Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-07
CAN MEN FLY?
AN INTERESTING PROBLEM FOR
SCIENTIFIC SOLUTION.
Professor Richard Proctor's Discus
sion of the Subject-Probabil-
titles of the Future.

dlilCit III tue s9L. iEOulS tItUOC-IteUlDcTQt
upon the subject "Can Men Fly?'
From my Florida home | can watch the
turkey buzzards floating leisurely along on
outstretched wings often not giving a wing
stroke for many minutes; sometimes, I'M
less my watch upon them has been less
steadfast than | have supposed, not for
quarter of an hour or more At times |
have seen them so close at hand-for this
somewhat repulsive bird is not troubled
with fears in the neighborhood of man
that | have been able to note the listless-
ness of their aspect as they float in wide
circles around my house. 1t IS evident
that in this form OF fight, at any rate,
bird has little occasion 10 exercise that
superior strength of the pectoral muscles
on which, according to Borelli, the power
of flight possessed by birds depends There
may, indeed, be no occasion for the actual
exercise of strength in the onward floating
which forms so important feature of the
flight of the buZzard, the albatross and
many other birds. OF course, this is by
no means saying that great propuisive
energy is not exerted by all birds in
their flight. Apart from atmospheric cur
rents, the buzzard and the albatross
can only float as they do by virtue of
onward velocity obtained through the in
tensely energetic action of their wings,
worked by the pectoral muscles, on whose
strength BorellI insisted. But it is an I'M
portant first step toward the mastery of the
problem of fight to note that great dis
tances may be fioated over without any
fresh exercise of strength whatever, espe-
cially when we consider that the initial
velocity necessary to render such floating
possible may be obtained on the solid earth
as indeed, is the manner of some birds
The great difficulty which man has first
to overcome is that of maintaining his
balance in the air. OF course, when he
tried wing tapping, and that, too, with his
weak chest muscles, he was bound to come
to grief. Confidently launching himself
from some lofty wall or tower, with wings
fastened to his arms on some plan tested for
the first time in this dangerous experiment
itself, he was lucky if he escaped with
broken arm or leg-the more probable re-
suit being broken neck But even such
steady onward floating as we see in the
buzzard's case, though not accompanied by
any violent and, for man, unusual exertion,
is not to be managed without long and
careful practice Man, who was long in
acquired the art of balancing his body in the
water after many failures, must not expect
to balance his body in the air till he has
made many attempts and learned to over
come many difficulties.
My idea about the proper plan to be fol-
lowed in attempting flight is that the
power of steady aerial foatation should
first be aimed at, the power of aerial pro-
pulsion being sought for afterward. The
experiments first made in the art of aerial
balancing ought to be made in perfect
safety, or they can never be effectively car
ried out. Now, since rapid advance is
| absolutely essential to foatation after the
buzzard or albatross style, there must be a
decided element of danger at the moment
when the experimenter first lost the sup
port of the ground, unless he is able to pre-
serve his onward motion unchecked For
he would practically be in the position of
q traveller in train or carriage suddenly
brought to rest Hence it would be essen
tial that light wheels should be provided
en- which the aeronaut and his appurten-
ances could roll safely onward if Gas would
surely happen in his first attempts) he was
unable to continue his advance in the air
With such a provision for safety, Suitable
widespread wings, with power of altering
their slant either separately or together,
and means for obtaining at the start suf-
fieient horizontal velocity, / believe that
athletes such as those who first Obtained
r.astery over the problem of the bicycle
could very soon learn to float, to ascend, to
descend, to ride upward, to scar, and so
forth, in way which would very deci-
sively indicate the possibility of much
fuller mastery over the problem Of flight
later on.
One popularity which may be always
n ,tieed in the floating Of such birds as the
albatross at sea and the buzzard over the
land, should be carefully noticed in such
experiments. The birds wings always
slant upwards from the body. This rem
ders the birds dynamical equilibrium sta
bic, for it will easily beseen that if through
any cause the bird SWAPS over to one side,
the wing on that side becomes more hori-
zontal than the other, so that the atmos-
pheric resistance below brings that de-
pressed side up again. By initiating this
popularity the aeronaut, experimenting in
the way | have suggested, can readily Sc
cure stability so far as right and left oscil-
lations are concerned, directing his full at
tention to the means for securing stability
against what may be called fore-and-aft
oscillations. 1t is to be noticed that the
question is not merely of stability regarded
as safety, but of that perfect steadiness of
motion by which alone the full supporting
power of the air can be utilized.
But here difficulty will suggest itself
to the student of physics. Can air have
greater supporting power on a horizontal
fat surface passing horizontally through it
than 1t has on the same surfaces allowed
to fall from rest? We know that cannon
ball fired horizontally comes as quickly to
the ground (appreciably) as though let fall
from the lannon's mouth. Must not the
same law apply to fiat body travelling
skimmingly through the air?
OF course such a body comes to the
ground eventually; and only slight, but
definite, slant could bring atmospheric
pressure into action by which the body
would be maintained at the same hight.
But the idea commonly entertained, even
by some mathematician, that air has no
greater supporting power on flat hori
zontal body advancing rapidly through it
than on similar body simply allowed to
fall, Is altogether erroneous. II is as far
from the truth, and for practically the
same reasons, as would be the idea that a
cannon-ball allowed to fall vertically down.
ward on and through water will descend
no faster than the same ball fired hor-
zontally over still water. Precisely as the
swiftly advancing ball is detected from the
surface of the water, 50 a swiftly advancing
horizontal plane passing over still air is
supported much more effectively at each
part of its progress than it would if allowed
to fall straight down. In so falling, even
though by any device its horizontally
were maintained, it would in a few mo-
ments generate atmospheric currents curv-
ing round its edges from below upward,
and then tending downward on its upper
surface, and would thus fall freely and
quickly; but in rapid forward motion no
vertical currents are produced, and the
still air constantly traversed possesses a
much greater supporting power than the
air disturbed by such currents as arise in
the case of a merely falling body. Still
slant is necessary for absolutely horizontal
motion, the advancing edge of the plane
surface being kept always little higher
than the rear edge, so that cushion of
con1prpsScd All ic