The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1891-10-21
MECHANICAL FLIGHT.
There Is "A Possibility That Nen VIII
Ely Through ihe Air Hefore Long.

There Is n Possibility That Men VIII
Fly Through ihe Air Hefore Long.
Above US is the great aerial ocean,
stretching over all lands, and Offering
an always open way to them. yet d way
that has yet been thus trodden.
Can it be that the power we I've always
lacked Is at last found, and til it only
remains to learn to guile il?
Let me, in answering. :! pare the
case to that which would present itself
il the actual ocean had never been ira
Tersed because it was always covered
with fields Of thin ice, which gave way
under foot, which indeed permitted ves-
sells to be launched and to float, but
which compelled them to move wherever
the ice drifted. Such vessels would re-
semble our balloons, and be of as little
practical use; but now suppose we were
told, The ice which has always been
your obstacle may be made your very
means Of transport. for you can glide
over the thinnest ice, provided you only
glide fast enough, and experiments Will
prove not only how fast you. must go to
make the ice bear, bat that it is quite
within the limits of your strength to go
Win the requisite speed.
All this might be true, and yet, if 70
one had ever learned to skate, every tria!
of this really excellent plan would prob
ably end in disaster, as all past efforts to
e. have dUle. Indeed, in Our actual ex-
pe-ience with the air, men have come to
the same kind Of wrong conclusion as
would have been reached in supposing
that the ice could not DE Uraversed, be-
cause nc One had the strength to skate,
while the truth would be that man has
plenty of strength to skate, but is not
born with the skill.
The simile is defective so far as it sug-
gestS. that man can sustain himself by
his unaided strength on calm air, which
| believe to be impracticable; but it is
the object or experiments to prove that
he has now the power to sustain himself
with the aid Of engines recently con
structcd us soon as he has the skill to
direct them.
If asked whether a method Of flight
will sOOn be put in practice, | should
have to repeat that what has preceded is
matter Of demonstration, but that this
is matter Of opinion. Expressing then,
u I'E4SOA&i OIl-4IOL Oh1y L olOu1d dLI9NCi,
Eyes" 1t is hardly possible that the
secondary difficulties will not be soon
conquered by the skill Of our inventors
and engineers, whose attention is al
ready beginning to be drawn to the fact
that here is a new field open to them,
and though | have not experimental far
enough to say that the relations Of power
to weight established for small machines
Will hold for indefinitely large ones, it is
certain they do SO hold, at any rate far
enough to enable Us to transport, at
speeds which make us practically indie
pendent Of the wind, weights much
greater than that Of a man.
Progress is rapid now, especially in in
vention, and it is possible-it seems to
me even prObable-that before the cen
fury closes we shall see this universal
road Of the all embracing air, which
recognizes none Of mans boundaries,
travelled in every direction, with al
effect on some Of the conditions Of our
existence which will mark this among
al the wonders the century has SEEM
S.. P. Langley in Century.