New-York tribune., 1906-02-28


the advice of his physician he went South to
cape the usually rigorous months of February and
March in this city His mental faculties were un-
impaired. and he received his friends here, and
occasionally attended to business matters up to
the time OF his departure. He was accompanied to
Aiken by a niece and attendant
Professor Langley seventy-two years old
His whole life had been devoted to scientific work
He was by profession civil engineer and an archi-
tect but astronomy occupied most Of his attention
Professor Langley's experiments with flying ms
chimes. for which the Board Of Ordnance and For
tihcations. OF the War Department, appropriated
$1,000 attracted wide attention and since t1eir
failure his health had rapidly broken. The expert
ments were made at Whitewater, Va. IN the sum-
mer of 1904 and later at the tidal basin near the
arsenal, in the District of Columbia. The great
Langley flying machine. carrying a man. was pro-
PEELED from a houseboat In each case the machine
failed to soar. but structural accidents were held
responsible both times Charles T. Bradley. an
assistant Of Professor Langley. attempted the flight
and Whitewater had narrow escape from
drowning. The machine plunged into the water.
Bradley being caught underneath and held there
BY a wire. lie was able. however. to pull himself
loose il time
HAD FAITH IN MACHINE
Professor Langley never lost faith in the posi-
btes Of his machine and ascrihed the failure to
the fact that the machine caught on the track
from which it propelled by a powerful spring
The machine has since been restored ana Is Ho"
at the Smithsonian Institution. where some of the
scientists who assisted Professor Langley in his
early work have been at work on it and are said
to have reached point where they are prepared
TO try TO fly It again. It is interesting coinci-
dence that the subject of flying machines was dis
cussed in the debate in the House to-day
From boyhood DR. Langley had been interested
I'm aerial flight. This subject he took up seriously
IN 1889, years after coming 10 the head OF the
Smithsonian Institution. and in 1891 he published his
Experiments I'm Aerodynamcs.' followed in 1898
by The Internal Work OF the Wind
Both OF these papers based on numerous
experiments and satisfied him of the possibility of
mechanical flight He began and for several years
carried the actual construction OF flying ma
chimes based the principles he had developed
from studying the soaring of birds. until he at
tanned a practical success In 1926. for the first
time it IS believed, in history. his aerodromes.
wholly without gas any supporting power but
their steam engine. made several free flights Of
over a half mile each. These have since been re-
peated thus demonstrating by actual experiment
that a body nearly thousand times heavier than
the air it dispaces can be driven through II and
sustained by II.
Prcfess9E tansIey o5tans9 for the matte national a cap
OF the most highly priced points of interest of
the city.
PROFESSOR LANGLEYs WRITINGS.
Many OF Professor Langey's public works had
great literary charm more especially The New
series Of Lowell lectures that afterward appeared
in serial form in The Century Magazine" Few
of his writings CouChed in technical language
for however abStruse the subject, they writ
ten so that they could be appreciated by all in
scientific writing could be made accessible to the
public If sufficient pains We're taken by the author
and I'm many OF his papers well s in tho work
alluded to he attained this end.
lie had a deep interest in all that related to
things OF the mind. and for many years
ciated with both the American and British asso-
Citations for Psychcal Research. He was an ON
nivorous reader of everything that was best in
English and French literature. He was especially
interested in George Borrow and was the owner
OF considerable collection OF BorroW's manu-
memoirs. His interest a the fine arts was keen
and he had many times visited all The galleries OF
Europe, and knew all the great pictures every
where. The Orient had a fascination for him, and
he had a collection Of editions of the Arabian
Nights As young man he great ad-
mirer OF Thomas Carlyle. with whom he had con-
siderable acquaintance. and whom he used to visit
lie had great love for little children. and the
Chdrcns Room i'm the Smithsonian Building was
the result of his personal attention.
= great part of the scientific work done by Pro-
fessor Langley has related the sun. it's heat
Spectra nd other sources OF radiation and he ac-
compauicC some Of the eclipse observation eNped-
tiDns. he had been the secretary the Smith
sonian Instituton since 1887. He was member of
many scientific societies. and his published writings
include moro than one hundred works
His body viii be- brought to Washington on
Thursday Tho burial viii probably be In Boston
where both his parents were buried. Professor
Langley was unmarried