The record-union., 1894-10-13
What Has Been Accomplished in
Aerial LOcomotion.
Mans Inglorlous Attempts to Go Ma
ture One Better and Soar Skyward
on Artificial Wings-The Truth
About Bird-F1ight.

Ii is very pleasing to contemplate the
possibility Of rising free of this sordid
and wearisome earth and roaming
through the atmosphere where there is
plenty of room.
In Progress in Flying Machines" the
New York Ame3Icdn Engineer says that
o. Chanute, c. E., has told the history of
all the known flying machines that have
been invented. He gives a scientific ex-
planation of the principles which the
different inventors have sought to put
| into effect. He entertains the opinion
that flight by man is possible, and thinks
that experiments have proved il.
How birds fly is a matter not yet math-
ematically demonstrated. The earlier
| theory was that when they tapped their
wings downward they produced a react
ing air pressure wholly equal TO their
weight. This Is known as the 'Orthogo-
nal theory" 1t has been disproyed by
calculations Of the wing beats Of large
birds.
| 1t has been proved that buzzard beat
Ing his wings two and a half time sec
ond, with an amplitude OF 40 degrees,
! could only obtain a sustaining reaction
OF about one-tenth of his weight. But if
his wings are considered as inclined
planes progressing horizontally at a
speed Of torty-tive miles an hour a sus-
tanning reaction is easily obtainabIe. 1t
is possible that small birds are capable of
orthogonal flight.
Large birds, according to Mr.. Chanute,
! are living aeroplaues, under whose in
clined wings their velocity creates a
pressure which is equal to the surface.
Inls, he thinks, IS confirmed by the great
difficulty they experience in getting un-
der way. They run against the wind be-
a hE. ri In
faces OF the wings act Us aeroplanes as
well as propellers, the latter action being
produced by the direction OF the stroke
and the bending upward OF the rear heX-
lble portion of the feathers.
Bird flights he divides into three
phases:
l. Starting, during which great exer-
ton must be made, unless gravity can be
utilized.
?. Sailing, or flight proper, during
winch the bird eXerts its normal force, or
makes use OF that of the wind.
3. stopping, in which great exertion
may again be required il the headWay is
TO be rapidly stopped, or to which the re-
tarding 1orce of gravity may be brought
10 do the work OF simply rising TO a
perch.
The argument Of Mr.. Chanute's work
Is that man will only contrive flying
machine by adopting the principles of
bird-hight.
Birds, he says, perform all their man.
euVefS by regulating the intensity of
theIr actlon and by changing the angles
at which they attack the air. Hence the
important thing to know is what pressure
tne AIR eXerts under a wing, or, to sim
pIlIy the question, under plane surface,
Wnen II meets the air ut a certain velocity
and with certain angle of incidence.
Inns has been made possible by Professor
Langley's table OF approximate percent
age Of normal pressure
Professor Langley infers that mechani-
cal light is possible with engines we now
possess, since effective steam engines
nave now oeen built weighing less than
ten pounds TO one horse power, and ex-
periments show that if we multiply the
small planes which have been actually
used, or assume larger plane to have
approximately the properties of similar
smaller ones, one horsepower, rightly
applied, can sustain over two hundred
pounds in the air at a horizontal velocity
OF over twenty meters per second about
forty-fiye miles an hour, and still more
at still higher Yelocities
The problem Of artificial flight has
fascinated the minds of some OF The most
ingenious men Of every age, from the re-
motest antiquity down to the present
TIME, as the cases OF Daedalus and Hiram
Maxim show.
Leonardo de Vinci, who was the Edi-
son OF the middle ages and painter, sculp-
tor ana architect in addition, was among
the first to tackle the problem in scien-
tltc manner. lie is said to have not only
experimental with aerial screws made of
paper and TO have designed parachute,
but also to have seriously contemplated
building an apparatus to propel a pair
of wings. lie sketched an apparatus by
which wings were to be worked by arms
and legs.
Befmier, locksmith, in 1913, succeeded
in flying from the tops of houses with an
arrangement of muslin wings.
In 1912 the Marquis de BacoueyiIle an
nounced that he would fly across the
Seine from his house. He got as far as
the near bank OF the river, where he fell
Oh WaSherwOman's barge, breaking his
leg. lie had glided about I2O feet, Tho
surfaces OF his wing, or hands and feet,
were each about twenty-four feet in area
and quite insufficient to sustain mans
weight.
Experiments have been innumerable.
but practical failure has usually been the
result. An experiment which Mr., Cha
mute ascribes as lone of the most suc-
cessiuP' was made at the first exhibit
tlon OF the Aeronautical Society of Great
Britain at the Crystal Palace in 1865.
Charles Spencer exhibited an apparatns
consisting OF a pair of wings measuring
each nfteen square feet in area to which
was attached an appliance measuring 40
1eet more. and also a tail like a bows
dart, and a longitudinal k eel-cloth to nre-
serve the equilibrium, and the whole
weighing twenty-four pounds and giving
a sustaining surface of lao square feet.
Mr.. spencer was an athlete. He took
preliminary run down little Hill and
was then able to make short horizontal
Nights OF about 100 feet, during which he
was wholly sustained by the air. MIR.
SpenceTs experiments seem to have
been the most successful ever made.
a great many of the flying machines
designed have never been put to a prac-
teal test, which is probably fortunate
circumstance for somebody.
In most OF these eX periments the mo-
tive force has been mans own muscIas
Designs III which it has been proposed to
use artificial force have not been less mn.
merous. The first difficulty encountered
by these experimenters, which has in
lact. never been overcome, was that of
equilibrium. ''' u
a bird relatively is immensely stronoer
than man. Its muscles also contract at
a mucn more rapid rate than those of
other animals. 1t is hardly therefore 10
be expected that man will accom- nlish
mucn IN the way Of flight by depending
on his muscles. A man can run mn .
staircase at rate of three feet a second.
whiie a sparrow can rise vertically al
thrice that speed, ~
no less than six artificial birds have