Outing (1885) (14594969769) - Public domain book illustration

Identifier: outing63newy (find matches)
Title: Outing
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors:
Subjects: Leisure Sports Travel
Publisher: (New York : Outing Pub. Co.)
Contributing Library: Tisch Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries



Text Appearing Before Image:
e.When he set out to build the dirigibleballoon he sold to the United StatesGovernment—the first air-craft sold tothe American Government—he gatheredabout him engineers, aeronautical stu-dents, professors of applied mechanics,military experts, boatbuilders, fabric ex-perts, attaches of the United States Bu-reau of Standards, aeronauts, and otherswith trained faculties. Their ideas andobjects clashed sharply, but his gift ofleadership bent their efforts toward thepractical end that produced the air-craftfor which the Government presentedhim with $10,000. Like Carnegie, hecan attract to himself people whose workbrings him practical benefits. The Captain rarely does anything thatdoes not come to a practical end. Tohim the word practical is defined as dol-lars and cents on the right side of theledger. For this reason he is one of thevery few men in the game who havemade a fortune out of aeronautical ac-tivities. The Wrights were scientists first andbusiness men afterwards. The Captain
Text Appearing After Image:
328 OUTING is a business man first and a scientist last.He started life as an acrobat in a wagoncircus, with the main object ox makingmoney, and he has always remained ashowman for the purpose of makingmoney. If to the Wrights aeronauticswas a great and venerated science, toCaptain Baldwin it has been a rich fieldfor the harvest. In October, 1898, he built a tremen-dous spherical balloon for the purpose offlying from Denver, Colorado, to theAtlantic Coast, in order to advertisesome commodity. It did not reach theAtlantic Coast. In fact, it hoveredabove Denver for forty-eight hours. Butit did reach a height of 28,300 feet!That is almost five and a half milesabove the earth. It is the FarthestNorth of American aeronauts. Thevoid up there consisted of tiny, glitter-ing particles that were neither hail norsnow. It was simply a brittle, frozenatmosphere, intensely cold and exceed-ingly uncomfortable on account of theblinding reflection of the rays of the sun. Never Unprepared There have be