Inventors At Work — An Idea in Parachutes

1896

An Italian aeronaut named Copazza has invented two balloon attachments, which are said to have fully realized the expectations formed of them. The one is an enormous parachute stretched over a balloon, and the other a folded parachute hanging under the basket.

If the aeronaut finds that his balloon is rising too fast he opens the folded parachute, which immediately acts as a huge air brake and effectually retards progress.

On the other hand, should the air vessel explode through expansion, fire, or any other cause, the top parachute comes into action and a descent may be made without the slightest inconvenience.


A New Telephone

A Russian electrician named Kiltschewsky has perfected a telephone which practically disregards distance. At a recent test between Moscow and Rostoff, 890 miles, talking, singing and instrumental music at one end of the line were distinctly heard by listeners at the other. An experiment is to be made by land wires and Atlantic cables in talking between London and New York.

Airship That Startled Farmers

1906

Farmers and other residents of New Fairfield, Conn., a town five miles north of Danbury, were startled the other day by the appearance of a strange object in the air, which many thought was an airship, says the New York World. There did not appear to be any persons aboard, and no one observed anything like a basket or car suspended from it. The object first attracted attention, as reported by members of the family of Mrs. O. D. Taylor, by a noise like an automobile. It went through the air very swiftly, and in shape it resembled a big naval torpedo. It was near enough to be seen quite plainly.


Electric Bulbs New Fish Bait

Fishermen at Coney Island are using electric lights at the water's edge to attract the fish, says the New York Journal. Many of them carried their own electric plugs, globes and wires and fitted the plug to the sockets of lamps on Dreamland pier.