The Appeal., 1902-11-08
feriial FHgh.'l'.t'|'. III
Mans Limitations in Soiving This Old,
NeW Problem.

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(By Prof. simon Newconb, IL. D., F. r.. S.
At first sight 1t may seem to detract
from mans boosted superiority that ami
mails far beneath him in intelligence can
soar in midair, hile he has to content
himself with making his slow and labori-
Gus way on the ground. If nature did
not give him wings, why should not the
genius which has produced the telegraph
and the telephone succeed in making
wings for him? We may be sure he win
not be satisfied until he has solved this
problem or found out that no solution can
be reachedy
There are some considerations which
may lessen his dissatisfaction with what
nature has denied him. The bird is itself
a flying machine recurring nothing but
brain to direct it, Manscannot transform
himself into a mechanism for soaring
above the earth because for his upper
limbs nature has given him arms instead
OF wings. i am sure he would not be
willing to exchange these limbs for those
of the bird, especially as his legs would
have to be largely reduced in weight to
enable him to perform the aerial evolu-
tions of his brother in feathers. What he
really wants is to have arms, legs and
wings, all three, making geological mon
strocity which nature would never pro-
duce if left to herself. Perhaps, according
sire is maintained long enough and with
sufficient intensity, wings may bud in the
dim future, and million or so genera
tions from now man may flap his wings,
clap his hands, spring upon his legs and
soar into ether But at, present we find
that when he wishes to supply himself
with artificial wings he is averse to ampu-
tating his legs and arms, consequently the
very blessings which nature has show
cred upon him prove drawback when he
sets out to emulate the poor bird that he
Is ready to shoot on sight. When he asks
to walk, shoot and fly, all three at once,
he demands more than nature is ready to
grant at this stage in the history of the
race, and the question is whether his
brains can do for him what nature as yet
denies s-,, e..
In an imperfect way they can. He is
able to mount in balloon above the high
est flight of bird. This is something TO
be proud of; but when he does it he can
not progress with the speed of the bird,
because his balloon must be SO large as
to offer great resistance to the air.. When
M. Santos-Dunnopt recently flew round
the Eiffel towe1 he achieved a success
which may lead US to hope for something
yet better. But to Improve on this "
lust have more powerful ma chnery, AMI
his ii carried much farther will require
greater weight and a larger balloon to
keep it attCat..' So az we gain in. enc direc-
ton we lose in another" 1t is hopeless to
look for a balloon that can be propelled
with the speed Of a railway train. : If man
would fly with thesspeed OF a bird he must
supply himself with wings of some sort.
What he can do with wings is limited
by inexcrable and WeE-esta blished physi-
cal laws. BY profound investigation of
tho laws of aerial flight Langley was
elaEled to construct a machine which
rose into the air and flew half a mile
over the Potomac river But he did not
The latter had to Re left to take tiirec-
ton which soon after the tart became its
Cwn.
The physical laws to which I have "e-
ferred show that there is nothing inhcr-
emily impossible in aerial fight, as there
is, for instance, in such a problem as
squaring the circle Upon one Of these
laws all hope. of solving the problem must
be based; it is therefore Of sufficient i'm
portance to be explained.
We know that if a man in falling
through the air hangs by a parachute his
fall will be slower the larger the spread
Of the supporting surface We also have
learned that a spread of few square
yards will suffice to make the fall so slow
that one may droo with impunity from
balloon at any height The law to which
surface. and If it is, forced edgewise
through the air at the same time that it
F-is falling, then the more rapidly it moves
cdgewise the slower viii be it's descent.
BY giving sufficiently rapid motion the
fall mtv be made as slow as we desire.
This is. the great secret Of the soaring
BIRD which must change soaring to fly ;ls
soon 3s It's speed slackens. Seat man on
:: n0fizontal fat surface. like a stiff sal,
o. a thin rigid plane; ard start him flying
forward with a speed of few hundred
feet per second, an! his fall will -a slow,
:-!Ieed. .-..
To: this principle is based the idea Of
figat. But difficulty arises at the out
set If the journey is to be a long one.
However slow the fall the man must Of
necessity come to the ground sooner or
later. 10 ,eva:le this result the aeroplane,
as it is called, must be- inclined to the
horizon and propelled forward in a direc-
ton the opposite Of it's iaclination=-that
is to say, the higher edge must be the
forward one. It was for this reason that
Langley attached propeller to his aero
plane, with the result I have mentioned. :
Langley also claims. and I think he is
right, that if we leave out of considera-
ton the friction of the surface against
the air ana consider only the pressure