Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-09-28
MAN CARRYING KITE
DR.. Bell Talks About His
Flying Machine.
IMPORTANT DISCOVERY
HIS AIRSHR WILL BEAR EIGHT
TIMES IT'S WEIGHT.
Will Not Be Equipped With an Engine
Before Next Summer, if Then
Hollow Aluminium Framework.
IMPORTANT DISCOVERY

BUDDICK, N. S., September 81, 1903.
A representative of The Star recently
visited Alexander Graham Bell at his fine
laboratory overlooking the enchanting Bras
dor Lakes to learn the result of his ex-
periments with kites as aerial vehicles. DR..
Bell declared that after years of thought,
experiment and research. and an outlay OF
thousands of dollars, he had evolved an air
RUNNER having two points of superiority
over all others. He had overcome the two
basic and hitherto unsurmountable difficult
ties in the way of the experimental along
the aeroplane theory of aerial navigation.
Weight of Machine.
The-first of these is that were two flying
machnes-fying machine and kite are
synonymous to the scientific mind, DR.. Bell
observed-exactly alike. differing only In
the scale of their dimensions, then the ratio
of weight to supporting surface would be
greater in the larger than in the smaller.
The volume and the weight of two similar
bodies are proportional to the cubes of their
| dimensions, while the surface varies only as
| the squares of the dimensions. For example,
| If the dimensions of one machine or Kite
are twice as large as in another. then the
| volume and weight of the larger Is eight
times that Of the smaller. but has only four
times the surface or lifting power.
| Prof. Simon Newcomb drew the conclu-
| Sion IQaC the cOuSlTuCllUH VI dCi
| vehicle capable of sustaining man would
necessitate the discovery of some new ele-
| ment or new force.
DR.. Bell met this difficulty early in his
aeronautical research. Having built q
Hargrave box kite capable of supporting
| certain weight he next built one which
| he thought would be capable In the same
| strength of wind of sustaining weight
| equivalent to a mans, but found that 1t
| was incapable of sustaining 1t own weight
| and that it would DR.. Bell expressed it,
| take Cyclone to float it, He did not.
| however, despair, but by persistent effort
| evolved kite whose wing surface increases
| as it's weight. That Is 1t Is capable OF
sustaining eight times the weight DIR. Bells
| kite, in which tetrahedronal cells of nifty
| centimeters each are the limit used, and
| could be increased in size to support al
| most any weight.
Freedom From Oscillation.
The other difficulty overcome by Dr.
Bells machine is tendency to oscillation
The telephone wizard had his workmen
fly a few kites for the benefit of The Star
| correspondent. AS the wind was blowing
a fair breeze when the workmen released
| the huge leviathan of white 1t moved swift
| ly upward with almost perfect equilibrium.
| A fine and unique picture this huge mon
ster made. as tugging at the rope which
bound 1t to earth, it sought to fly away.
| "A kite capable of sustaining a man and
| a weight equivalent to that Of an engine
| in a wind of, say, sixteen miles an hour
and machine bearing man and driven
| by an engine in a calm at the rate of six
| teen miles hour are in similar circum-
| stances, with the exception that the latter
| has the benefit OF the sustaining power or
| its own momentum. So far as the sustain
| ing pressure of the air Is concerned it Is
| surely immaterial whether the air moves
| against the machine, In the former case,
| or the machine against the air, as in the
| latter" was DIR. Bells reply when asked
! L1 Ia ,nr1x fxyt
chine built on the kite principle in O calm.
DR.. Bells Plans.
Asked if he thought that flying machine
| was a possibility of the near future, Mr..
| Bell, smiling, answered: BIRDS fly. What
| has been done is possible, and see no
reason why any one who has noted the
| flight of birds can for one moment doubt
the possibility of flight by bodies specitlcal-
| ly heavier than the air.
| Having obtained form of structure pos
| sessing the two important factors Of great
est strength at least weight and almost
| entire freedom from oscillation. he could
not believe that the days of the airshtp-a
ship not floating, but fying-were not far in
the immediate future. But he did not ex
pect to have flying machine equipped with
an engine and capable of being used in
calm before next summer. II then. He did
| not wish to send UP kite bearing man
until he had one with a framework of hol-
| low aluminium. He also intends using his
| floating kite on the water soon. As one of
| the great setbacks to ordinary airship
| is that were the machinery to break in a
| calm the occupants might be drowned, to
| overcome this great objection DR.. Bell has
| invented this particular variety Of kite
! whose lifting power has been described.
| The telephone wizard has been also for
| some time-with strikingly satisfactory re-
| MISUNDERSTANDING with various kinds Of
propellers He said that whether equipped
| with engines or not, the steering Of his
| machine was a matter of but slight difficult
| ty, and he could see little or no risk for
| man In going up on one of his kites as at
| present without engines or later on in
| kite propelled forward by its own propel-
| lers, 1.-The machine moving against the air.
| not the air against the machine"