The San Francisco call., 1896-11-25
SOARING BETWEEN
HEAVEN AND EARTH H
Twenty Centuries of Effort
TO Fly Like the
Birds.
From the Classic Man of Crete
to the Mystic Man of
Oroville.
Flights of the Airship Toward the
Central Blue"-A Bird.
Bicycl

Ever since 66 B. c. man has been trying
to follow the birds in their wanderings
through the air. He has tramped every
where on the earth's crust and in many
places under it and is pluming himself
for flights over it.
Il is understood from an account-more
or less vague, it must be dmitted-that 6
flyer named Dadalrs and his son Icarus
had an occasion to leave the Isle of Crete
1862 years ago without their passports.
They took to themselves wings one early
morning before the detective force was
astir and fiuttered away. They got off all
right and while the officers were chasing
up clew headed straight for Greece, like
two noming pigeons bound for the cote oi
their birth. Dedalus skinned along the
surface of the Mediterranean and kept
himself cool, but the boy was a high-flyer
and caught a sunstroke. The wax by
which his wings were stuck to his clavcles
was melted and he dropped into the lea
rian Sea like shotted duck. 1t is sup
posed that the father alighted safely ON a
shore that had no extradition treaty with
Crete.
Almost twenty centuries have gone
by between the times the man from
Crete and the man from OrovilIe-
or somewhere = took a flyer. 1t is
said, however, that during the fourth
century B. G.. Archytas of Tarentum
made a pigeon of wood that flew quite
we'll by means Of mechanical contrivance,
but the patent office contains no accounts
of his machine. In the year 66 A. D. one
Simon did some experimental flying at
Rome, and was considered by the early
Christians to be doing business with the
devil. This is probably why Nero, who
was in the imperial office at the time, let
him finish his flight unm olested, which
Simon did till he fell and broke his neck
one day in the Forum.
In the latter part of the fifteenth GEN.
tury one Dante-not the poet, whose
flights were only those of fancy-had artl-
fetal wings with which he few over the
city of Perugia until he bent one of his
pinions, and falling on the roof of the
Church of the Virgin, broke his thigh.
The first Englishman to go into the fiy-
ing business was learned Benedictine,
Oliver of Malmes bury, who took the idea
OF Dedaius as described by Ovid and did
considerable travelling around among the
skylarks until he fell and broke his legs.
He said the trouble was he had neglected
to provide himself with TAIL Shortly
afterward Cyrano of Bergerar advanced
four different means of flying through the
air. First, phials flied with dew, which
| would mount toward the sun; second, a
great bird of wood. the wings of which
should be kept in motion; third, rockets.
which going off successively would drive
up the body by force of projection; fourth,
by an octahedron of glass neated by the
sun, of which the lower part should be al
lowed to penetrate the dense cold air,
which pressing up against the rarefied hot
air would raise the whole affair. He
probably died while trying to get his theo-
ries patented.
Francis Lana in 1870 constructed the
first flying machine, which is here shown
The specific liehtness OF hot air and hy-
drogen gas being unknown to Mr.. Lana
and his contemporaries he tried to make
his machine rise by taxing the air out of
the globes. They collapsed, of course.
which frightened the inventor out OF
aerostatics for all time.
Finally Montgolfer got heated air into
his balloon, and aerial navigation took a
| long forward and upward stride--or flight.
| Man could lift himself, but he was ever al
the mercy of the wind, which hurled him
around in the depths OF space of its own
! free will. This was condition to be over
come, so he went back to the birds-back
| over the centuries to DBdaius and his
wings. How do the feathered things navi.
gate the atmosphere? was the query. Just
one hundred years ago George Cayley con-
structed a small machine consisting of two
! screws made of quill feathers set like the
sails OF a windmill in two corks. BY Civ
| ing this whirling N lotion with strinCed
bow the thing was made to float grace
| fully in the air. In 1868 aeration received
another impulse by Landelles idea of a
machine with two superposed screws pro-
pelied by an engine, the steam of which
was generated in an aluminium boiler As
il could only lift third of its own weight
it did no flying, and the patent was never
| infringed upon.
| Penaud in 1872 took the bat for o model
and made an aeroplane with elastic wings,
| the posterior margins of which In ad-
dition to being elastic were free to move
around the anterior margins as around
axes. These wings because of the re-
| sistance of the air twisted and untwisted
and formed reciprocating screws. When
! liberated IN the air this artificial bat
dropped about two feet, then flew for some G
distance, gradually rising during Its flight.
Professor Lillenthal two years ago made
| a number of successful flights near Berlin
with pair of artificial wings. By shift
ing his center OF gravity relatively to the
center of resistance he gave the wing
surface any inclination, and was able to
control his movements to a certain ex.
tent. However the professor limited his
| experiments to low and short flights and
has escaped The fate of Icarus.
Professor Wellner, few years ago,
patented rotary sail for flying g-machines.
The wheel or drum worked on fixed &C.
centric, and the airblades attached to the
spokes had an oscillating as well as q
rotary motion. In the turning, the air
would be drawn into this canvas-covered
| drum, between the movable blades, and
as result of this rotatory- -oscillating mo-
ton the machine moved rapidly forward.
/ The inventor calculated that 1900 pound
weight machine, with 25-horsepower en-
gine would drive it one and half miles
per minute.
| Last year catamaran airship was pro-
posed for the United States coast defense,
400 feet long and about so feet in beam,
and having two cigar-shaped hulls. Ii
would be lifted by hydrogen gas and pro-
vided with 200-horsepower engines ap-
piled to two vertical propellers. 1t would