CAPTAIN THOMAS S. BALDWIN.
Captain Thomas S. Baldwin, balloonist and aviator, was born in Mississippi in 1855. His first aeronautical experience was as a parachute rider from a balloon in the air. He invented the parachute he used, and received for it a gold medal from the Balloon Society of Great Britain. Exhibiting this parachute, Captain Baldwin made an extensive tour of the civilized world.
In 1892 he built his first airship, a combination of a balloon, a screw propeller, and a bicycle, the last to furnish the motive power. It was not until 1902, when be installed an automobile engine in his airship, that he succeeded in making it sail. It was not yet dirigible, however; but after two years of devising and experimenting, he sailed away from Oakland, Cal., on August 2, 1904, against the wind, and after a short voyage, turned and came back to his balloon-shed. From this time on he made several successful dirigibles, and in 1908 he met all the requirements of the United States Government for a military dirigible, and sold to it the only dirigible it possesses.
He became interested in the experiments of Curtiss and McCurdy at Hammondsport, in 1908, and aided in building the remarkable series of biplanes with which record flights were made. The newer design, known as the Baldwin biplane, is unique in the pivoted balancing plane set upright above the upper plane, a device entirely distinct from the warping or other manipulation of horizontal surfaces for the purpose of restoring lateral balance.