The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-03-09
WHY MEN CANNOT FLY.
Lack OF Progress in Mans Con- petition with
the Birds--Rensons Why No Practical
Flying Machine is Likely TO be Invented


memorable for its mechanical and en-
cheering triumphs. 1t is distin-
guished from all the centuries which
have preceded it as the age of steam
and electricity, of rapid transportation
for human beings and their products,
and for bringing all the world in in
slant communication, one part with
another.
Other eras may have surpassed us
in literature and art. Some of our
metaphysical science may not be so
wonderful in the future as it seems to
us; but our mechanical and engineer
ing development has been so far be
yond anything of the same sort in the
past, even taking many centuries to-
gether, that this century is separated
from the eighteenth by the broadcast
gulf in the history of hum an progress
from era to era.
Yet, with all our mechanical
triumphs and our engineering achieve
ments, the Sun thinks that we are no
further advanced in one respect than
men were one hundred years ago, or a
thousand years ago, except to some
slight extent for military purposes.
Ballooning has made no progress, and
Is still nothing more than an amuse-
ment of no practical value. We do
not seem to be any nearer flying than
men were at the beginning of the
Christian era.
Our modern engineers have not yet
constructed a practical flying machine;
nay, they have not yet so much as taken
the first step in that direction.
The London Engineer, which has
lately discussed flying machines in a
scientific way, comes to the conclusion
that there is no combination of wings
or arrangements of any kind which
will enable man to fly with his own
strength. He lacks muscular power
to practice the accomplishment in
which the birds are SO proficient. And
even if machines are devised to COM
pensate for that lack of power and en-
durance, they will not be successful
unless they shall be so constructed that
each pound of the machine will de-
velop as much energy as each pound
of bird. "Not till then" says this
engineering critic, can flight for man
be achieved.
Because birds fly, that is no reason
why man should do the same thing
even if he is able to fit himself wings
as well adapted to his body as the
wings of the bird are to it's physical
construction. Already wings of
many model flying machines act just
as do those of the rock and other
birds" whose movements are slow
enough for us to observe just how they
fly. For there is a great difference
among birds as to the rapidity of their
flight, and not only that, but also as to
the grace with which they do it. They
have various styles of moving through
the air, some graceful and others COM
paratively clumsy, just as the walk of
a courtly woman differs from that of a
Sioux squaw. eve have no doubt"
says our London contemporary, "that
if men could once fly, we should soon
have as many styles developed as there
are men,"
We have said that the reason men
do not fly is not merely because they
lack wings, but also because they are
not strong enough. There is no bird
of flight which weighs as much as even
very light man, but there are many
birds which are far stronger than men
The limit Of weight beyond which the
air cannot be utilized for bird flight is
somewhere about thirty pounds.
Nature does not produce heavier birds,
and doubtless for the reason that the
"if 10 hOe ehO PiOPCi hohlc lOl dllllldlS
weighing more. "The conditions
under which species are developed,
says the Engineer, care such that
everything goes as far as it can go in
size and speed" The roc of Eastern
story it pronounces a mechanically
impossible creature"
The albatross is the largest bird in
existence, and one of the heaviest.
There are heavier birds with limited
powers of flying, but the maximum
weight of any natural flying machine
which can fly well does not exceed
thirty pounds, according to the Engi-
neer; and the weight of the albatross
seldom, if ever, exceeds twenty-eight
pounds, or one-sixth that of a power