Morning journal and courier., 1892-03-10
TO FLY AS THE FLY FLIES.
Photography Invoked to show the Human Creature How ts Do It.
 IErnm the Philadeinhia R.,nrsi I

Human Creature How ts Do It. From the Philadelphia Recordl MT. Edward Muybridge, of the Unirer-
 sity of Pennsylvania, whose study of ami
 mai locomotion and volume on that sub
 iect made him famous few years ago, has
 set himself to a new task He believes
 that he is on the right track toward the
 construction of a working flying machine,
 and, with the support of such men as Edi-
 son, Sir John Lubbock, Won Helmholtz, Sir William Thompson, and others, is pre-
 pared to push forward his investigations.
 By these scientific men the flying ma chine, in it's perfected state, has long been regarded as certainty of the future. But flying machine to be perfect, these men and among them Edison especially-con-
 slider, must sail as swiftly as 6 bird flies, | and must answer to its helm as easily and |
 with much precision does 8 ship. | They hold that there is but one method of construction that will secure this result; that is to model the machine after the
 wings of bird or of an insect But they recognize the almost insurmountable diff culty of initiating birds wing, with its numerous complicated revolutions and its
 
 forms 8 certain function. They also rec ognize that, although yet they have only theoretical knowledge of the flight of in
 sects, an insects wing represents about
 the one -thousandth part of the difficulty of imitation in the birds. For this reason scientists feel that 6
 knowledge of the aerial navigation of in- sects will be the greatest leap forward that has yet been made toward the proper con- struction of the flying machine. They also feel that this knowledge can only be obtained through photography, and that
 the only man who is capable of conduct ing the delicate and precise instantaneous exposures that the work will require is, as
 has been evinced by his world-renowned
 'Animal Locomotion." |" MT. Mnybridge. MT. Muybridgs, who has recently re- | turned from an extended European tour, | regards with considerable approval the
 wishes of his scientific friends. He is willing to undertake the project, which he calls "a study of the aerial and ter
 restrial lccomotion of insects" and so
 stated, last night, at his residence. "The knowledge that might be gleaned | from study of insects-I mean, of | course, from 8 study of their aerial loco motion," he said, "would be of incslcu- I liable value to the many renowned gen. tlemen who now are devoting their at- | tention to the flying machine. That I | am right in this assertion has been at | tested by every scientist with. whom have conversed. Edison has told me that
 he firmly believes perfect flying ma chine some day will be invented, and
 that he also believes the wing of fly is the model upon which that machine will | be constructed. Lubbock and Helmholtz
 and Langley of Johns Hopkins University, Ray Lankester, and Sir William Thomp- I son-s group of names that are probably | the most renowned in the scientific cir | cles of to-day-share MT. Edison's opin- ] ion, and unite with him in urging me to | make a study of the locomotion of in- | sects upon the same system l adopted in | my Animal Locomotion.'
 'I have already elucidated to the world | the birds flight, and shown how compli-
 cated matter it is. Now an insect, it | is we'll known, can fly faster than & bird, | although the manner of its flight is not known, but merely guessed at. Yetguess- | es are not always So very inaccurate, and | we are pretty certain already of one most | important fact, which is, that in an in- | eect's flight there is no lost motion. The action of a birds wings, on the other
 hand, may be compared to a man rowing a | boat; he, of course, in his recovery from | every stroke loses an immense amount of motion, and so does bird in .ts recovery | from the down ward flap of its wing. The | hy's wing, however, presents a perfectly plain surface, and, in its upward as we'll | as in its downward vibrations, assists in
 the work of propulsion; the fy's wing &C., ton may thus be compared to that of 6
 man sculling boat: there, also, no useless | exertion is made.
 s'Now," continued Mr. Muybridge. ''the
 advantage of modelling a machine after a wing that in its action loses not one iots of
 motion, rather than after a wing half of
 whose exertion is dead loss, can very es-
 silly be seen. But this is not the only sd-
 vantage. fiy's wing is but a fiat sur
 face. and its action, so far as is known, is | in but two directions, upward and down | ward. But a birds wing, besides being
 covered with a myriad of feathers, each of | which, said before, has its own par | ticulsr function, in fits action takes four | distinct positions, each of which is so
 complicated ss to defy imitation.
 After the perfect flying machine has
 been constructed" he continued, "the | question remains as to the sort of power | with which to run 1t. This, however, is
 question that can be easily solved, cleo | tricity, the gas engine, or & dynamite en- | zine working on the same principle the | gas engine, all being motive powers that | could be readily utilized"
 l Mir. Muybridge concluded with the state ment that while he would gladly under
 take the demonstration of the insects flight that has been suggested to him, he
 could not undertake it upon his own re- | sponsibility. He intimated, however, that
 in a short time the scheme would be
 taken up either by some young unirersi- | ty that encourages original research or by
 some wealthy individual.
 |