Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-03
the discontinue of his guest, and re-

the discontinue of his guest, and re-
marked:
But you are all right. You are on the
right track. You have made, an airship
and you have steered it and you have
made step toward the final solution of
the problem. Keep at it. But get rid Of
your balloon, Make it smaller all the time. .
Have you noticed, Mr.. Edison inquired
the aeronaut, that 1 am making the bal
loon smaller every time l build new air
ship?''
Yes, and that's right" replied Edison
but make it smaller yet. You are dom.
we'll, but it will take a long time to max
the thing commercially possible. When
you get Your balloon part smaller and yet
smaller until it is SO small that you can
not see it with a microscope. then you will
nave it. Then yon will have solved the
problem"
Here. in a nutshell, is Mr. Fdison's solu-
ton of the problem of aerial navigation.
He believes firmly that it can be solved.
But he believes just firmly that the So
luton must be reached by means of the
flying machine and not by the airship.
Only with the machine, he says, can air
navigation ever be made either safe or
commercially profitable. This will be clear
to the reader when it is explained that in
Mr.. Edisons vocabulary the term '.air
snip applies to a continuance that, being
lighter than the air, floats In it as a ship
floats on the water The term flying ma
chine on the other hand refers as he
uses 1t, to contrivance heavier than the
air 1t is intended to navigate. At rest such
an apparatus would not float at all, the
power of fotation being furnished by the
high speed at which it moves. In Edison's
mind, then, aerial navigation =; simply a
question Of sufficient motive power prop
erly applied, to overcome the lack of buoy
ancy necessary to make the machine rise
and to keep 1t in sufficient motion to hold
IL IN position certain number of feet
above the earth He constantly refers to
the figure of the bird which anyone NAV
see rise and fly at will
Take the case of the vulture" he said
Here Is natural flying machine which is
a thousand times as heavy as the air 1t
dlsplaces. In few seconds of leisurely
hight 1t can sweep over a distance which
man finds encountered with all sorts of OBJ
stacles and there is scarcely a f1utter of its
wings in the operation. There is nothing
there but a machine and a small brain,
and 1t Is not very remarkable machine
either Why is it that man cannot make
flying machine as efficient as the bird
A lot of people say that 1t was never meant
that man should fly: that if nature had in
tended such a thing. man would have been
provided with the necessary machinery In
his body, such is now possessed by the
bird. But you might Just as well say that
it was never intended that man should have
any light aside from the sun and the moon
and stars which We're originally provided
for him. or that he should not move about
faster with the aid of wheels because no
wheels were supplied ts~hfm by nature
No Electric Flying Machines.
Some one asked Mr.. Edison whether his
new storage battery would be of service in
solving the problem of aerial navigation
ooh, no, of course not he replied. ut
would be too heavy. We must get the light
est possible motive power. Thus the great
est factor of this problem is to get very
light motor which will be powerful enough
f1-ir Oh it,n Nnr1,,
best thing now in sight for this purpose is