Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-04
We SHALg !! !! FLY
SHiI IS
That is Still the Opinion of
Professor :; langley.
HIS BIG AERODRoME
NO GOOD REASON FoE CALLING IT
A FAMUBE.
Trouble Was In the Launching-A
q Scientific Inventor and
His Successes.

Copyrighted, 1904, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
Written for The Evening Star.
I have just returned from a talk with
Secretary Langley about his flying ma
chine, the experiments in launching which
resulted so disastrously last fall. say
IN launching" for as will be seen from
this interview the ability of the machine
to fly has never been tested. The accidents
have occurred before 1t was free from the
launching stage. 1t has really never been
in the air. You might as well say that
great modern steamer broken in launching.
would not float IL 1t were successfully placed
upon the water. Indeed, there is every rea-
son to believe that the Langley machine will
ny, and that, once properly launched. its
engines will drive it through the air at
the will of the engineer, sitting within 1t
with his hand on the lever and controlling
It IS the engineer controls his ship upon
It is also the belief of other scientists and
mechanical experts, who know some thing
of the machine and Its const. uction and
the experiments which Mr.. Langley has
successfully made in this field
"A Scientific Inventor.
Before giving my talk with Mr.. Langley
let me say word as to what he has done
in this and other fields of discovery and in
vention. His work is everywhere known In
the scientific world. and his standing in
Europe is as high as in the United States. /
What Edison. Tesla and Bell have been in
sne heios OF practical invention he has
been In scientific invention He has Gre
ated new methods of studying the heavenly
bodies. has to the largest extent measured
the heat of the sun, and by his invention
OF the Doiometer has produced an instru-
ment by winch the temperature of a sun
beam can be tested to the millionth ma of
degree Every railroad in the United
states runs On a time system invented nv
Mr. Langley 1t was through him that we
got the systematic time. service by which
the clocks ali over the country are reen-
iated from the observatories, and by which
the railroads run their trains without dan
ger ELL, from accidents through varying time.
rms invention illustrates one phase of
MT. Langleys work He brings his enor
nous scientific knowledge down IN the
practical uses of mankind, and he has for
years oeen devoted. toNthe study OF the
sun ana It's heat. with view to their bet
Ter adaptation to practical uses. This has
been his professional studsa but he has also
Tor years been investigating the nronerties
OF the air and making scientific and other
edge upon which may be bised ffs snecess
Iui navigation. To test these properties he
mas maze machine after machine. from
some son e. SO small that they could be held in
fill the room of a isDod-sfzed boI,ssa HI
nao failure after faff1fe. Ab11t fron, ~ 1
failure he learned sorSe tffffffttg. HIS work in
aeriai investigation Went on for siytean
years before 1t culmfnated In the first sue
cess1ul aerodrome whteh flaw up and down
the Potomac In 1896. "fi w ""
.,a', The First Aeroefrome. ,fz
had the hohfor Is r2alssclr ,abs, AZ a.
night OF that machiney for 8 the nun
lie OF the United States;saI' spent 81 weak 4
with MIR. Langley on an island in the river
III oroer TO secure a time for the best f1y-
ins CONDITION. It came, and then saw
tnis machine, which was made chiefly Of
l Sei Weishing as much as a four-year-oid
Doy, out SO large that it would about iii
inc average parfor. dart forth from the
isunching stage and fly; through the Air
US motlVe power was an exceedingly light
Steam one morse power engine, invented by
Mr. Langley. 1t carried five pounds OF
wafer ana 1t flew through the air a dis
lance OF ABOUT three-quarters of mile,
continuing to fly until all the water had
oeen converted into steam, when IL gently
dropped down upon the bosom of the Po- 1
tomac.
AS looked at the machine. Mr.. T.aneIev !
told me that it weighed many hundred |
times more than the air 1T displaced This
Is the difference between Mr.. Laneley,s
machine and those of Santos Dumont and |
others who expect to fly by means of bal. |
looms. The balloons are lighter than the |
air and they float as a boat floats upon the !
water. Mr.. Langley's machine is carried
through the air by the engine upon it, al |
though 1t Is many times heavier than the |
air 1t dfsplaces. 1t is believed that such a |
machine will be safer and more easily
directed than anything of a balloon nature. |
while its special properties will make it |