San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-10-08
MECHANICAL FLIGHT
There Is Possibility That Men VIII
Fly Through the Air Before Long.

| There Is Possibility That Men VIII
Fly Through the Air Before Long.
Aoore us is the great aerial ocean.
stretching over all lands, and offering
an always open way 10 them, yet way
that h;us never yet been thus trodden
Can it be that the power we have always
lacked is at last found, and that it only
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 indeed permitted YES
sells to he 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 20 to
make the ice bear, but that it is quite
within the limits of your strength to go
with the requisite speed"
All this might be true, and yet, if no
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-
perence 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 he Jraversed, 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 50 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 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 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,
personal opinion only, should answer,
Yes" 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 Il 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 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.