If current reports from Washington are true Professor S. P. Langley has invented a real flying machine and the most powerful engine of war known to civilized man. So mighty is the power of the little forty-seven-pound engine of the flying machine which he has originated that no model army could withstand it. A fleet of ironclads could be destroyed by it in fifteen minutes. Coast defenses would be broken up like rail fences before a tornado if once the aerodrome passed over them and dropped bombs into their midst. At least this is what Professor Langley's friends assert.
    For three years past Professor Langley has devoted himself to the problem of aerial navigation. He claims to have solved it at last and to have built a machine which will render American armies invincible by means of bombs thrown from his airship. He calls it the aerodrome. This machine will be not less valuable in peace than in war. A man can settle himself to sleep in the car of one of these flying machines in the evening at Chicago, and wake up to find himself in New York by morning. Air travel will be more safe than transportation by land. The aerodrome can dart upon a sinking ship and snatch its passengers from peril. The airship, it is claimed, is as completely under control of its pilot as a locomotive is under the guidance of an engineer.
    The aerodrome which Professor Langley has constructed and tested cost $17,000. This sum included the cost of numerous experiments. The machine can probably be duplicated for less than $10,000. Professor Langley says his perfected aerodrome is the result of between twenty-five and thirty unsuccessful experiments with various engines and motors. His work has been carried on in the East with the utmost secrecy. The professor was convinced that an airship could be constructed which would fly by its own power. The problem was to invent a machine that could depend upon its momentum for support and at the same time furnish considerable carrying capacity above that required to sustain itself. After ten months of effort a flying machine was actually launched in 1807. In the first experiment it worked well. Subsequent trials showed that it was not and could not in that shape be put under perfect control.
    The aerodrome resembles a metal whale propelled by the wings of an albatross. It is built largely of aluminum, and the body, or car, is about 25 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 8 feet high. Liquefied air is the substance which gives life to its body and its wings. The aerodrome Professor Langley has constructed can carry five or his people with ease, and it is only a matter of building a sufficiently large one to sustain any given weight. On entering the machine the doors are first to be securely fastened, and then the liquid gas, which has been stored with the refrigerating tanks is vaporized to fill the balloon. As the lifting power becomes sufficient the machine is gradually lifted bodily from the ground and after clearing all obstructions the engines are started. As the vessel gains headway and is thus maintained in the air by its own momentum, the gas in the balloon is again gradually liquefied and the balloon is drawn down closely over the top of the car in order to present as little surface for, wind obstruction to the movement of the dying machine as possible.—Chicago Inter Ocean.

From—Lincoln County Leader. (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.), 25 Aug. 1899. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.