The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-07-07
JUST HOW MAN WILL FLY
NOT BY FLAPPINe ARTIFICIAL WINGS,
BUT BY SOARING.

He Will Succeed Yet. Says an Investi-
gator. and His voyasing viii BE ON
the AcropIane PrincipIe-Australia Has
Come Near to Solving tho Problem.
Man will yet learn how to fly. Pro-
fessor Langley, secretary of the Smith
dress delivered before the National
Academy of Sciences This ought to
give much encouragement to thinkers
who hope that mankind will some day
secure domain in the element of birds,
just as it has already done. thanks to the
evolution of submarine boats and diving
gear in that of fishes. The distinguish
ed scientist referred to expressed conf
dence that the contrivance of the future
for aerial navigation would be on the
kite principle. -
The air possesses elements of buoy
ancy which have not been recognized
hitherto. There is no truth in the popu-
lar conception that a body heavier than
the atmosphere cannot be suspended in
that medium without motion. A kite
of sticks and paper is much heavier than
the fluid which it displaces, but it is sus
Lalu6Q dlOfL GU Ccbn ullu AL example
much more striking. however. in the
eagle or the frigate bird, which. though
an animal of considerable weight, re-
mains poised in the sky upon extended
pinions motionless for hours together SO
that a telescope may be trained on it.
Thousands Of feet above the earth it is
sustained without movement of a feath-
err. though in "a rarefied atmosphere.
fowl has an instructive knowledge of the
way in which to utilize the air currents
for its support. When man has learned
how this can be done he will be able TO
fly. The most advanced investigators N
this subject reject the balloon and all
other such lifting devices as impracti-
cable: a gas lighter than air can never
be safely confined within receptacle
that is not weighty. and the same objec-
ton applies to a vacuum.
Ballooning today is about where it
was when ii was first invented, and in
the nature of things it never get much
further. Aluminium is light for metal,
but it is several times too heavy to be
successfully utilized for such purposes.
Pray. what has become of those alumni
mum trains of cars that We're to be run
through the air from Chicago to New
York at sixty minutes the trip
LESSONS FROM BIRDS
There is school of flying machine in
ventors VINO may be designated as the
''fiappers. inasmuch as their idea is to
sustain their 1contrivances by the flap
ping of birdlike wings. But they doubt
less forget that the best flyers among
birds do not support themselves by fap-
ping. On the contrary. they only resort
to that performance when it is necessary
for a. start. ai,y e3a f.!s,- .. -.T u.1s zas5. r
The eagle, if launching himself from
level ground. is obliged to take quite a
run first: then, ffapping his wings with
violent muscular effort which he could
not keep up for long. he gains a suff
cient altitude to render it possible for
him to strike along the plane of an air
current which holds him up; f'. r
Floating with hbrating pinions from
one air current to another, he is lifted.
! with an occasional broad sweep of his
powerful wings. to the upper aerial re-
gions, where he simply floats. opposing
/ to each movement of the suspended
ether the gentle force necessary to main
tain him in his stationary position
! These principles which the eagle ap-
J plleS sIOT purposes Oh uISaI are perIccUty
understood in the theory of mechanics.
/ 1t is only necessary to adapt them with
/ suitable apparatus IN order to give to
! human beings like powers. True, the
bird is lighter in proportion to its size
than is man. its bones are hollow and
filed with warm air from the lungs.
But the difference in this respect is
not very material. and it may easily be
compensated for by bigger wings. Pow
er to flap them is not what is required,
inasmuch' as the start can be made from
! hei ght; what is wanted is the knowl
edge which inherited experience-..in
stinct'' has given the fowl as to how te
adapt the angles of the wings to the ali
currents. HH
A PRACTICABLE MACHINE.
This is precisely what Professor Lang
ley has been experimenting with. What
he is attempting is to produce machine
adapted to fotatlon upon the air cur
rents like kite, You can find very
simple illustration of the principle he ii
working on IN the trick Zone with play
ing cards by the prestidigitator Herr
mann, who throws them from the stag
into the highest gallery of the bigges
theater in the United States, distributing
them one after another among tn,
gods" of that.select circle. How doe
he do it!
Simply by skillfully utilizing the al
currents. The scrap of pastboard i
heavier than the atInosDhere but in