The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-11-04

ander Graham Bell and o. K'd by the
United States war department
II is on this exploit. which was only
the operation OF an expensive toy ana the
unredemptive failure of his flying machine
for meteoroloey. that Prof Langley's rep
utation as an aeronautical mechanician
rests.
Perhaps the lay reader is now ready TO
ask. Why not construct the whole out
fit on a larger scale and add the condi-
tions for generating force as the ship
proceeds?
This is precisely what Mr.. Langley pro-
posed to do when he undertook 20 make
the practical article for the signal SER
vice branch OF the war department. and
failed TO see the wall that stood In the
way until his chimerical steed refused to
bulge on its Impossible Journey. In any
attempt to so enlarge as TO make the
purely mechanical airship a practical car
rier. the weight will necessarily increase
in greater ratio than the effective power
Of air cleavage II is a simple and we'll
known fact that the areas of circles are
to each other as are the squares of their
diameters: necessarily, then. the same
must be true al to the arcs or circles.
and there IS not winged thing that ever
cut the air-whether IL was the pterodsc-
tyl or ramphorvnchue of the Jurassic
period of Mesozoic time, creatures from
the gnat and butterfly to the humming-
bird and great condor of our own Cen
ozoic time-that did not, all of them. obey
and illustrate this one simple, common
law. Note how, as the weight or the
winged creature increases, the. rapidity
Of wing stroke decreases. until, at a fair
ly we'll defined limit, the power OF flight
must run out. still the law of evolution
goes on supplying wings after they be-
come atrophied from dsuse and can aid
only in locomotion on the ground. Here.
In the relative arcs OF circles as described
by wing action. are ''all the law and the
prophets"-all the limitations and extern
sions--that relate TO mechanical flight.
Not a thing. animate or inanmate. may
expunge or annul this law.
1t ought then to become clear TO those
who grasp this matter both In It's analysis
and svnthesIs, why such multitudes OF
winged animation can fly, yet why the
ostrich and his congenerical relatives can
not fly: why the drop Of water may sus-
pend and why pint of the same fluid
will not suspend; why common neddle
may float. but why a knitting needle may
not do so. and finally, why the Aero
drome" lifted and flew and the extend
ed principle" declined to do so. and stuck
to 1t.
No vessel ever designed for the water
was so made that It's hotation was de-
pendent on any mocha nical action. En-
gines or sails are not used normally to
keep marine structures afioat, for this
they do from other causes, but these are
to give them movement and control OF d.
rection.
What would be thought Of the naval
architect that so planned his ship that the
instant the machinery stopped the vessel
would begin to sink? Under such condl-
lions all would depend on an eternally
automatic mechanism and on a perpetual
~ vigilant and infallibly unfailing engi-
neer. And yet on. these utterly prepos-
ferrous lines men otherwise intelligent.
propose to invade the air--to make"aero-
dromes' and appliances, to hnri their
mentality against all analysis and analo-
gy. and in reckless defiance of the plain
b c of aeronautical physics.
Columns of illustrations and demonstra-
tons might be presented.
In later letter the Zeppelin airship.
which, though In a crude way marks a
great stride In the right direction. will be
fully considered. Possibly In the same
connection the writer will present n cut
and description of his own conception of
dirigible airshp which was evolved and
published more than three years ago. and
which. in an important feature. Count
Zeppelin. though still at some distance, Is
copying. But the mechanical mode Of
moving and controlling direction IL some
thing entirely new under the SUM-"
HENRY MEDIC.
Seattle, Wash. Oct. %. 1900.