Bonner, Richard / 2008-10-12 00:00:00
The details of the Wondership having been fully described in the Boy
Inventors' Flying Ship, we shall not enter here into any but a brief
and general description of the craft. The Wondership, then, was a
combination of dirigible balloon, automobile and boat. Her motive
power was furnished by engines driven by an explosive volatile gas
which was also used when occasion arose to inflate the bag of the
balloon feature of her design. The gas was generated in the lower part
of the craft's semi-cylindrical metal body.
On land two big aerial propellers, geared to the engine, drove the
Wondership swiftly along on four solid-tired wheels. When it was
desired to take to the air the balloon bag, which was neatly folded on
a framework supported by upright stanchions above the body of the car,
was inflated by turning on a valve connecting with the gas tanks in
the base of the body.
When the Wondership was intended to navigate the water she was driven
by the same aerial propellers that afforded her motive power on land
or in the air. She then became what may be called a hydromobile. If it
chanced to be rough weather, special hermetically sealed panels could
be drawn together, completely enclosing the body and making the craft
a water-tight "bottle.
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