The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-08

hight upward. The larger birds take
running start against the wind, or throw
themselves into the air from an elevated
point, IN order to obtain free use OF their
Bihions- The case is similar in human
night But on taking a running start from
a correspondingly inclined surface il is
easy 10 begin ones flight, even if there
IS no wind; Man must follow the example
OF the birds, and start against the wind,
put ne needs a hill in the shape of a
nat cone from the top of which he may
take starts against the wind in any d.
recton. For this purpose 1 have an ar
uHclal mia. fifteen meters high, erected
near my house not far from Berlin.
me energetic effect of changing the cen
ter or gravity by apparatus designed for
mat purpose, and the safe starting of
the apparatus obtained by it, gave me
courage TO trust myself to a wind which
az times exceeded a velocity of twenty
!our miles an hour. This gave the most
interesting results of all my practical fly
ing experiments hitherto. Six or seven
meters velocity of wind sufficed to ena-
pie the sailing-surface of eighteen square
a altl's 70 carry me almost horizontally
against the wind from the top of my HILL
without any starting jump. If the wind is
stronger l simply allow myself to be lif-
ted from the point of the hill and to sail
slowly toward the wind At the climax of
such line of flight I sometimes come to
standstill for a short period so that l
am enabled while floating to speak to gen.
/ Yemen who are photographing me, relat-
ing 10 the best position for taking the pic
lure. nave made many thousands of eX-
Perlments within the last five years, and
have had no accidents whatever, except
ing few scratches"
Mr.. Means says that fhe Iilienthal
machine is to flying what the wheel of
1916 was to the pneumatic safety bicycle
Ui 1870. The Liliepthal machine seems
nkey TO lead to important things, yet
| there are men who say of the inventor:
He cannot fly up, he can only fly down.
ne Is a parachutist, a flying squirrel he
has not solved the great problem" True,
| he has not solved it, but he has given
a partial solution. 1t is not unlikely that
men of 1916 regarded the wheel of that
day as some now regard the Lilenthal
soarer. They probably considered the
bike a good thing for coasting down
hill, but not practical for travelling, as one
could not climb hills with the things. Lii
lenthal flies not only down. but also up.
His course as whole is downward. the
only reason that his course is not as a
whole upward is that he has not yet
completed his apparatus for giving con-
slant energy.
| Although quite a number of steam fly
! ing machines have been constructed, and
| many of them have been furnished with
| both light and powerful engines. they have
nearly all failed from one or more of
| three causes; imperfect control of the
angle at which the surfaces were pre-
scented in flight; improper balancing, or
| unstable equilibrium
a. NJ Herring says that he construct
/ ed in 1891 model provided with set
| of compound steam engines, supplied with
| an aluminium tubing condenser, expos
| ing about nine square feet of surface. The
| engines, with their pumps. circulator,
] 81
| and tanks complete, but not including the
| condenser, weighed less than one pound,
| and developed a little over two and one
! tenth horse power. The condenser, with
| its joints and connections complete, weigh
| ed only little more than three-fourth of
| a pound. The total weight of the an
| paratus was five pounds, and the surface
| was fourteen square feet The machine
| succeeded several times in raising itself
| from the ground With it's fuel and sup
| plies, and without ary outside aid what
| ever, even IN Ia tr' .iIg, and Mr.. Herring
| succeeded in getting 1t to fly a little over
! go feet. 1t sustained trifle more than
! thirty pounds per horse power. and had il
not been destroyed by the explosion of
| it's regulator would have enabled the
| model to carry at the rate of fifty or
| sixty pounds per horse power Mr.. Her
ring believes that the air will be navi-
| gated by steam long before man will be
able to soar like the birds is aeroplanes
Mr.. Hiram 5. Maxim, the inventor of
the FAMOUS gun which bears his name,
thought to the question of flying machines.
He says:
1.-The first experiments. which con-
Quoted were with an apparatus which
| Travelled around circle 200 feet in circum
ference. and by mounting some delicate
thermometers directly under the path of
the. apparatus | ascertained that after it
had been travelling al a high velocity for
few seconds. there was a we'll defined
current blowing downward around the
whole circle, so that my planes in passing
| forward must have been Influenced and
their lifting effect reduced by this down
ward current. My late experiments
are the first which have ever been made
| with an apparatus on a large scale moving
| in straight line. A flying machine to be
of any value must of necessity be large
! enough to carry at least one man. and the
| larger the machine the smaller the factor
of the mans weight. Moreover, it is posi-
| BILE to make engines of say from 200 to 400
| horse power, lighter per unit of power than
very small engines from one to two horse
| power.
Prof. Graham Bell, the inventor of the
| telephone, is very much interested in the
! question of artificial flight, and has been
| for some time engaged in making expert
| ments at his summer residence in Bede-
| que, Prince Edwards Island What success
| the professor has met with is not known
| but he still keeps up his experiments, in
! the hope that he may solve the problem
| that has vexed minds for more than four
| hundred years. William E. Bryant