The sun., 1896-08-13
OTTO LILTENTHALS WORK.
mrs MARKED ACHIEVEMENTS Nv
AERONA UTJCS.
He Constructed Wings by Means OF which
He Succeeded In Soaring nt Ono Time
About Fifth OF n AFIie-Iats Idea OF the
n fhah.


He Succeeded In Soaring nt Ono Time
About n Fifth OF n Miie-IaIs Idea OF the
Problem to Be SoIved-Others' Work.
That Herr Lilienthal would eventually saori-
fee his life to his scientific zeal has long been
the belief OF his family and friends. The acci-
dent which caused his death IL ono of scores In
some OF which he escaped alive only by good
luck. Time and again ho has been picked up
from the ground senseless, or RroaninR from the
pain OF sprains or fractures. only to return to
his experiments as soon AS he was able to be
about again. To his indefatigable efforts the
science of aeronautics owes more than to the
work OF any other man now living.
Herr Lilienthals work was along strictly
scientific lines. lie did not as have Prot. Lang
ley of Washington and many others, endeavor
to construct artificial birds and send them flap
ping through the air. What he essayed to do
was to accomplish flight himself not to put
forth a toy bird to do his flying for him. With
this object in view no strove fret to master the
principles of air sailing. In fact he was an
aeronaut in the literal sense Of the torn. Study
of such birds as the albatross, which scars for
miles with no visible movement Of the wings,
and OF such contrivances as the Australian
boomerang. the marvellous flights of which no
scientist has been able to explain, convinced
him that there are principles of aerostatics of
which scientists are entirely ignorant. BY ex-
DIFFERENTIATION no uetermlned 10 nnd out Tor
himself what these principles were, and his life
for the last twenty seven years was given up to
that pursuit.
For n long time his experiments were without
result. The scientific world knew nothing OF
him. The neighbors considered him u lunatic
who would one day put an end to his own lunacy
with his contrvanCes. His family begged him
to give over his dangerous hobby. But he kept
at 1t unwearedly, until one day the world was
astonished with the news that Herr Lilienthal
had succeeded in soaring like bird. with no
help from supporting gases and without motive
power. lncredulity was expressed on all sides,
but 1t changed to wonder and admiration when
the leading aeronautic journal Of the world.
published in Paris, showed photographs
of the German experimeuter in full
flight. Tho contrivanCe with which he made
his first flight was pair of wings made of strong
sheeting fabric, stretched on light willow
frames. They contained about eighty six square
feet of sustaining surface. Other men had ex-
perimented with wings of somewhat similar a.
terial before, unsuccessfully. The value Of
Lilienthals wings lay in the application of his
discovery that success in artificial flight is to
be expected only from concavo-convex sustain
ing surfaces" which has since became max i'm
IN aeronautics. His wings were ribbed like
those OF bat
AT first he began HE flight from a spring
board rigHed in his garden. from which he
would jump. after run. and launch himself
into the air. 1t took him very long time to
find out what was going to happen Immediately
after he left terra frma.
In spite of caution he wrote about this
time. " the wind frequently played the mischief
with me- and but for the circumstance that /
was able to release myself quickly from my APP
paratus might have had a broken neck in
stead OF the sprains In feet or arms. which
always healed in a few weeks"
Graduated from the spring board the expert
Berlin, for the starting point OF his flights. 1t is
. i,..w wnS tai first ha n saI 10 rtp
TO the brow Of the hill and throw himself out
In this way lie succeeded in soaring 90 to 80
which. by Its pressure. furnished the sustaining
power that Kept him up. Next he built small
and few from that Al this time he was max
ing minor improvements in his apparatus and
tails one hor.zonta al to guide the flight up and
down. and the other vertical to act as the rud-
for steering: TO rise or fail he also used him
self a, weight in altering the centre OF gravity
and thus the position OF the wings with rela-
tion TO the wilma. on the same principle as tho
rudder.
" 10 70 up in the air" wrote Herr Lllenthai.
" IL Is necessary for the soarer To raise himself
by making use of the force acquired oy his for
ward motion. have often been compelled to
pass over some such obstacle as a tree or a
group of people 1t is easy TO go up but at a
height one hrcomes stationary. and II one is not
able 10 throw his weight quickly to the rear.
then the aeroplane swoops forward and is
crushed against the ground"
sudden squalls also threatened this calamity
by tossing up the wings and overturning the
fyer. Minor difficulties were experienced from
the air currents caused by unevenness on the
earth's suface Some very interesting facts in
the flow OF air currents have been adduced by
Herr Liienthhl. In general he held that tho
Beronaut could count upon steady upward
trend of tine air currents. He has in his flight
cleared trees hundred feet high. The flight is
always in n series OF swoops Two years ago
Herr iilienthal accomplished what is believed
10 he the longest unaided Hight ever made about
a fifth of mile.
While LiIienthal was working along those
lines, other men. notably liargrave OF Australia
were trying TO achieve liRhtness In motor power
and I.ilienthal was in CORE. .pondence with most
OF these inventors Satisfied that he had
reached n satisfactory status with his wings he
began looking about for the best motive power
to move the wings. Some years ago he said:
" First he must have prnper wings. Before
these are made IL is useless to work upon
methods of propulsion. Some day | hope to
construct an apparatus OF which the wings may
he Tapped either by steam power some other
motive force. About IL horse power will be
required. The main difficulty will be in the in
creased difficulty of guiding the flight when
the wings are moving. and patient expert
mrnts will bc necessary to solve many OF tho
hitherto unk nown phenomena Of air pressures''
or late Herr Lilrntha had given much Rtten-
ton To motive force. and had experimental with
the vapor of liQnid carbonic acid. II was prob
ably In some new experimentation that he lost