The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-09-06
MECHANICAL FLIGHT.
The Secretary Of the Smithsonian Institution
Writes Of Possibilities.

Above us Is the great aerial ocean, stretch
ing over all lands. and offering an always
open way to them. yet way that has never
yet been thus trodden. Can it be that the
power we have always hacked is at last
found, and that it only remains to learn to
guide it?
Let me, In answering, writes Professor
S. P. Langley. Secretary of the Smith
sonian Institution. compare the case to that
which would present itself If the actual
ocean had never been traversed because it
was always covered with fields of thin ice,
which gave way under the foot, which indeed
permitted vessels to be launched and to float,
but which compelled them to move wherever
the ice drfted. Such vessels would resemble
our balloons, and be of as little practical
use; but now suppose we are 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, pro-
vided you only glide fast enough, and ex-
periments will prove not only how fast you
must go TO make the ice bear, but that 1t is
quite within the limits of your strength to
60 with the requisite speed" All this
might be true, and yet il no one had ev er
learned to skate, every trial of this really
excellent plan would probably end in
disaster, as all past efforts to fly have done.
Indeed. in our actual experience with the
air, men have come to the same kind of
wrong conclusion as would have been
reached IN Supposlng that the ice could not
be traverSed because 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 suggests
that man can sustain himself by his unalded
strength on calm air, which l believe to be
impracticable; but it is the object of these
experiments to prove that he has now the
power to sustain himself with the aid of
engines recently constructed, and by means
/ indicate, as soon as he has skill TO direct
them.
If asked whether this 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 these secondary difficulties will
not be soon conquered by the skill of our
inventors and engineers, whose attention is
that here is new field open to them, and
though have not experimental far enough
to say that the relations of power to weight
here 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 independent of the
wind, weights much greater than that
of man. Progress is rapid now.
especially in invention. and 1t is possible
it seems to me even probable-that before
the century closes we shall see this unlver-
sal road of the ALIEN bracing air, which rec
oguizeS none of mans boundaries, travelled
in every direction, with an effect on some
of the conditions of our existence which
century has seen.-The Century for Septem-