Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-11
MEN WILL NEVER FLY.
Human Birds, Like Perpetual Motion,
Are Impossibilities.
ANATOMY OF THE SPEEDY BAT,
The Most Widely Accepted Story Of The
Birth of the Earth.
MANY SATELLITES CANNOT BIZ SEEN
SAT0MY OF THE SPEEDY BAT.
MANY SATELLITES CANNOT BE SEEN
WRITTEN FOB THE DIspArcH.1

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might not fly. It isn't necessary, in order
to fly, that we should have such wings az
birds have, for the best of all flyers, the bat,
has neither quills nor feathers, nor has ID
| any semblance of bird wing. A recognized
authority in natural history says that ''if
the fingers of man were to be drawn out like
wire to about four feet in length, q thin mem
brane to extend from finger to finger, and
another membrane TO fall from the little
finger to the ankles, he would make very
tolerable bat.
But could the artificial bat-man fy, even
| If he should be able to exactly duplicate the
bats equipments, making it to correspond
with his size and weight? Many men
| have attempted to contruct self-propelled
| flying pachInes, and their initial flights
have always terminated in violent contacts
with the ground. The bat-man would fare
| no better. No, man will never fy without
| the aid of some power many times greater
than his own muscles afford. The great
| condor of the Andes is bird that weighs
half as much as 15-year-old boy. Then,
why might not a boy, fitted with the bat
| flying appliance, also sail through the air7
| 1t is because the condor, in the muscular
| equipment which operates its WINGS is at
least ten times stronger than the boy. An
| example of the wonderful construction of
wing-moving power is found in the bird that
| Noah sent from the ark in search of land.
The dove, or what is essentially the same
thing, our familiar pigeon, is the fastest Of
| long flyers. The pigeon, as we all
know, has
Very Prominent Breast
| 1t is a light and delicately-built bird In its
| other parts, but the breast is relatively
| heavy, having mass of powerful muscles
| connecting with the wings. The conse-
| quence is that the pigeon can fly hundreds
of miles without stopping at rate that no
railway train has ever equalIed. Pigeons
have been killed in the State of New York
with Carolina rice in their crops, and the
| progress of digestion showed that the rice
| could not have been eaten more than six
hours before. This would indicate a speed
of more than so miles an hour. Carrier
pigeons have travelled much faster than that
| in still longer flights.
The little humming bird, the smallest of
all the feathered tribe, is the best example
OF muscular force adapted to flying purposes.
| This beautiful little creature (found only in
| America) has longer and stronger wing mus
cles in proportion to its size than anything
| else of bird kind. No other bird could
| poise itself in the air, as the humming bird
does, while extracting the sweets from q
| flower. In order to work pair of wings
| after the manner of a humming bird boy
would need to be at least so times stronger
| in breast and arm muscles than is the aver
| age boy. 1t is safe't say, therefore, that no
| boy will ever poise in the air Tapping .
| pair of artificial wings while calmly pluck
| ing the farmers best apples in defiance Of
the angry dog below.
Birth of the Planets.
If we accept the theory OF astronomers that
! our sun and the millions of other suns were
| evolved from masses of nebulous matter,
then we should like to know how the earth
| and the rest of our suns planetary brood
came into existence. The Bible tells US
something about the earth's infancy and in
| ferentlaIly about the other planets. "The
| earth was without form, and void, we are
| told, in the first chapter of Genesis. There
| was no division OF land and water-nothIng
but darkness and chaos. This agrees with
| well known scientific facts. Geology taxes
US back to the time when land and water
began to take form as we see them now.
| But we should like to know something
\ about the earth's history farther back than
the Bible and geology takes us. We are
satisfied with the evidence as to it's child
! hood, but when and how was our dear old
earth born? How came the suns eight
| planets, and the little asteroids, to be made
| into balls, and placed outward in spaces at
distances ranging from 81, 600, 900 to 3, 3,000,-
| 000, 900 miles from the parent sun?
Even the astronomers do not pretend to
| say positively how this mighty work Of
| world-making was accomplished, but some
of them have theory which seems plausi-
| BILE and which fully harmonizes
with demonstrated facts. What are
called spiral neutrality-suspicious. bodies
which are evidently rotating or whirling-
have lately been studied with greater care
and minuteness than ever before. It seems
probable that these spirals indicate q stage
in which masses of nebulous matter begin to
concentrate and begin the initial work Of
making a star system, after the manner of
our solar system. The attraction of nebula,
as we know by analogy, would cause a ro-
tory motion, parts nearest the nucleus NOV
ing with the greatest rapidity, and other
parts moving more slowly in proportion to
their distances from the center. Such q
nebula as this would extend billions of miles
in space.
Formation of the Rings.
The different velocities OF the parts would
naturally produce the spirals, and as the
process of condensation went on the nucleus
would become a comparatively solid body
like our sun, while spirals, at various dis
tances therefrom, would by their own at
traction become more closely defined as in
dividual rings. In course of time, perhaps
millions of years, these rings would grad
ually draw together and assume the
spherical form which seems to be the ulti-
mate shape of all the heavenly bodies II
this supposition is true the earth was once
section of spiral nebula. As the sun set-
tied down into comparative solidity the
nearest spiral or ring became the planet
Mercury, the next one Venus, the next the
earth, and on out to Neptune, nearly
8, OOO, ,0O0, 900 miles away.
And il planets were thus evolved, from
spiral nebula surrounding the sun or star,
then it logically follows that our moon, and
the moons of other planets, are the spherical
outgrowth of nebulous rings. Astronomers
who believe in this theory declare that
Saturn's rings will eventually increase the
already very liberal allowance Of that
planets moons. But if this planet-making
theory is correct why cannot the completed
planets of star be discovered through the
telescope? Because the stuff of which the
planet is made becomes thousands of times
smaller. when completed. than it was in the
nebulous state. A woman's dress may be
not more than four feet high and two feet
in diameter; but probably there are 20 yards
of stuff in IL The spirsls of which our
planets were made must have been billions
.r ill. in diamatar. hut the dia efx L.