The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1888-06-30
FLOATING IN SPACE.
The Only Kind of Flight Likely to BE q
Practical Use.


Tho Only Kind of Flight Likely to Be Of
Practical Use.
/ believe that athletes such as those
who first obtained mastery over the
problem of the bicycle could very soon
learn to float. to ascend, to descend, to
ride upward, to soar and so forth, in
way which would very decisively indi-
cate the possibility of much fuller
mastery over the problem of fight
later on. Experiments which have
been already made prove decisively
that mans weight can be supported
by planes or sails of very moderate ex-
tent--not much greater, proportionally.
to his body than an eagles wings-n
only there is either rapid motion of adj
vance or strong current of air against
their slightly slanted surface. But these
experiments have not yet been so car
ried on as to show fully what can be
done when practice in the art of balan-
cling in the air and in making the adj
justments necessary for changing the
direction of fight has been sufficiently
extended. Yet Mr.. Charles Spencer.
teacher of gymnastics in England, was
able. after obtaining no greater velocity
than would be given by running down
a small incline. to sustain fight by the
supporting action of wicker wings for
distance of 120 feet. Besnier, indeed,
toward the close of the last century,
devised a method of supporting the
body by pinions, which enabled him.
after sharp run to fly across river
OF considerable width. 1t is certain
that very little is to be gained from the
attempts which have been made to
direct balloons. The velocity which
can be given to balloon in still air is
very small. A very moderate breeze
would carry balloon one way despite
all the mechanical attempts to direct
it in another. let the balloon be shaped
as it may. Moreover. all such attempts
are dangerous. for the wind has
great hold on the necessary large sur
face of balloon, and going against the
wind would subject the balloon to de-
structive influences. Whenever man at
tacks the problem of fight, seeking real
advantage from its mastery, he will aim
at much more than such mere floating
power as the balloon gives-at more,
even. than the rapid floating motion,
with power of guidance, which may be
obtained by the experiments suggested
above. There must also be power
of energetic propulsion while still in
the air. This might be obtained by
suitable adjustments of levers to be
worked BY a man in actual fight But
while I believe fight to be possible for
man in this way. consider the only
kind of fight which is likely to be
really useful to men to be that of flying
machines propelled, balanced and d.
rected by some one or other of the
natural forces man has brought under
his control. That man who has learned
to traverse the land more swiftly BY
mechanical means than its most actual
denizens. and to make the wide seas
his highways by similar devices. should
be unable to travel in the air. which by
natural selection alone has become the
home of creatures descended from rep
lillian forms, Is to me unthinkable.
Richard A. Proctor, in Philadelphia
Press.
He that conquereth himself is
greater than one who taketh a city.
But both have to give way to the man
who can sit behind one Of the spring
bonnets In theater without thinking
unutterable things. Il Philadelphia Press.