Henri Dupuy de Lôme
Henri Dupuy de Lôme was a French military engineer. In 1871 he created an airship with at the behest of the French government (on a 40,000 franc contract). This vessel featured a hand-powered, four-bladed propeller, 9 meters in diameter.
- "Because of an inexplicable regression, Dupuy de Lôme discarded steam and constructed his propeller nine meters [29.5 feet (!)] in diameter, so that eight men had to turn it with manual cranks. An 'alcohol motor,' he quipped as he treated his crew to an encouraging round of rum!"[1]
This vessel flew in February 1872, making a 6 miles-per-hour journey from Vincennes to Mondécourt.[2] It was originally intended to participate in French balloon transport during the Siege of Paris, but was completed too late to be useful for this purpose.[3]
Adolphe Clément-Bayard in a patent application cites "the rules established by Dupuy de Lôme" for suspending a car from a balloon.[4]
(On the page Dupuy we are fleshing out possibilities of a tentative ancestor or otherwise connected fellow aero inventor.)
Publications by or about Henri Dupuy de Lôme
- Caron, 1872, L'aérostat à hélice de M. Dupuy de Lôme (Simple title: The propeller aerostat of M. Dupuy de Lôme, Journal: L'Aéronaute)
- Moedebeck, 1886, Der Luftschifferpark in der Italienischen und in der Russischen Armee. Aus dem Bulletin de la Reunion des officers, 17 April 1886 (Simple title: The airship park in the Italian and Russian armies. From the Bulletin de la Reunion des officers, 17 April 1886, Journal: Zeitschr. Luftsch. • Bulletin de la Reunion des officers)
- Maxim, 1892, Progress in Aerial Navigation (Simple title: Progress in aerial navigation, Journal: Fortnightly Review)
- Sébillot, 1902, Mémoire sur les navires aériens à air dilaté (Simple title: Memorandum on dilated-air vessels, Journal: L'Aéronaute)
- Besio Moreno, 1914, Historia de la Navegación Aérea (Simple title: History of Aerial Navigation, Journal: Anales de la Sociedad Científica Argentina)
References
- ↑ Charles Dollfus, quoted in Hallion, 2003, pp. 85–86.
- ↑ Hallion, 2003, pp. 85–86.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Aëronautical Society of Great Britain 1872, p. 75.
- ↑ Patent GB-1909-123.
See also
- Henri Dupuy de Lôme on Wikipedia
- Aérostat dirigeable Dupuy de Lôme on Wikipédia
