The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-10-28
NI1Illf4vaglf
MECHANICAL FLIeI IT.

There Is . Possibility That ven WI
Fly Through the Air Before long.
Above us is the great aerial ocean
stretching over all lands, and o. Ferlnt
an always open way to them, yet wa.
that has never yet been thus trod den
Can it be that the power we have alw ay'
lacked is at last found, and that it OIL u,
remains to learn to guide it?
Let me, in answering, compare the
case to that which would present itself
if the actual ocean had never been ira
versed because it was always covered
with fields of thin ice, which gave way
under foot, which.iadeed permitted YES
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, 1.-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, but that it is quite
within the limits of your strength to &C
with the requisite speed"
All this might bt true, and yet, If nc
one had ever learned to skate. every trial
of this really excellent plan would prob
ably end in disaster, as all past efforts to
fly have done. Indeed, in our actual eX-
perience with the air, men have come t,
the same kind of wrong conclusion as
would have been reached in supposing
that the ice could not be traversed, be-
cause no 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 smile is defective so far as it sug-
gests that man can sustain himself by
his unaided strength on calm air, which
l believe to be impracticable; but it il
the object Of experiments to prove that
he has now the power to sustain himself
with the aid of engines recently con-
structed as soon as he has the skill to
direct them.
If asked whether a method of fight
will soon be put in practice, should
have to repeat that what has preceded is
mater of demonstration, but that this
is matter of opinion. Expressing then,
a personal opinion only. should answer,
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 new field open to them,
and though have not experimental far
enough TO say that the relations of power
to weight established for small machine
will hold for indefinitely large ones, it is
certain they do so hold, at any rate fal
enough to enable us to transport, at
speeds which make US practically indie
pendent of the wind, weights much
greater than that of 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 an
effect on some of the conditions of our
existence which will mark this among
all the wonders the century has SEEM
S. p. Langley in Century.