The science behind involucres and valves of Santos=Dumont Dirigibles

Santos=Dumont used the ascensional force of hydrogen in almost all of his dirigibles. Unlike modern balloons that make use of hot air, the hydrogen envelopes were sealed and the internal pressure should be controlled through valves.

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The technology of gas balloons is quite old; this Illustration from the late 19th century shows Jacques Charles performing an experience with the first hydrogen gas balloon in August, 27th 1783, at the Champ de Mars, Paris.

The system to obtain hydrogen was invented by French balloonist and manufacturer Gabriel Yon (1835-1894). It consisted of placing a bit of iron filings in dilute sulfuric acid inside two large tanks. Hydrogen bubbles were formed and pumped through tubes inside the water to be cleaned of impurities. Finally it was stored in a steel tank under pressure.

The association hydrogen envelope and petrol explosion engines was very dangerous, dozens of hydrogen dirigibles exploded or burned in the years, the most famous of them was the Hindenburg disaster that took place on May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station killing 35 people.

This High-speed videography at thousand frames per second makes it possible to observe in detail the sequence of events after the balloon has been lit with a match.

Santos=Dumont made use of the technology available at that time to create dirigibles very safe with regard to anti-flammability and the most perfect envelope was used in his Dirigible Number 6.

As observed in several accidents that happened before the conquest of the Deutsch prize, Dumont knew that the envelope could not be too long because it ran the risk of bending the middle, as happened with his Dirigible Number 1 and 2. He also knew that he should take a very special care with expansion and contraction of hydrogen at different altitudes as happened with Augusto Severo.

Augusto Severo was a Brazilian congressman who devoted his life to dirigibles, he died tragically on May 12, 1902, when he performed maneuvers with his dirigible named Pax in Paris. Fifteen minutes after his takeoff from the Park Vaugirand the rigid envelope broke down due to expansion of hydrogen through the rarefied atmosphere, releasing hydrogen directly over the internal combustion engine and caused a huge explosion, flame debris fell on the Avenue du Maine, causing uproar in the city.

In the chart above shown in Figure 1 a sudden escape of hydrogen and in figure 2 the fan is used to inflate the cuff to prevent the internal envelope fold in half.

In the chart above we see in Figure 1 the Dirigible Santos=Dumont Number 6 ascended up far, the atmosphere was thin and the pressure inside the envelope went high. In figure 2 the safety valve automatically opens to prevent collapse of the envelope.

In the chart above we see in Figure 1 Santos Dumont voluntarily decides to empty the envelope. In figure 2 he turns the fan on to inflate the cuff preventing the envelope fold in half.

Santos=Dumont knew how to compensate for variations in pressure by safety valves that worked automatically, letting out the gas when the pressure increased significantly and closed automatically when the pressure returned to normal. Manual valves and an inner inflatable cuff was inflated with a fan and emptied directly from his nacelle.

He also took great care with his envelope, demanded that it was always well sewed and varnished to prevent leaks, above we see Santos Dumont at Lachambre & Machuron headquarters overseeing the manufacture of his envelope. He also made sure to keep the balloon far away enough from the engine exhaust pipe, it could burn the delicate envelope made of Japanese silk.

Life imitates art and art imitates life Jules Verne – Santos=Dumont - Tom Swift

The eccentric Santos=Dumont driving a carriage pulled by an ostrich

Just like the stories of Jules Verne inspired Santos=Dumont to create their flying machines, their flying machines inspired other writers to create their characters. Santos=Dumont eccentricities and adventurous life has inspired lots and lots of adventurers and writers, just after his trip to United States and his return to Paris, great number of toys and publications appeared. I believe that Tom Swift was the most expressive character ever created based on Santos=Dumont real life.

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Tom Swift is the name of the central character in five series of books, first appearing in 1910 and totaling over 100 volumes, of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention and technology.

Tom Swift's Electric Car and Santos=Dumont Electric Buggy

Edward Stratemeyer, one of the most prolific writers in the world, producing in excess of 1,300 books, created the character himself, selling in excess of 500 million copies, and created the well-known fictional-book series for juveniles.

Tom Swift's combined aeroplane-dirigibile and Santos=Dumont Number 14. 

Most of the inventions in the Tom Swift series are enhancements of real inventor’s creation, as we see here, the combined aeroplane-dirigibile balloon was a perfectly inspired in Santos=Dumont Number 14.

Tom Swift's Giant Telescope and Santos=Dumont's Giant Telescope. 

Of course, many other characters of real life inspired Stratemeyer to create Tom Swift, however, several examples may be found with some elements in common with the Santos=Dumont's actual history.

Tom Edison Airship’s talk with Santos-Dumont

The meeting of two of the most inventive minds in the world at the beginning of last century showed great promise, however proved to be somewhat inconclusive.

Emmanuel Aime - Santos=Dumont - Chapin

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I believe the main point of divergence between these two geniuses was that Santos=Dumont made ​​his inventions in order to create global integration, with a certain "Wiki" approach , inspiring the next inventors to use their ideas free of patent (mankind took almost 100 years to understand the concept of unpatented inventions and open source software as a source of prosperity).

In other hand, Thomas Edison had great commercial interest in their inventions and not devoted his time to anything that could not be patented and have some financial result.

Hope you enjoy this American article. - May 1902

(Copyright 1902 by Herbert Wallace)

THOMAS A. EDISON believes that mankind ought to be ashamed of itself because the problem of aerial navigation by human beings was not solved years ago. He also makes the rather remarkable statement that, while Santos-Dumont has done a great thing in steering airships about through the air, it will be a long time before any contrivance for air navigation is commercially possible, because no inventor will be able to secure any reward for his labor in this line of work under the present patent laws. To make this great possibility practical, it seems that we shall have to establish a sort of protective academy of invention, which shall reward the successful inventor of the commercial airship.

“I was down in Florida recently and one day I watched a big bird – I think it was a vulture – that floated about in the air a whole hour without moving its wings perceptibly. When God made that bird He gave it a machine to fly with, but He didn’t give it much else. He gave the bird a very small brain with which to direct the movements of the machine, but He gave to a man a much larger brain in proportion to that of the bird.”

Mr. Edison is not the first to make such a comparison, but when he talked this way the other day to Santos-Dumont, the Brazilian aeronaut, there was a world of meaning in the words. The wizard of the laboratory was much interested in the young man who had wondered Paris and the world by steering an airship over the city, not once but several times.

“You are the only man who has done such a thing.”

Exclaimed Mr. Edson.

“I am sure you have never worked on the problem of aerial navigation,” replied Santos-Dumont, “or you would have accomplished years ago more than I have done now”. The aeronaut was not trying to be complimentary; he has this biggest admiration for Mr. Edison and his inventive genius.

“I don’t know about that,” said Edison. “I did take it up once several years ago and built a specially light motor to be operated by exploding gunpowder, I experienced a lot in lifting weights with it, but I worked with a small model and did not attempt to fly. I gave it all up because I had a number of other things to do which were far more profitable.”

Santos-Dumont Finds a Supporter in Edison.

New York Journal – April 14^th, 1902

“I took so much interest in Dumont’s flying machine scheme that I suggested to him an aerial club in this country. There are plenty of men to be interested in such an enterprise, and I will probably join myself

Famous aerial navigator greatly pleased with his reception at Orange house NJ – He will go to Washington tomorrow.”

“His miniature model still in customhouse.”

“Proposed exhibition of little flying machine, which was to have been given today, is therefore postponed.”

The article emphasizes the importance of meeting of the two great men (yesterday) when “the Wizard” acquainted with the “King of the Air”.

Santos-Dumont spent the whole of the afternoon with Thomas Edison at the latter’s home in Orange, N. J. and was greatly impressed with the great investor’s workshops.

At the end, Emma Kaufman article “Santos-Dumont as a woman sees him” 

_______________________________________________________________________________

“I’ll tell you,” he went on earnestly, “If the patent office only protected the inventor sufficiently the problem of aerial navigation would have been solved thirty years ago.”

Must Discard the Balloon.

Santos-Dumont looked at Edison with some surprise and turned to M. Aime, his companion, to remark that had the laws been right the thing would have been done before he was borne, Mr. Edison saw the discomfiture of his guest and remarked:

“But you are all right. You are on the right track. You have made an airship and you have steered it and you have made a step toward the final solution of the problem. Keep at it. But get rid of your balloon. Make it smaller all the time.”

“Have you noticed, Mr. Edison,” inquired the aeronaut, “that I am making the balloon smaller every time I build a new airship?”.

“Yes, and that’s right,” replied Edison, “but make it smaller Yet. You are doing well, but it will take a long time to make the thing commercially possible. When you get your balloon part smaller and yet smaller until it is so small that you cannot see it with a microscope then you solved the problem.”

Here, in a nutshell, Is Mr. Edison’s solution of the problem of aerial navigation. He believes firmly it can be solved. But he believes just as firmly that the solution must be reached by means of the flying machine and not by the airship. Only with the machine, he says, can air navigation ever be made either safe or commercially profitable. This will be clear to the reader when it is explained the term “airship” applies to a contrivance that, being lighter than the air, floats in it as a ship floats on the water. The term “flying machine,” on the other hand, refers as he uses it, to a contrivance heavier than the air it is intended to navigate. At rest such an apparatus would not float at all, the high speed at which it moves. In Edison’s mind, then, aerial navigation is simply a question of sufficient motive power, properly applied, to overcome the lack of buoyancy necessary to make the machine rise and to keep it in sufficient motion to hold it in position a certain number of feet above the earth. He constantly refers to the figure of the bird which anyone may see rise and fly at will.

“Take the case of the vulture,” he said “here is a natural flying machine which is a thousand times as heavy as the air it displaces. In a few seconds of leisure flight it can sweep over a distance which man finds encumbered with all sorts of obstacles and there is scarcely a flutter of its wings in the operation. There is nothing there but a machine and a small brain and it is not a very remarkable machine either. Why is it that a man cannot make a flying machine as efficient as the bird? A lot of people say that it was never meant that a man should fly; that if nature had intended such a thing, man would have been provided with the necessary machinery in his body, such as is now possessed by the bird. But you might just as well say that it was never intended that man should have any light aside from the sun and the moon and stars which were originally provided for him, or that he should not move about faster with the aid of wheels because no wheels were supplied to him by nature.

No Electric Flying Machine

Someone asked Mr. Edison whether his new storage battery would be of service in solving the problem of aerial navigation.

“Oh, no, of course not,” he replied, “It would be too heavy. We must get the lightest possible motive power. Thus the greatest factor of this problem is to get a very light motor, which will be powerful enough to operate the flying machine properly. The best thing now in sight for this purpose is a gasoline or gunpowder motor, something that will get up power quickly and which, at the same time, weights little. Santos-Dumont is on the right track in this regard, but of his gasbag. You cannot control a balloon in a gale of wind. In order to make a commercial possibility of the airship it will be necessary to make its operation absolutely sure and its use safe. The flying machine is bound to come, but it will take some time at the rate we are progressing now.”

It was suggested to Mr. Edison that perhaps he might take up the problem again himself and assist in the final solution.

“No, I will not go into anything which cannot be protected from the pirates who live off the work of inventions, and I do not believe it would be possible to secure a patent on other a flying machine or an airship or any part of one that would stand the test of the courts. If someone should make a commercially successful flying machine dozens would at once copy the models and take away the fruits of the original inventor’s labor. There isn’t a judge in the country who would hold that there was really any invention in such an apparatus, because so much has been done and written about it that the only difference between the successful machine, which have been, will be very alight. I doubt whether any new principle will be discovered on which even a claim for a patent may be made.

“The man or men who really solve the problem of flying through the air will find out nothing new. Powerful motors of wonderful compactness will be applied to a framework of extreme lightness and that will be all there will be to it. Doubtless this framework will be something similar to physical structure of a bird. I do not believe it will be difficult, because we have many mechanical devices now, which are superior to the devices used by nature in human beings and animals, and I do not see why we may not put together a contrivance which will be at least equal to the machine and brain of the bird.”

Prof. Langley’s Efforts

Professor S. P. Langley of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, was on of the first men in this country to experiment with flying machines – machines Heavier than the air – unless we admit the Immortal Darius Green ("Darius Green and His Flying Machine" is a famous story poem written in 1869 by John Townsend Trowbridge) and his far-farmed flying machine into our chronology of scientific experiments. Professor Langley had a theory to prove and proved it. He did not accompany his aerodrome in its flights, but he demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt that mechanical flight is possible. Sir Hiram Maxim showed this also with his aeroplane. As a man of science, who had much work to do, Langley proved all he wanted to. It is time now for others to make the flying machine commercially available. It took Prof. Langley several years to develop his main idea as to flying, but during those years he reached many interesting conclusions which will doubtless be taken into account by the inventors who attempt to follow him and carry on the idea of Edison as to navigate the air.

In his preliminary experiments, Prof. Langley a bowed that, disregarding the friction, which is slight, a 200-pound plate could be moved through the air at a rate of fifty miles an hour with the expenditure of one horse power energy. That is a ton of weight could be drown horizontally through space and upon the air with an engine of only ten-horse power. In his airship No. 7, Santos-Dumont will have engines of ninety aggregated horse power sufficient to move a flat plate weighting nine tons through the air at the rate of fifty miles an hour. As a mater of fact, the Santos-Dumont No. 7 will weight when collapsed less than a ton and when the gas bag is filled with hydrogen the whole machine will have a lifting power of 2.500 pounds. With this equipment the young man hopes to speed through the air at the rate of forty-five miles an hour.

Thomas Edison card to Santos=Dumont

It must be clearly understood, however that Santos-Dumont type of airship cannot be operated in a stiff breeze or in changeable winds; indeed, the aeronaut does not make any claim that he can navigate the air in all kinds of weather. Given fair weather Santos-Dumont will not beallain to launch his craft and fly away over cities and seas; the sensation of fear seems to be entirely absent from his make-up.

“I always have a good deal to do when I am in my ship,” he explains, “and I do not have time to think about being afraid. I don’t know what it is to be afraid of falling.”

Langley Experiments

Interesting Experiments

It seems an almost universal belief that the air itself offers tremendous resistance to the passage of any body through it. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t. the bird in its flight has been both a constant wonder to man and as unending promoter of hope that some day he may equal its aerial movements, but if the air resisted flight, according to the computations.

(Continued on Seventh Page.)

Santos=Dumont apartment in Paris

Dirigible Santos=Dumont # 9 parked in front of the famous address Paris Champs Elysées, 114 ou rue Washington, 5

Santos=Dumont lived in Paris for 22 years. There is an extensive tour of the points Santos=Dumont visited, including the apartment where the inventor lived at 114 Champs-Élysées.

Update - See a more recent article from 2022 featuring the Apple store, more information on the property's belongings, decorations and renovations.

It was very difficult for me to reconstruct the colors and atmosphere of this apartment, for which I used the description of several biographers and the description given by reporters in the newspapers of the time.

Many describe details of elaborate decoration, Michel Benichou says that the predominant colors were red and pink and Paul Hoffman, who until 1996 had never heard of Dumont's flair (a very common fact in the USA) did an exhaustive research, says that the Aspects of decoration and setting are extravagant.

It can be said that basically there are four distinct environments that always appear in the photos: 1- the roundabout room, with the pyramid in the background; 2-the office, with wallpaper with an owl motif; 3- engineering, where he tests models and has spare parts, and 4- dinner in the sky room, where he has the giant table.

According to Antonio Sodré, in his biography about Santos=Dumont “Santos Dumont, Um Heroi Brasileiro” the rumor that Santos=Dumont was homosexual, and had a feminine decoration, was the result of a commercial competition as explained by Paul Hoffman in his book Wings of Madness:

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2 - Santos=Dumont's office, photo overlooking the shelf, detail for the large amount of paper on the table, including journalistic articles, flight photos, templates for cutting envelopes and models of nacelles for their airships, etc.

Santos=Dumont's office front photo - S=D evaluates a metal piece, details to be observed: wallpaper with an owl motif, the radica table, lamp and art nouveau frame

“The New York papers were engaged in a fierce competition for readers, and the New-York Mail and Express had sent a reporter to Santos-Dumont's Paris apartment so it could publish an exclusive story when he arrived in the States.”

Also according to Sodré, Santos was almost daily subject in the pages of a newspaper competitor, the New York Herald, for being a celebrity and also for being a friend of its owner, James Gordon Bennett, a millionaire who lived in Paris. 

Front view of the oval room (roundabout room N.1) - detail of the background with the great pyramid, 1890 photo by Lekegian studio, collection of clocks on the fireplace, replica of the statue of Jean-Antoine Injalbert (1845–1933), La Renommée - "the fame" and bust of Victor Hugo, work of Auguste Rodin.

 

Of course, the first hand news about the aviator sells more newspapers.

Therefore the editor of the New York Mail and Express decided tarnish the shine of Santos Dumont, the journalist said himself:

Planta baixa do apartamento de Santos=Dumont em París

"The tea service displayed on a corner of the room and there he often drink this female drink. Everything in the room is extremely tasteful and nothing indicates, nor for a moment, a masculine touch".

Santos=Dumont's third room would be the equivalent of engineering. Place where he designs the technical part of his aircraft, maintains ropes, cables and fuel, spare parts, as well as builds and tests his miniature models.

.

and the fourth environment is the dinner in the sky room, where there is the high table.

Sodré concludes that the tea set, as well as the good taste of Santos was sufficient for this prejudiced reporter to create a biased article.

Santos=Dumont exotic invention, the two meter high table and chairs

All other newspapers have treated our hero more respectfully as this beautiful article written by the British magazine "The Sketch" inset in the Illustrated London News to cover the aristocracy and high society of the time.

Anyway, as I am in the midst of a creative process, seeking to understand the life of the aviator, and create the illustrations for my book as well, I decided to put some references of my research on the apartment that Santos Dumont kept on Avenue Champs Elysées, 114 or rue Washington, 5 in Paris. 

 S=D Office

Apartment nowadays

papier peint 1

papier peint 2

Main door handle

About the property

Please find below a detailed plan of the building where Santos=Dumont lived. Located at Avenue des Champs-Élysées and Rue Washington in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

This building consists of two apartments per floor (here we see the corner apartment, where S=D used to live) and has interesting architecture, including details such as the corner rotunda, the sculptures on the stairs and decorative stained glass.

Plan prontonil of the apartment of Rue Washington where Santos Duomnt lived

The building was built in 1893 by architect Albert Le Voivenel for Heudebert.

It has a monumental composition with five spans on the avenue and a corner rotunda that houses loggias, in addition to six spans on Rue Washington.

The main facade of the building is richly decorated and has a carved entrance. The ironwork on the door is also notable, contributing to the building's distinctive appearance.

Wonderful entrance hall and door of the Santos=Dumont apartment.

Throughout the 20th century, the building underwent some transformations. The ground floor has been converted into four open shops, each with two bay windows. One such store is the J.-M. Weston boutique, a shoemaker, which is still present today.

The building has a pentagonal atrium in the center, surrounded by three wings that rest on adjacent buildings.

Access to the courtyard is via a vehicle passageway that formerly allowed taxis to enter. This passageway is vaulted in a semicircular shape.

Detail of angels on the window facing Rue Washington.

The building has six floors above and four below ground level. The structure includes the creation and relocation of stairs and elevators on all floors, renovation of facades, replacement of exterior window frames and modification of bales on facades on the ground floor and 1st floor on the street and patio. In addition, there was the creation of a glass roof on the 5th floor.

The building is protected by the P.L.U. (Local Urbanization Plan) and is part of the Champs-Élysées District. Its architecture and features are considered remarkable and valuable, contributing to the architectural identity of the area.

Wallpaper, Owl Motif

In the 1950s, modifications were made to the apartments, including the demolition of old service stairs and the construction of new stairs on the Rue Washington side. The main staircase (main staircase) was also extended to reach the attic level.

Some parts of the building's decorations were removed to allow modification of the walls of the cage d'escalier (staircase cage).

In the 1990s, more transformations took place, including replacing more apartments with offices and renovating the floor of the cour principale (main courtyard) to create a disco dance floor.

Some future proposals were discussed, such as covering the cour (courtyard) with a large verrière métallique (metal skylight) and creating a trémie (opening) in the floors to offer different heights and spaces for customers.

The Apple company has expressed interest in using the building for its offices and a store.

View of the facade with roundabout.

The Commission du Vieux Paris (Commission for Old Paris) examined the restructuring project for the building constructed in 1893 by architect Albert Le Voisvenel.

Proposed changes, such as a new, more cohesive socle commercial (commercial base) for the building, were suggested by the Commission.

Sources and Bibliographies

- GRAHAL, Étude historique et documentaire, 2015.

- Pascal Payen-Appenzeller et Brice Payen, Champs-Élysées: Dictionnaire historique, architectural et culturel, Paris, Ledico éditions, 2013.

How Santos=Dumont will sail over New York

Santos=Dumont flying over the Globe Céleste de l'Exposition Universelle de 1900 en Paris with his dirigible Number Four

The Santos=Dumont dream of fly over the main cities started back in 1900, when he flew over l'exposition universelle  with his dirigible number four. Nobody depicted the adventure of flying over the biggest cities of the world, such as New York, as Livingstone Cooper of the American edition of Metropolitan Magazine.

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Take a trip on a modern concept of steampunk flight of Santos=Dumont over NEW YORK as told at the verge of his visit to US in March 1902.

An Aerial Journey above the Sky-Scrapers, with St. Paul’s Spire as a Turning-Stake, and a bird’s-eye view of Brooklyn Bridge.

By LIVINGSTON COOPER.

This summer will witness in New York the realization of what makers of wonder-pictures long ago began to create from the figments of imagination, making the upper air as highway for travel. What Paris has seen we will behold, and the man who steered his airship around the Eiffel Tower will make the spire of St. Paul’s Church the turning point in an aerial voyage covering the length and breadth of Manhattan Island. He will sail in among the sky scrapers which environ the historic edifice, steering clear of them, after rounding his mark, will retrace his course to the point of starting.

Santos=Dumont consulting time in his brand new Cartier

When Santos=Dumont rises into the air somewhere in the upper portion of the city, millions of New Yorkers will wish him bon voyage, and millions of faces will turn upward to watch his flight. The shrieks of steam whistles will greet him all along the way, while windows and housetops will flutter in his sight like masses of waving handkerchiefs and flags.

Dirigible Santos=Dumont Number Nine docked in front his apartment in Paris

New York will not regret the exhibition as a wonder, but simply as a novelty. It will be a thing long expected because long promised. The wonder is that the promise involved in the first balloon, sent into the air of the eightieth century, remains only partially fulfilled in these opening years of the twentieth century. New York will accept the aeroyacht, when it comes in its perfection, just as she has accepted the automobile, dissipating is novelty by making it as familiar as many other things are which would have sent our great-grandfathers to their knees in prayer for protection against the power of Beelzebub. We would not try to get along without any one of those once wonderful things to-day; we are reaching after more in the same line. Santos=Dumont will bring to us only a hint, after all, though a very promising on, of another convenience of which we have been dreaming, for which we are determined to posses some day. Behind the enthusiasm attending his exhibitions there will be not more of exultation over his achievement than of quickened hope for the speedy solution of the problem involving the air with the freedom and swiftness of the birds.

Santos=Dumont will sail his airship under and over Brooklyn Bridge. The daring Brazilian is but a young man, not yet thirty years old, but he was a boy who could be trusted at the throttle of one of the locomotives used upon his father’s vast coffee plantation just about the time when that mighty span over the East River, the wonder of its highway of a multitudinous traffic. It is no longer a wonder to the New Yorker, who will stand with many thousands upon its broad promenades and great platforms, watching the aeronaut in his flight. Their gaze will follow him as he flats above that other colossus standing astride the stream further up, but there will be no realization of the fact that two new wonders are included in the view – both only promises of what is to be. They know that ere long they will walk and ride across the newer, bigger bridge, but their one ambition, as they behold the scene, will be some day to soar above it. And when that some day comes – but why anticipate the decadence of wonder into that commonplace interest which will attach to the size, beauty, and speed of this or that millionaire’s aerial flyer?

Santos=Dumont at the St. Paul Building at Bradway and Ann Street

One of the journeys which will probably be undertaken by Santos=Dumont will be a trip over the harbor and bay. It would be full of interest in many ways, and the flight of the air-ship to and around the Statue of the liberty, or down through the Narrows and back, would be a strange contrast that the novel craft would present to the fleet of steam vessels which would keep pace with it on the waters of harbor and bay. 

From the shores it would appear like a giant bird hovering in air above the fleet. Still more exciting would the exhibition become should the aeronaut put on speed and try conclusions with some of the swift steam yachts or big passenger boats. The air-ship and one of the palatial boats that ply between New York and the Atlantic Highlands could make a very pretty race. It would be worth going miles to see. A trip up and down the Hudson would be another exhibition whereby Santos=Dumont might display the abilities of his craft. The airship flying along abreast the precipitous walls of the Palisades would be a scene almost weirdly picturesque.

Whatever trips may be decide upon by the aeronaut during his stay in New York, none will be more interested than those which will be made over the city itself. They will not be lacking in the element of excitement, for the tall buildings which loom up, singly and in groups, in various sections of New York and Brooklyn, would serve as turning marks for a great variety of courses. These could be laid out with a view to testing the dirigibility of the airship in any possible direction on a single trip, affording definite indications of the degree of control possible under any given conditions. With triangular, four sided, and zigzag courses, accurately marked, the performances of the airship could be made extremely valuable, and the possibilities which exist in this direction are of vast importance if aerial voyaging is to become, even for pleasure purposes, the practical thing that the world is looking for. The airship may be developed much beyond what Santos=Dumont has made it, and still be only a plaything for the most venturesome. But it will not fulfill its mission until, like the automobile, it is developed into some form where it will serve useful purposes.

This is a more serious view of the matter, however, than will be taken by the multitude whose eyes will follow Santos=Dumont in his venturesome journeys, whose voices will rise in boisterous greeting form every point where people will mass themselves to watch him. They will be trilled by excitement when his docile leviathan of the air swoops down from the clear heights to pick its way among towering structures and sweeps around some designated mark. He will approach disaster none too closely to minister to their appetite for sensation. His avoidance of it will be the glory of the moment. The full glory of its significance will come with the later sober reflection upon what it will mean for mankind in that constantly accelerating march of progress which scorns limitations. 

Unfortunately, that flight over New York, with Dumont piloting it, never happened. However, Edward Boyce did so with a Dumont aircraft - Airship No. 6 was the first to fly in America.

But after all, who was Edward?

Edward C Boyce known for having bought La Baladeuse Nº9 and Santos=Dumont Nº 8, was the first man to pilot an airship in America. He was also an accomplished architect, amusement park mogul and co-owner of Dreamland in Coney Island as well as the White City in Chicago.

It is important to say here that perhaps the Number 8 airship, purchased by Boyce, is the modified Number 6, just as the Number 6 came from modifications to the Number 5 after the August 8 accident. The criteria for numbering Dumont's dirigibles were never clear.

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Boyce was undoubtedly a multifaceted figure in the early 20th century, who devoted himself to the emerging aviation of the time, becoming one of the pioneering founders of the Aero Club of America.

That's where the intriguing part comes – we don't have his date of birth, death, little is known about his contributions to the Aeroclube, not even a good photo of him. 

Photo of Boyce's office 302 Broadway, NY - Modern Amusement Parks Catalog 1904

One of the most intriguing claims about him is that he was the first man to fly an airship in America, as reported in THE EVENING TIMES article of October 1, 1902.

Article in THE EVENING TIMES of October 1, 1902.

“The dispute was between the airship Santos=Dumont Nº 6 (some dumontologists believe that it could have been Nº 8), the great airship that was in Brighton Beach all summer, and the Pegasus, airship of the rival aviator, that was in a stable in Manhattan”.

It is curious that Stevens' exploits have received more prominence in the historical record, while Boyce has remained relegated to a secondary role.

As for Boyce's description, the article goes on to say that “...Edward C. Boyce, a wealthy young man, who was vice president of the Syndicate Construction Company, whose offices are at 74 Broadway. He has an income of $50,000 a year, and a passion for experiments, is a member of the Aeroclube, and his fight was in fulfillment of his declaration that Santos-Dumont No.6 should fly it he had to take her up himself.”.

Huh! Why couldn't Dumont fly his own airship in America? - ...let's continue...

“...It was an important race.

...

The flight was a surprise; Boyce began without any warning, Mr. Stevens saw his companion in the air and was unwilling to allow the honor of the first airship ride in America to go to his rival, so within twenty minutes, after Mr. Boyce was in the air, he took his out of the shed in Brighton Beach and shot it up onto the roofs of houses.” Ready Mr. Stevens was also venturing over Manhattan.

The article says that Mr. Boyce landed smoothly in a field, so easily he wouldn't have broken an egg, while Stevens fell into an electric light pole and tangled himself in the wires.

Boyce's flight was a jagged ellipse from Brighton Beach in the northeast to a field in Sheepshead Bay. He circled his starting point and actually went into the wind most of the way.

This same article has been published in newspapers around the world, yet it appears that Mr. Boyce decides to disappear from history for a while.

It is important to note that Pegasus itself, which was not a replica of the number 6, shared extremely similar characteristics with Dumont's airships.

Oh, and we also know that in this beautiful Dreamland shed, number 9 was on display before it went to the Smithsonian - Thankfully, it didn't burn in the great Coney Island fire of 1911.

But the question remains: why has Edward C. Boyce's story been so overlooked in the historical record?

Left, Clement nacelle and engine from La Baladeuse #9 at the Smithsonian, on loan from Edward C. Boyce - right, Leo Stevens' airship nacelle on display in the beautiful Dreamland pavilion..

I have a theory, which perhaps seems a bit conspiratorial – that it was because of his friendship with Santos=Dumont.

Yes, saying that Santos=Dumont's aircraft, Nº 6, (perhaps Nº 8) and Nº 9, bought by Boyce, ended up at the Smithsonian Institution, has a bad political connotation for the history told in America.

Anyway, to mention less conspiratorial reasons, here are other possible reasons:

Lack of Proper Documentation: In an age when historical documentation was not always as comprehensive or detailed, it is possible that records about Boyce were lost or not properly preserved;

Historical inequalities: Historical inequalities, such as gender, racial or social class prejudices, may have influenced the representation and protagonism of certain individuals in historical records;

La Baladeuse Nº 9 de Santos=Dumont, which was purchased by Edward C. Boyce displayed in a beautiful pavilion at Dreamland in Coney Island

Focus on other pioneers: In a competitive field like aviation and the amusement park industry, more prominent names may have received more attention, leaving figures like Boyce in obscurity.

In Search of Historical Truth.

Although the story of Edward C. Boyce remains shrouded in mystery, it is essential to continue the search for information about his life and accomplishments. Research into primary sources such as old newspapers, business documents and personal files can shed light on Boyce's legacy. Also, it's important to question the official story and pursue one.

If any readers know anything else and want to add, please comment - It will be a pleasure to know more about this great man.

The Mystery of Airships Number 6 and Number 8

Para saber se existiu ou não um dirigível número 8, a resposta pode ser encontrada nas evidências e em artigos de jornal.

De acordo com um artigo no The Sketch of London em 4 de junho de 1902, o dirigível N.6 que foi resgatado do acidente na baía de Monte Carlo, Mônaco, em 13 de fevereiro de 1902, foi danificado no Crystal Palace em Londres (provavelmente sabotado), e por lá ficou até 1919 (pelo menos a quilha e o invólucro). Renato Oliveira acredita que o cesto exposto no Le Bourget é o que foi resgatada do mar.

Por outro lado, de acordo com o The Evening Times, em outubro de 1902, o Sr. Boyce voou com ele.

Portanto, é provável que o Sr. Boyce tenha pilotado o N.8 e não o N.6, Santos=Dumont fez uma cópia do N.6 para levar para a América.

O próprio Leo Stevens tinha várias cópias de seu dirigível espalhadas pelo mundo; 2 na Inglaterra 1 nos Estados Unidos e outro na Itália idênticos de 1902 a 1905.

Renato Oliveira afirma que "cronologicamente não havia como o N.6 estar em Londres e Nova York ao mesmo tempo".

The article of The Sektch of London, June 4, 1902, with the picture of the huge shed specially built to house the airship Santos=Dumont N.6, near the Crystal Palace pole, in London

Well, let's wait, soon he will release a book on the subject.

Next, the article of 

The Sektch of London, June 4, 1902

----

The threatening eye with which, according to Shakspere, Fortune looks upon men when she means most good has been almost too much in evidence with M. Santos-Dumont. Air-ship after air-ship has belied its name by sinking unbidden to the earth; on more than one occasion the daring aeronaut has been in imminent peril of his life, and now the public lights which were to have begun this week have of necessity been ostponed indefinitely. Even M. Damont's customary nonchalance must have been sorely tried when, on his return from Paris, it was found that the silken casing of his balloon had been badly left in several places. The scene of the unfortunate accident outrage, as the case may be, was the huge shed specially constructed near the Crystal Palace polo-ground. It had been deemed visable to hold some preliminary experiments before the public trials, the inventor's two French assistants were busily adjusting the chanical portion of the vessel when its owner arrived. All was apparently well then, but while he was at luncheon it was discovered that the silk was torn and quite beyond repair. Detectives and police were, of course, at once summoned to take the matter in hand. The theory was that the damage was malicious, or, at least, mischievous;

-------

read the full article of THE EVENING TIMES, 1º de outubro de 1902:

THE EVENING TIMES, October, 1st  1902

RIVAL AIRSHIPS IN EXCITING RACE THROUGH THE CLOUDS

Santos-Dumont and Stevens Machines High in the Sky Above Sheepshead Bay Interest Racegoers.

American-Built Flyer Guided by Leo Stevens Victorious Over the Brazilian Vessel. Met With Mishaps.

NEW YORK, Oct. 1-America had its first race of airships yesterday.

The contest was between SantosDumont N. 6, the big airship which the Brazilian would not go up in and put go up is and which has been at Brighton Beach all summer, and Pegasus, the rival flyer, that has been stabled at Manhattan, and which has made one or two false starts.

Reception of Satnos=Dumont in the United States on April 19, 1902. Moments of joy alongside Emmanuel Aimé and Samuel Pierpont Langley

Yesterday both navigated the air.

The Santos-Dumont was operated by Edward C. Boyce, a wealthy young man, who la vice president of the Syndicate Construction Company, the offices of which are at No. 74 Broadway. He has an income of $50,000 year, and a passion for experiments, is a member of the Aero Club, and his fight was in fulfillment of his declaration that Santos-Dumont No.6 should fly it he had to take her up himself.

Pegasus was operated by Leo Stevens, an aeronaut, and a candidate for the $200,000 prize which is to be sailed for at the St. Louis Exposition. He has made many ascensions in hot-air balloons near New york.

Both machines flew high and long and well. The Stevens airship crossed the path of the other and went much higher, but as it was a test of divisibility there is some doubt whether the higher flight counts for our against man who made it.

Was an important Race.

From the ground it seemed that the low flight machine was able to turn more easily, and to be more under control than the other, but Mr. Stevens disputes this.

The flight was a surprise; Mr. Boyce started without any announcement, and Mr. Stevens started because the other fellow did and was not going to see the honor of the first voyage of airship voyage in America go to his rival, so within twenty minutes, after Mr. Boyce’s machine bulged from the shed at Brighton Beach and shot above the house tops, Mr. Stevens was also adventuring upward from Manhattan.

Santos=Dumont N.6 (or maybe N.8) airship in a shed of Brighton Beach, NY

Mr. Boyce came down gently in a field, so easily, he says, that he would not have cracked an eggs ball. Mr Stevens came down on a telegraph and electric light pole and got mixed up with the wires, but he was not hurt and his machine was not damaged to amount to anything.

Mr. Boyce’s flight was an irregularity wavy line from Brighton Beach northeast to a field in Sheepshead Bay. He circled his starting point, and really went against the wind most of the way.

Mr. Stevens course was a double ellipse, according to his own statement, ranging form Manhattan north and westto his landing place on the tlegraph pole at the corner of the Sheepshead Bay Road and First Street.

Nearly Broke Up Race.

Both passed almost over the race track, and they were in sight spectators, bookmakers, and jockeys, and even the horses themselves watched nothing else. It was so serious that the Jockeys had to be admonished in the fourth race to mind their start instead of the two big cigars that bung in the air above.

It was 3:45 when Mr. Boyce made his start. He had come down to the Aerodome, which is what they call the barn in which an airship is kept, to his automobile with his wife and two little children. His little boy bewalled the fact that be could not accompany his father, and Mr. Boyce gave the word to let go, calling back directions to his party to meet him in Grimes Fields at Sheepshead Bay.

Santos=Dumont reception in St Louis

The two ropes at the rear of the airships holding it, should have them pulled off when it ascended. But one of them was not pulled by the man that held it. It went up with the balloon and was caught in by the propeller. Those on earth who saw him try to disentangle it, and apparently, he succeeded, for his turn about over the shed was as smooth and steady as a trolley car coming around a curve. Then he sailed away toward the notth, every now and then describing a curve, first to the right, then to the left, and so on until be finally sank in the field for which he was aiming.

Another Airship Ahoy!

Meanwhile over the eastward the other machine had risen and came across the right angle to the course of the other, from the Stevens machine depended on a rope, which, he says, is 1,800 feet long, and which acts like the tail to a kite, steadying the flight. It has its disadvantages, for once it caught, some telegraph wires, and Stevens was prisoner until some lineman cut off a few feet of rope. Hi did his lofty circling, snooping in wide curves three quarters of mile in the air, while Mr. Boyce never got higher than 800 feet.

When Mr. Stevens began to descend his troubles began. He says a crank that controls the spark of his machine worked loose and began to fling out electric flashes so long that the aeronaut feared they would ignite the hydrogen, of which he had 22,000 feet in his gas bag. In reaching for this crank he knocked out a plug that controlled the machinery, and had to think of descending at once. 

His long, trailing rope caught in the electric wires in front of Lundy’s fish market, Sheepshead Bay Road and First Street, and later his anchor, which he cast out, caught in these same wires ad there was a display of electric fire.

Stevens pulled the valves and came down on the electric light react and the wires , and half of the population of that part of the world came out and shouted to him that he would be grilled alive on those wires. He skipped about on the frame of his machine, however, until some lineman got a ladder up to him. 

He freed his ropes, which were eagerly graped by as many of half a thousand volunteer assistants as could take hold, while he conducted the airship over the roofs to a large lot, where the descent was finally made in safety and comfort.

On his second trip to the United States after the Deutsh Prize, in the spring of 1904, Dumont booked a series of engagements and demonstrations, and returned to France on 28 May to make the various preparations until he was thwarted at St. Louis. Louis. On June 12, 1904, Santos=Dumont leaves for his third and last trip to the USA aboard the SAVOIE, upon arriving there he realizes that his airship N.7 had been destroyed (possibly sabotaged). In the photo next to mechanics Chapin and Dozon.

The race was a success from the standpoint of everybody but the trolley people, who are figuring what kind of an injunction will hold against these new birds of the air who mess up their wires with trail ropes and anchors.

Stevens’ anchor was pretty well burned by the electric wires.