The flying machines which were constructed from 1920 to 1999 on the Langley plan, were built of Nickalum, an alloy of aluminum, crystalized, within a magnetic field. The specific gravity of Nickalum, as employed in the manufacture of ærodromes, or flying machines, was .512. It was lighter than a thin strip of pine wood, malleable as gold and impenetrable as steel. Ærodromes could not have been successfully manufactured in 1920 if Nickalum had not been employed in their construction.
ÆRIAL NAVIGATION.
This new property was one of the marvelous products of the twentieth century. It was employed in nearly everything which required strength and elasticity. It was so malleable that waterproof garments, overcoats and shoes were manufactured of Nickalum as early as the year 1912.
With this wonderful and cheaply manufactured metal, ærial navigation became a Ærodromes of Nickalum. possibility. The old fashion days of silk balloons drifting helplessly on air currents, had long passed away. These pre-Adamite curiosities belonged to the period of the nineteenth century, when man was yet living under primitive conditions, though by no means in a state of innocence.
Ærodromes constructed of Nickalum were largely employed for traveling and commercial purposes between 1920 and 1925, while in 1999 they had reached a high stage of perfection. Ærodromes weighing four hundred pounds only, in 1925, could easily carry ten persons and cleave their way like an arrow through a high wind. Small ærodromes carrying four persons, weighed only one hundred pounds.
If the wind were favorable on their regular trips, the high grade express ærodromes Some Fast Traveling. in 1999, belonging to the popular Sky-Scraper line, could easily make the trip from Manhattan (formerly New York) to Washington, in the State of Mexico, a distance of 1,949 miles in a direct air-line, in fifteen hours, making brief stops for meals at Columbia, D. C., (formerly called Washington) and at New Orleans. From the Crescent City it was only a short run across the deep, blue gulf, to Vera Cruz, then followed a short spurt of two hundred miles west of Vera Cruz to the national capital, Washington, then built upon the site of the ancient Aztec City of Mexico. In 1999 this was regarded as a neat, breezy little trip.
The name of New York city (always a meaningless and unpopular one), had been The Great City of Manhattan. changed in 1912 to the more appropriate one of Manhattan. Its population in 1999 had increased to 25,000,000 souls. Although the largest metropolis of the world, Manhattan in 1999 had reached its zenith.
The consolidation of the republics into one vast American Union, from Alaska to Patagonia, and the removal of Washington as the seat of our national government, from the little District of Columbia to a more central and appropriate location in the State of Mexico, as well as the opening of the Nicaragua Canal, were the leading factors that contributed to the commercial detriment and undoing of Manhattan. The star of destiny shone brightly over Mexico as the conspicuous centre of the new and great American Republic and the volume of the world’s trade passed through the Nicaragua Canal, diverting millions of freightage that otherwise must have entered the port of Manhattan.