The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1896-07-01
LANGLEY'S AIRSHIP.
HAS HE SOLVED THE PROBLEM OF
AERIAL NAVIGATION!

It is rather surprising that the an
nouncement that Professor S. P. Lang
ley of the Smithsonian institution had
definitely solved the problem of aerial
navigation has not attracted more atten-
ton than it has. Coming from such a
man and backed by the word of so prac-
teal man of science as Alexander Ora
ham Bell, it was not such an announce
ment as might have come from some
unknown inventor.
Professor Langley would die famous
man if he had never taken up aero
dynamics or attempted to build flying
machine. He is indeed in his chosen
field of astronomy the foremost man Of
science we have in this country. Pro-
fessor Langley ranks with the greatest
astronomers and physicists of the world,
and he is one of the few men whom
America has produced so far who have
made any real and solid contributions
to pure science. He is to the latter some
thing of what Tesla is to applied science.
1t was a really remarkable thing that
a man like Professor Langley should
chine at all. 1t was still more remark
able at his age. Although he bears them
lightly, he has now so years to his
credit, and he did not take up with his
Investigations as to aerial flight until
about six or seven years ago. But he has
prosecuted his inquiry with all the en-
thusiasm of young man, and is, in
short, one Of the type whom you are led
to describe as So years young.
Again, in both its matter and man
ner, Professor Langiey's invention, or
his discovery, whichever you may like
to term it, is of unique interest. His
machine is built upon exactly the Oppo-
site principle from that upon which 9TH
er flying machines have been built and
his invention represents a clear triumph
for pure inductive science.
When Stephenson built his locomo-
tive, he proceeded in his work upon
certain definitely known facts-that is,
he was perfectly sure that if he could
find a way to push his wheels around
by steam his engine would run over the
ground just as an ordinary wagon
would. He was venturing into no I'M
known field of physics. With Professor
Langley it was just the opposite. AL
though men of science for two centuries
or more have been studying the dyna-
mics of the air, have weighed it and
determined its compressibility, it's &C
ton under heat, etc, yet up to the time
Professor Langley took hold of the mat
ter there existed no definite data as to
the plan or principle upon which fly
ing machine, if it is to successfully
navigate the air, must be built. To find
out these new data was his first work.
Put in less technical way, Professor
Langley's problem was this He says:
did you ever think what a physical
miracle it is for such bird as one of
our common turkey buzzards to fly in
the way it does? You may see them any
day along the Potomac, floating in the
air, with hardly the movement of their
feathers These birds weigh from five
to ten pounds. They are far heavier
than the air they displace. They are alb
solutely heavier than SO many fiatirons.
81 fancy if you saw cannon balls
floating through the air like soap bub-
bles you would look upon it as a suffi-
GENTLY surprising matter, if not as a
miracle. The only reason that we are
not surprised at the soaring bird is that
we have seen it from childhood Per-
haps if we had seen cannon balls float
ing IN the air from our childhood we
Would not stop to inquire how they did
it any more than we now do how the
turkey buzzard does it. I am speaking
now, of course, not Of birds that fly by
tapping their wings, but of those that
fly without Tapping their wings, and
with almost no visible expenditure of
force. "
1t was from watching the turkey buzz
Yard that Professor Langley came to
conclude that it was possible to build
solid models very much heavier than the
air and drive and direct such machine
with such an ordinary force as steam.
That is to say, he became convinced that
there are certain shapes in which matter
can be disposed so that the more rapidly
it moves through the air, in a sense, the
less power it takes to move it, and that
amachine could be built to skim through
the air very much as a skater skins
along the surface of very thin ice-the
faster you go, the less danger.
Professor Langley believed that soar
ing birds have an intuitive knowledge
of certain properties in the air by which
they are able to skim along, rising and
falling, soaring up and sailing down,
and turning about in circles without
any Tapping of their wings or apparently
any other effort. just what these nron-