The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-05-20
A FLYING MACHINE.
Mechanical Flight Through the Air
Practically Demonstrated.

Mechanical Flight Through the Al,
Practically Demonstrated.
WASHINGTON, May 14.-The first
public statement regarding the flying
machine experiments conducted by
Prof. Samuel P. Langley, secretary OF
the Smithsonian institution, for some
months past was made recently with
the authority of Professor Langley.
The we'll known scientist has for years
been a believer in the eventual practi-
cal use of air vehicles, and for a long
period be has been making expert
ments with device of his own inven-
ton near Occoouan, Va. Much secrecy
has been attached to these trials OF the
aerodrome, and the little that has
leaked out has excited intense interest
among scientists throughout the
world.
Professor Langley has always been
very guarded about the experiments,
and the eaccounts of hlslatIest attempts
with the flying machine, embodied in
the following statement, prepared by
Prof. Alexander Graham Bell, the
well known inventor, published with
the sanction of Professor Langley,
therefore will be of great interest to
the scientific world generally:
DESCRIBED BY PROFESSOR BELL.
Last Wednesday," says Professor
Bell, Il witnessed a very remarka-
bic experiment with Professor Lang
ley's aerodrome on the Potomac river.
Indeed, it seemed to me that the expert
ment 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 I have Professor Langley's
consent for giving you, and they are
as follows:
The aerodrome, or flying machine,
in question, was of steel, driven by a
steam engiHe. 1t resemb bled an enorm-
Gus bird, soaring in the air with ex-
treme regularity in large curves.
sweeping steadily upward in spiral
path, in the spirals with a diameter of
perhas 100 yards, until it reached a
height of about 100 feet in the air, at
the end of a course of about half mile,
when the steam gave out the propell-
ers which moved it stopped, and then,
to my further surprise, the whole, in
stead of tumbling down, settled as
slowly and gracefully as 1t is possible
for any bird to do, touched the water
without damage, and was Immediately
picked out aid ready to be tried again.
"a second trial was like the first,
except that the machine went in diff
ferent direction, moving in one con-
tinuous gentle ascent as it swung
around in circles likea a great soaring
bird. At one time it seemed to be in
danger, as its course carried it over a
neighboring wooded promontory, but
apprehension was Immediately allay-
ed, as it passed 25 or 80 feet above the
tops of the highest trees there, and, as
cending still further, its steam finally
gave out again, and it settled into the
waters of the river not quite quar-
ter of a mile from the point at which
it arose.
mo one could have witnessed these
experiments without being convinced
that the practicability of mechanical
flight had been demonstrated.
STATEMENT FROM PROM PROF. LANGLEY.
Prof. Langley also made public
supplemental statement, giving some
important data regarding experiments.
He said:
The aerodrome or flying machine
has no gas to lift it, as in the case of
balloon, but on the contrary, it is
about 1000 times heavier, bulk,
for bulk. than the air on which
it made to run, and which
sustains it somewhat in the way
in which thin ice supports swift
skater. The power is derived from
steam engine through the means of
propellers, out, owing to the scale on
which the actual aerodrome is built,
there has been no condensing appa-
ratus to use the water over and over.
Enough can be carried for only
very brief flight, difficulty which
does not belong to larger machines
than the present exam pie, in which
the supporting surfaces are but about
Il feet from tip to tip. The distance
flown each time was about one half
mile. The rate Of speed depends (as
10 the case of any vechile on land) on
whether it is going on a level or up
hill. In the case of this last trial of
May 6,-the machine was ascending.
that is 10 say, it was going up hiilall
the time, and went through b q distance
of one-half mile or more in one and
one-half minutes, or at the rate of j
little more than 20 miles an hour"