The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-06-18
EFFORTS OF MAN TO FLY.

"A Great Advance Effected by Experi- | mentors Last Year-Profesaor Lang | ley's Experiments With the Self-Pro- | pelled Aerodrome-Value of His Work Octave Chanute's EXperiments-He Thinks That Human Flight is Not Yet Near. What was done during the year 1896 toward solving the problem of human flight Is set forth in the newly issued Aeronautical Annual for 1897. The ad- vance during the year just past was, as James Means, the editor says in hlS preface, greater than that of any preVl- ous year, and points to an ultimate trl- umph for the cause of aeronauticS, in which many have suffered ridicule and not a few death The dedication of the volume Is significant: ''To the memory of those who, intelligently believing in the possibility of mechanical flight, have lived derided and died in sorrow and obscurity."
 Recent experiments in aeronautlcs have not only produced actual results of specific value, but have also marked out distinctly the best lines for the 1n- vestigator to follow. These are:
 l. The development of the self-pro- pelled aerodrome.
 ?. The development of the motorless air-sailer.
 3. The development of the motor.
 "In each of these departments ot work" writes MT. Means, there is now a we'll defined point of vantage, which is accessible to every intelligent experl- menter who is inclined to carefully study the ground already traVersed, and so to fully understand the results already reached. Which ever branch or work is seriously undertaken by an ln- dividual, he may be sure that, while working upon his own speciality, he IS helping those engaged In others toward their common goal"
 Of the experiments with the selt-pro- pelled aerodrpme the most important are those of pr. s. P. Langley of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, who contributes an article descriptive of his various mechanical birds from the time when he first began building them up to last year, when he con structed machine which actually flew for half a mile. These experiments have been much exploited in the news papers, but as a matter ct tact thelf value is chiefly mechanical and very slightly scientific. The chief value Of the Langley aerodrome is in its combi- nation of small weight of motor with sufficient power to drive and support the machine. For a long time Dr. Langley surrounded his experiments with extreme secrecy which was the more surprising to scientific men ln that experiments of much the same nature had been previously made by an Aus tralian experimenter. A brief account of the aerodromes flight, published in Nature by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, is given in the Aeronautical Annual He says:
 "On the date named two ascensions were made by the aerodrome, or so- called flying machine,' which will not describe here further than to say that st appeared to me to be built almost en- tirely of metal and driven by steam engine. which, have understood, was carrying fuel and a water supply for very brief period, and which was of ex- traordlnary lightness. The absolute weight of the aerodrome, including that of the engine and all appurtenances, was as I was told, about twenty-five pounds. and the distance from tip to tip of the supporting surfaces was, as observed, about twelve or fourteen feet. The method of propulsion was by aerial screw propellers, and there was no gas or other aid for lifting it in the air ex- cept it's own internal energy.
 t'On the occasion referred to the aero- drome, at a given signal, started from a platform about twenty feet above the water, and rose at first directly in the face of the wind moving at all times with remarkable steadiness, and subse- ul1ently swinging around in large curves of perhaps hundred yards In diameter, and continually ascending until its steam was exhausted, when, al 8 lapse of about a minute and half and at a height which judged to be be- tween eighty and one hundred feet in the air, the wheels ceased turning, and the machine, deprived of the aid of its propellers, to my surprise did not fall but settled down so softly and gently Hhat it touched the water without the least shock, and was, in fact, lmmedl- ateIy ready for another trial.
 .In the second trial, which followed directly, 1t repeated in nearly every re spect the actions of the first excep that the direction of its course was diff ferent. It ascended again in the face o the wind, afterward moving steadily 
 and continually In large curves, accom- panied with rising motion and late ral advance Its motion was, in fact so steady that I think a glass of watel on it's surface would have remained un spilled. When the steam gave ou again 1t repeated for second time th experience of the first trial when th steam had ceased, and settled gentl. and easily down. What height 1 reached at this trial l cannot say, as was not so favorably placed as in tn first: but had occasion to notice tha this time Its course took 1t over a wood ed promontory, and I was relieved o some apprehension in seeing that it wa already so high as to pass the tree top by twenty or thirty feet. It reached tn water one minute and thirty second from the time 1t started, at a measures
 Adh hx6fWELL6