The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-11
the CoNQUEsT or THE AIR.

Many of our contemporaries are dis
! posed to treat with ridicule the recent
attempt and failure Of Prof. Langley,
secretary of the Smithsonian Institu-
tute. to master the problem Of aerial
navigation. AS is we'll known. his
"buzzard' flying machine on which he
had been laboring for much more than
a year, ended its career a few DAYS
ago by ingloriously dropping into the
Potomac river at Whitewater, when it
should have accomplished majestic and
sweeping hight, according to the cal
culations of the inventor. In his fail
ure We have only sympathy, not de-
rision. for Prof. Langley. He is Meth
er fakir nor d Darius Green. He is
a scientist of acknowledged position.
He evolved theory and worked it out,
and it failed 10 meet his expectations.
that is all there is of the matter as it
stands. 1t may be that Prof. Langley
has discovered the germ of the idea
that will make mans mastery of the
air possible. Nobody can say with
certainty that this il not so. Other
inventors have met with reverses quite
as disheartening, but have persevered
and finally won. 1t NAV be so with
Prof. Langley. We hope it will. and
that his faithful o-worker, Prof. Man
ley, will share his triumph.
Among the scientists of international
reputation besides Prof. Langley who
have given serious consideration to the
problem of aerial flight by man are
Or. Alexander Graham Bell. Thomas
a. Edison. Sir Hiram Maxim and
dozen or more in Europe. Practically
all of these have reached the conclu-
sion that the balloon can never be
made anything more than a more or
less elaborate and costly toy. The
dirigible balloon is an impossibility,
because one cannot be produced
that will lift and sustain machinery
sufficiently powerful to propel its huge
bulk through the air against adverse
currents. Santos Dumont. the Brazil
ian and sundry French aeronauts are
still experimenting with balloons, but
they seem to be doing it more for past
time than for any serious purpose they
have in view. That Santos-Dumont
regarded himself in the line Of
county fair or circus attraction was
clearly shown when he was in this
country offering to sail over and I'M
der the Brooklyn bridge or around
Coney Island for so much cash.
But Langley, Bell, Edison and the
others have approached the matter as
a serious problem. They have endeav-
ored to work out their solutions of it
in a scientific manner. Submarine nav
igation was regarded as an impossi-
bility until John p Holland demon
strated how it could be ACCOMPLISHED
easily and successfully, and now every
civilized country in the world has sub
marine torpedo boats in its navy. 1t
is easy enough to do a thing when one
knows how. but it is the first success
full venture that is hard.
Prof. Langley took one of the most
graceful and powerful of feathered
things, although it is not in high re-
pute, as his model of flyers. The buzz
ZdIu SuSNdlllS llnEll LOT nOulS OIL llle
wing. soaring or descending, apparent
ly without effort. What keeps the
buzzard up? If that question could be
correctly answered, the great problem
would be solved. After months of
study of the buzzard, Prof. Langley
constructed a flying machine in which
he followed, as far as he could. the
suggestions of the buzzard's outlines.
He could not duplicate the muscles of
the wings, however, hence he had re-
course to a motor driving a propeller.
The wings of the apparatus were aero
planes. 1t was reasoned that if the
motor-driven propeller gave the APP
paratus sufficient forward movement,
the wings would float on a cushion of
air, just as a kite floats on a current
of air against which it is held. The the
ory seems sound. and it appears that
all needed is that the motor shall be
strong enough to give the aeroplane
the necessary, sustained forward move
ment. 1t was believed that had been
secured in the Langley apparatus.
That there was a miscalculation some
where is shown by the outcome.
The conquest of the air, therefore, is
still in the future. The failures of the
eminent gentlemen who have essayed
the problem are deplorable. from the
standpoint of science as well as that
of the gentlemen themselves; never
theless these failures are of service to
other experimenters, and out of the
mass of failures and experiments we
shall no doubt eventually have sue
cess.
PARTRIDGES.
Attention has been called before 70 a