The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-02

He has produced, in addition to it's value
as war instrument, a machine that will
economic space, that will annihilate dis
tance by means Of It's unprecedented
speed, that will render air travel safer
and more pleasurable than land transpor-
tation, and that can snatch from sink
ing vessel it's human freight in utter de-
fance of winds and waves. He has made
practical the economical transportation
of freight through the air at speed that
will. permit letters mailed at Chicago in
the evening to be delivered in New York
the next morning.
Prof Langley's work has been sur
rounded by the deepest mystery, and it
has been almost as difficult to secure any
irtimation as to what he has accomplish
ed as it would be to wiring from nature
the secret for which he and numbers of
the most brilliant men of the century
have been striving.
INVENTORS MANY FAILURES.
This convinced him of the feasibility
of constructing a machine that could fly
by its own power, and he set to work to
build it. His first machine was designed
to weigh twenty-five pounds and develop
one horse power, but when completed it's
weight had increased to forty pounds, and
yet could not develop over a fourth of
the calculated power. Consequently it
was abandoned. His second attempt went
to the other extreme, and the completed
mechanism weighed less than six pounds
There We're two engines to be driven by
compressed air, but the power again prov,
ed insufficient Another failure was met
Many attempts followed with steam en-
gines. No difficulty was found In design
ing and building surprisingly light en-
gines, but boilers to develop sufficient
power We're prohibitively heavy.
The first machine actually to fly was
successfully launched after ten months
of persistent effort in 1897. 1t was chris
tened the Aerodrome or "air runner" and
the name is still retained for the many
improved machines that have been built
since The machine consisted of a long
steel rod that supported a hull or body
which contained the boilers, engines. ma
chinery and propeller wheels mounted on
either side of the hull. From the steel
rod also extended two pairs of wings,
each slightly curved, and measuring thir-
teen feet from tip to tip. The length of
the aerodrome over all was about sixteen
feet. The boiler carried steam for an en-
CINE of one and one-half horse power and
weighed over five pounds, while the en-
. CINE itself weighed only twenty-six ounc-
es. This engine drove the propeller wheels,
which We're three and a half feet in diam
eter and were made of steel and canvas,
at the rate of thousand revolutions per
minute. The rudder was Of a peculiar
shape and served to steer the vessel both
horizontally and vertically. The results
of these experiments We're so far reaching
and important, proving as they did the
possibility of maintaining in midair, by
mechanical power contained within itself
a body weighing many times the air
which 1t displaced that Prof. Langley
publicly gave early In 1897 an extended
account of what he had accomplished
There were several great difficulties to
be overcome before his machine could be
made practical for sustaining any con-
siderable burden. The task Of securing
power that would furnish a considerable
margin of carrying capacity above that
necessary to sustain itself seemed almost
hopeless. The problem of properly launch
ing machine that depended upon its mo-
mentum for its support was also diff
cult task.
No less than twenty failures were met
with during the ten months preceding
May 6, 1896, when the aerodrome first
swept through the air under its own pow
er. Evidently a vessel that could not be
launched and successfully handled at any
time and under any conditions could not
be considered a success. Consequently
Prof Langley set himself to his task with
renewed vigor and with what success
his present perfected aerodrone bears
evidence. Following the announcement
of his having sent his machine through
the air he became even more reticent
than ever regarding this branch of his
work, denying information even to his
most intimate friends.
FINDS A WONDERFUL. GAS.
The special purpose of Prof Langley's
recent trip to Europe was to visit Stutt-
CART, Germany, in order to consult With