airships, automobiles