The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1893-05-19
GheDemorraf-S Star
FLYING MACHINES.
Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore Sun.
In the da, of lcarus and before,
men dreamed of flying lhrugIl
The air like birds; The earth and,
at last. The sea welded 10 his do
IN mon, but the AR is sill uncun-
quered. When, more than Il cen.
Jury ago. Monsoliier Invented The
hot.ar balloon the question was
though, to have been solved, but
more than n hundred years have
gone by and the balloon. is still a
useless toy, Incapable of much
control or direcilnn, and almost
useless for practical purposes. 1t
is true balloons have been invent
ed whose course might lie direct.
ed but their action is slow and un
certain, and they are capable Of
being used only under The most ia
vOrable circumstances. Besides
the balloon we have so far only
the parachute and the kite as The
means of liavel through The air.
The first is only a makeshi.t de.
vice for utilizing the air as Il cu,h.
ion to break a lali ; the other has
81 tar been useless for any pur.
pose. as i, depends for its Assem-
siOnal power on the an,agonism Of
OF forces, one Of which Is neceSsa.
r,ly the wind, the Other a fixed at.
tachmeni to Il particular place ON
The surface of the earth. II is trne
that a kite has recently been in.
vented which is capable of being
governed 10 Il certain extent as to
its direction, but so far IL has not
been practically utilized,
Flying machines nnumerable
have been invented, but not one
Of them has answered the lnlen-
tors expectations, and not one has
succeeded, withoul external power,
in raising itself above the ground.
Nevertheless, the belief that the
feat would yet be accomplished Is
general even in The most practical
minds. Hiram Maxim, The well
known inventor of firearms, has
been at work Tor years ON such an
invention, and has full confidence
in his Ultimate success. Careful
scientific studies OF the resistance
of air TO proprlIing forces, OF the
method Ct flight of birds and in
sects and of the use of inclined
planes have been made. while
scarcely less study has been spent
on The problem OF generating a
maximum Of power with a mini
mum OF weight, since tins is an es-
sen,lal factor in all FIRMS Of flying
apparatus. The Lews that one al
The most celebrated scientists in
America is al work on such IA ma.
chine is not incredible, though The
report Is probably very inaccurate.
Pref. Langley will doubtless eX-
plain in good time The nature and
aim OF his experiments. In the
meantime it is but fair 10 presume
that he is not alune in the attempt
to solve The problem OF navigating
the air, and that the results IF suri,
study will moi be wholly in vain.
The problem is no, merely to
construct machine capable of
overcoming gravity, but also che
capable Of resisting measurablv, at
least, the poweroi the wind. When
it is remembered that 1t is the air
which necessarily furnishes the
point of resistance ON which must
be eXerIed any form of power
which could lie adopted, ii will be
recognized how difficult The second
problem becomes. Blu, the study
of the flight OF birds and expert.
men,s with kites and ST. called
aeroplanes have demonstrated thai
it is not necessary TO rely on di
rect propulsion to either use in the
air or 10 direct flight. The alba
trOss is perfectly helpless on the
deck Of a ship, his great 81 read of
wings being Incapable of raising
The weight of his body. Thrown
into The air, he scars with perfect
ease ard evidently with IA mini
mum amount of muscular eXer.
ton. Occasionally, in the teeth
Of the wind, a lew active motions
of The wings are necessary, but the
rest of the graceful flight is evi.
denily accomplished 10y an elabo.
rate system of balancing, which
presents successfully new planes
10 The action Of The wind, whicl,
is thus utilized as an assensional
power, and also as a directive one.
1t is on tins pOwerof birds that the
present hopes Of scientists ar,
based, for if The wind, which ina.
hitherto been the principal cause
of failure, can be utilized as ian AID
there is scarcely a question that
the problem Of aerial navigation
will be successfully solved. II i,
IN this direction that The elaborate
experiments Of Maxim. have been
directed and it is very possible
that Prof. Langley is also expert
menling in a similar line. No one
need look for a speedy solution OF
the question. Mr.. Maxim, whose
long experience as an inventor full
~ jusliiies his recognition as an ex.
pert, estimated that it would cost
three years work and a million
dollars TO construct The first sue.
cessiul llving machine, and that
even then the machine would need
many notifications Lelore it
would be a commercial success.
Ita,ntll .,..