Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-02-06


proved through the agency Of the magic fluid
and brought into practical use by its cheapness.
The reproduction and transmission of the
human voice-seemingly impossible projects
fifty years ago--have each startled the world.
Indeed. it would appear that, by one,
apparently impossible things have in turn been
made the actual. and one result is a tendency
to belief that nothing is beyond the range of
human ingenuity.
All these triumphs have encouraged the hope
on the part OF both the scientific and the un-
scientific that in time all this scientific energy
may result in the mastery of that evasive prob
lem OF the navigation of the air. Many capable
men have attacked the problem from different
sides at once, but so far with only theoretical
| success. and the practical accomplishment of
the OBJECT IN view Is apparently yet afar off.
new element has entered into the field,
however, that promises more hope and the
students OF aerial flight have concluded that
there may yet be some data obtained that will
lead to definite results in the near future.
Most of the efforts that have been made SO far
have been based on the application to the
problem Of mans fight of the principles of
the birds wing and its motions. instantaneous
photography has played an important part in
this and whatever advance has been made is
largely due to its developments.
TO STUDY THE FLY.
From horse to fly is large jump, partic-
ularly for a Photographic camera, yet it is not
too great when there is such goal ahead as the
emancipation Of man from the shackles of the
earth. Twenty years ago Prof. Eadweard
Muybridge photographer of San Francisco,
began series of experiments with the coop
GRAFTON of the governor, now Senator Stanford,
in the line OF photosraphing horse in full mo-
ton in various gaits. The results produced
have practically reyolutionized the art of an
imal painting and sculpture, and the worker
has received the plaudits of the world for his
perseverlng, painstakiug work and the inval-
liable data that he has secured. He has labored
for most OF the time under the auspices of the
University OF Pennsylvania, and during the
past few years has been lecturing in this
country and Europe, and on Wednesday night
he made his appearance before Washlngto
audience at the CorcOran Art School.
Prof. Muybridge has photographed What may
be termed the whole field of animal motion by
means Of an ingenious device that has enabled
him to take successive Impressions sensitive
plates OF men, women, children, animals and
birds while engaged in their natural move
ments, walking. running, posing, playing, and
he has in a certain sense formulated his results
in the shape OF rules of motion that have proved
extremely useful to modern artists in their
work. At all events the photographs themselves
In the absence of any rules. a revelation and
the result is to be seen in a gradual change in
the generally accepted or conventional types
OF the figures of motion.
THE MOTION OF INSECTS WINGS.
Having run up and down the scale of the
animal kingdom and photographed every avail
able species, even including the wild beasts of
the tropics-obtained from menageries and
Zoos-this wizard Of the camera now proposes
to 60 down into what may be termed the depths
of his field and begin a series of experiments
toward determining the rules of the flight of
insects. He has found it comparatively easy TO
get a snap shot at a horse and q man, and even
little Birds but the task he has now set for him
self is apparently far more difficult than any he
has yet planned.
There will probably be more practical use
for the results OF this series OF experiments
than for any other that Prof. Muybridge has
under taken; that is, he hopes for more from
this work. as 1t is his theory, based on his
| former results obtained from the photographs
of birds in flight, that the wings of insects will
furnish more reliable data for the building of
the coming air ship.
He has been in consultation for some time by
personal interview and correspondence with
Prof. Langley Of the Smithsonian Institution,
who is one OF the foremost workers for the fiy-
ing machine. 1t has been agreed between
them that there must be vast fund of infor-
| nation to be discovered behind the blur that
appears to the eye when insect whirs
through the air, and accordingly Prof. Muy-
bridge will go to work possible in his
effort to chain the light flashing from a rap
idly moving membrane of the wing of q COM
mon house fly even as he has done with that
| coming from the flying feet Of a galloping
horse.
HOW EXPERIMENTS WILL BE MADE.
Prof. Muybridge gave an interesting view Of
his plans the other day to a reporter of The
STAR. ''In all probability" he said, Il shall
| not be able to get to work upon this project of
photographing the fight of insects before the
| middle OF next summer, yet 1 have devised
my machinery and made my calculation for
the work, and there need be no delays when 1
am once started. l may go to New
York. and perhaps shall return to my old
studio at the University of Pennsylvania, where
| l made my first definite results with the zoo
praxiscope, as l have termed my battery of
| cameras.
There should be no insurmountable diff
| culties encountered. for the work to be done is
merely a microscopical reproduction of that
which l have already carried on successfully.
l shall, Of course, use different lens, probably
| an inch In diameter, and without any dia-
| phragm. 1t will probably be capable of a very
| short focus, SO that can get the greatest pos
sible definition. l have found considerable
trouble ensuing from the long focus lenses
| that l have had to use in my former work in
photographing the horse and other animals.
and it is my hope to eliminate all this in this
series Of experiments.
| THE MAIN DIFFICULTY.
"The main difficulty, of course. will be in
getting sufficiently high rate of speed to my
shutters to capture the light that will flash from
the object with almost incredible rapidity Let
me give you few figures to show you how
| great problem this is. Take the wing of a
pigeon, for example. 1t is. say, twelve inches
| in length from the root to the tip, and thus it,
path from the extreme height to the lowest
point OF its reach is twenty-four inches long
The round trip, representing one complete flap
OF the wings, is forty-eight inches. / have
found that the average flight Of a pigeon in.
wolves about ten flaps Of the wings each second
and thus each wing travels at the rate OF 49,
| inches a second. A railroad train going at the
rate of forty miles an hour cuts through zoe
| inches of space each second. In other
words, the average pigeon wing and the aver
age train are not far from similar in theil
speeds. 1t is quite easy to photograph NOV
ing train, and SO it is to get a detail of the
birds wing, yet in the case Of the latter the
field is so small and the tip Of the moving OBJ
tect is SO finely drawn out that the very keenes
motion on the part Of the shutter is required
"A horse running at q one-forty gait moves
his hoofs very rapidly. The foot describes
curve, the ends of which have the create,
pitch, and there the motion is comparatively
slow. But on the long and fat part of the
curve the speed Of the foot, have estimated
IL fully 40 feet . second, or !, 440 inches
over twice as fast a. the average railroad train
l have frequently photographed the hoof Of I
horse as sharply as have the hand Of Q man
Now, have estimated that the wing Of q com
mon house fly is about . quarter OF an inch il
length, and thus its path Is half an inch long
| or an inch in the round trip.