The age-herald., 1899-11-05
Modern Flying Machines,

From the London Spectator.
 People in general are much less familiar
 with the work of Dr. Lilenthal and MT.
 Pitcher than with the fiying-machine of MT. Maxim and the "aerodrome" of Prof. Lang ley. Yet the courage with which the two former undertook to attack tine problem of flying in the most direct way surely de- serves recognition. There is at present a
 great and hitherto insuperable difficulty dn the way of the maker of fying-machines, as distinct from navigable balloons, which Is that of the balance. Minute observation
 has shown that every region of the atmo- sphere is constantly subject to infinitely varying currents and counter-currentS Of air.
 No matter how steadily the wind may seem to be blowing in a certain direction,
 or even how still the air may seem, there
 is always a complex series of minor aerial
 disturbances to be considered To steer a flying machine among them on an even keel
 is much like attempting to ride bicycle
 over a surface moving like the Channel in
 a gale.
 A bird, indeed, scars with perfect ease
 and equilibrium, and Is only overturned or
 driven out of dts course at a very gusty
 corner, even then recovering itself with
 certainty But the bird possesses an ex-
 tremely sensitive nervous system, when
 has been attuned through countless gener-
 ations of habit to the task of preserving its
 balance through the most rapidly varying conditions of the air It meets every mi mute variation in the strength or direction of the aerial current on which it is soaring by an instinctive and involuntary adjust ment of the wings, exactly as the pracnced bicyclist conquers a swerve Of his macnne,
 or as each of us balances in walking along a road.
 TO devise a machine that will do this seems as yet far beyond the powers of our inventors. The "balance chamber" of the Whitehead torpedo, which keeps that pro- jectfle at constant depth below the sur face of the water, Is properly known as one of the most ingenious contrivances known to our mechanical science But the "bal- ance chamber has only to control move ment to two dimensions, whereas the flying machine Is subject to constant alterations dn three. The problem thus set Is dncredl- ply more difficuHt than that solved by MT Whitehead And it is complicated by the consideration, as picturesquely presented in a recent story of MT. Wells, that mo- mentary failure in adjustment means prac- fically certain death to the aeronauts. The step from the model to the read thing will involve more than Bands of triple brass which are allotted to the heart of the first sailor.
 It was this consideration which set Dr IiIenthal and, following him, Mir. Pitcher and a few others to study the conditions of balancing dn the air by experiments in which personal agility and courage were substitutes for complicated apparatus Nc small measure of success has attended then | in spite of their premature fate. pr. Lil- lenthal was able to fly hundreds of yards l at time, and was about to tackle the second problem of turning into the wind when a sudden squall hurled him dead tc | the earth. MT. Pitcher tells us that after | only three months practice he was pretty | sure of his balance in the air. and twas | able to land without damage and without | falling, even when soaring over the ground very fast" It is noteworthy that his re- l gretable accident was apparently due to a 1 defect in the material rather than in the | principle of his apparatus.