Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-11
A WONDERFUL FLYER.

two, but by one hundred: for every one has
one hundred families more to talk to. This
requires a propOrtiOnate number or new
operators, and makes the big business very
chinery at the exchanges. A single switch
board for instance in the central office OF
New York costs $4,000.
An Automatic Telephone Service.
I'm the improvement of the telephone"
continued DR.. Bell, sin the telephone of the
future 1 look for all this business to be
done automatically. Instead of single
wire there will be little cable of wires
connecting each house with the central ex-
change; and it will be possible for ten wires
to do the work that a thousand do now.
There may be a system by which the SUBJ
scriber can move certain buttons and call
up whom he pleases The calls will be au-
tomato, causing the idle wires among those
in the cable to automatically come into use,
and when the conversation is over the dis
connection will be automatically made. If
this can be accomplished it will do away
with the vast army of telephone opera tors
and so reduce the expense that the poorest
man cannot afford to be without his tele-
phone"
"WnI sound transmission be also i'm
proved?"
Yes; we now have the wire loaded with
several unnecessary processes or attach
ments These will be gradually eliminated
and it will do its work better"
How about telephoning without wires?"
Il think that will come some day." re-
piled DR.. Bell. Indeed 1 have done such
photophone 1 have also been able to send
sounds upon rays of light. The sound
carrying medium is of the same nature as
the electrical medium, and it may be that
we shall some day send sounds through
the air with the rapidity of light transmits
sion. You know what is being done in
wireless telegraphy. Some day we may
have wireless telephony as WE'LL
Great Inventions of the Future.
Then you evidently think we have not
come to the end of the inventive age?"
mo. Indeed. it is difficult to say how
near we are to it's beginning. We are DIS
covering new forces and new principles
every day. We did much in the nineteenth
century. but here. at the dawn of the TWEEN
ueth. we have an entirely new field opened
up by the discovery of radium, and that
discovery the work of a woman. We have
several new forces-so new that We do not
yer know what they are nor how they may
change the life and work of the world. We
have radium. helium, thorium and other
wonderful things. By liquid air we have
frozen some of these rays into a LIQUID and
have. as it were. bottled up the rays of the
sun and also of these powerful and, until
now, altogether unknown forces Indeed
how little we know. and we cannot but
think that the greatest treasures of nature
are yet tC be discovered"
Aerial Navigation.
How about the air and its navigation,
DR.. Bell?''
THAT Is one of the most interesting fields
of scientific investigation We know so lit
tie of the air and it's movements that there
is much to discover 1 have been charged
with attempting to invent a flying ma
chine. There may have been some reason
for such a superstition, but the fact has no
foundation whatsoever. I am experiment
ing to discover the properties of aerial
flight and the constituent elements neces-
sary to it's success. When l have ascer-
tanned these facts 1 may be ready to at
tempt to invent flying machine, but not
until then
What have you discovered?" I asked.
Il think l have found that there is a pc
culiar form in which all things which are
to be maintained in the air should be made
l have ascertained the shape of the cell
which. in combination with similarly shap-
ed cells must compose the flying body; the
brick, as 1t were, out of which the flying
house must be made, the unit of which 1t
seems to me all such machines must be
constructed"
Basis of Successful Flying Machines.
What is the unit, DR.. Bell?" 1 asked
81 call it the tetrahedral unit because 1t
has the form of a tetrahedron If you will
place three matches end to end in the shape
of triangle and then take three more
resting one end of each at a corner, so
that the other ends will meet over the CEN
ter of the triangle, you will have the skele-
ton of a tetrahedron. Now tie the ends of
the matches together, and you will find
that the framework, as a whole Is Won
derfully strong in comparison with it's
weight In aerial navigation we find that
the questions of strength and weight are
all-important ones, and that new elements
must be taken into considera ton which
prior to this time have not been appreci-
ated. To support heavy body in the air
greater surface in proportion to the
weight must be had than is generally sup
posed In increasing the size we find that
the weight increases as the cube Of the di-
mansions, whereas the surface increases
only as the square of the dimensions
Simon Newcomb recently brought this out
In an article in attempting to show the fu-
tility of trying to make successful flying
machines. In other words, as you increase
the size of your machine you do not in
crease its ability to sustain itself In the
air. The model may work perfectly, but
the great machine made on that model will
for this reason not do at all. This has been
proven again and again by actual expert
ment. 1t was SO with the weather bureau
kites made of box shape. Those Of ordi-
nary size flew very well, but the great
kites constructed in exactly the same way.
with the hope that they would carry me-
neurological recording instruments high in
to the air, would not rise at ALL
This fact led me to experiment to find a
shape which when increased or multipIied
In size might have the sustaining surface
and the weight equally multiplied. have
discovered this In the tetrahedron which I
believe to be the only unit of construction
in the flying machine OF the future
The Tetrahedral Kite.
''How could you test this?" I asked
"Only by actual experiments" was the
reply. "I have made kites Of this shape in
various sizes and combinations and have