The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-13
A FLYING MACHINE.
LATEST EMULAToRs OF THE NOTED
DARIUS GREEN.
An Apparatus Propelled by Steam
Which Scars Through the Air
Like u Bird-It Is Described by
Alexander Graham Bell.

WASHINGTON, May 1.-THE first
public statement regarding the flying
machine experiments conducted by
Professor Samuel P. Langley, the sec
rotary of the Smithsonian institute, for
some months past was made today with
the authority of Professor Langley.
The we'll known scientist has been a
believer in the eventual practical use of
air vehicles for years, and for long
period ne has been making experiments
with a device of his own invention near
Ossaquan, Va.
Much secrecy has been attached to
these trials of the aerodrome, and the
little that leaked out has excited in
tense interest among scientists through
cut the world. Professor Langley has
always been very guarded about the
experiments and the account of his lat
est attempts with
THE FLYING MACHINE
embodied in the following statements
prepared by Professor Alexander Ora
ham Bell, the we'll known inventor,
published with the sanction of Profess
scr Langley, therefore will be of great
interest to the scientific world gener-
ally.
Last Wednesday, May 6, 1 witnessed
very remarkable experiment with
Professor Langley's aerodrome, on the
Potomac river. Indeed, it seemed to
me that the experiment was Of such
historical Importance that it should be
made public.
Il should not feel at liberty to give
an account of all the details, but the
main facts 1 have Professor Lang
leys consent for giving you and they
are as follows:
1.-The aerodrome or flying machine
in question was of steel, driven by a
steam engine.
LIKE A BIRD.
at resembled an enormous bird,
soaring in the air with extreme regu-
larity, in large curves, sweeping stead
| lily upward in a spiral path, the spirals
with diameter of perhaps 100 yards
until it reached a height of about 100
feet in the air.
AT the end of the course of about
half mile, when the steam gave out,
the propellors which had moved it
stopped, and then, ITO my further sur
prise, the whole, instead of tumbling
down, settled as slowly and gracefully
as it is possible for any bird to do,
touched the water without any damage,
and was immediately picked out and
ready to be tried again.
"A second trial was like the first,
except that the machine went into a
different direction, moving in one con-
| tinuouS ascent as 1t swung around in
circle like great soaring bird At
| one time it seemed to be in danger, as
! its course carried it to a neighboring
wooded promctory, but apprehension
was Immediately allayed as it passed
| twenty-five or thirty feet above the
| top of the highest trees there, and
then, ascending still further, its steam
finally gave out again, and it settled in
to the waters of the river not quite a
quarter Of a mile from the point where
F! it rose.
mo one could have witnessed these
experiments without being convinced
that the practicability of mechanical
! flight has been demonstrated.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL"
Professor Lingley also made public a
supplemental Statement giving some
i important data regarding recent exper-
| imentS
| THE DIFFICULTIES.
| ''The aerodrome, or flying machine,
| has not gas to lift it as in the case oti
| balloon, Dut on the contrary II Is
about one thousand times heavier
bulk for bulk, than the air on which it
! is made to run and which sustains IT
J somewhat the way in which the thin
/ ice supports a swift skater. The pow
! er is derived from a steam engine
through the means of propellors, but
owing to the scale on which the actual
aerodrome is built, there has been nc
condensing apparatus to use the water
over and over again. Enough can be
carried for only very brief fight, a
difficulty which does not belong to a
larger machine than the present exam
| pie, in which the supporting surfaces
are but about fourteen feet fro tip tc
tip. The distance flown each time was
about one-haf mile. The rate of speed
depends Gas in the case of any vehi-
Gle on land) on whether it is going on a
level or uphiN. In the case eft the last
trial, ON May 6, the machine was as
cending, that is to say it was going ul
hill all the time and went through a
distance of one-half mile or more fr
one and one-half minutes, or at a rate
of a little more than twenty miles ar
| hour"