Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-04

by reducing expenses he would greatly in
crease the output. My dear Pickering, he
replied. you have no idea how, in a ven
cradle institution like this, We are tied
down by presidents and traditions. Every
attempt / make to reduce current expenses
is met by insuperabe obstacles The rem
edy came largely by additional appropria-
tons by the government and by outside
aid, like the Hodgkins fund When we con-
slider the liberal conditions under which the
Smithsonian Institution can become a trus-
tee 1t is surprising that rich men have not
more freely availed themselves OF this OPP
portunity to secure wise administration
of their gifts to science Langley tried
hard to aid departments of human knoWl-
edge other than those In which he had al
ways been personally interested.
1T was a great disappointment to him
when such unselfsh aims were criticised ad-
versely. The National Geological Park is
an excellent Illustration of his energy In
carrying through plan having no relation
to his own scientific work. The establish
ment of the astrophyscal observatory, as
stated above. enabled him to continue under
much more favorable conditions his work
begun at Allegheny His other duties, how
ever. compelled him to delegate it largely to
others. and he was most fortunate In es-
tablishing here a corps of assistants, who
developed his methods and extended his
work with remarkable success Not to
mention those who assisted him at Alie-
gheny and Washington and are now living.
to have produced astronomer like the
late James f. Keller. director of the Lick
observatory. was an achievement of which
any man might well be proud.
New Problems Undertaken.
while much of the work of the astro-
physical observatory has consisted in re-
peating and extending the earlier work Of
Mr.. Langley, many new problems have
been undertaken. A matter in which he
was greatly interested during the last years
of his life was the variation, if any, in the
solar constant. This means possible changes
in the heat of the sun itself, which from OBJ
servation with the bolometer appeared to
take place rapidly and irregularly, and to be
real. and not due to changes in the atmos-
phere of the earth. 1t is difficult to esti-
mate the commercial and industrial fmpor-
tance of the effect of such changes, II they
exist. The pecuniary value of study of
them. If 1t led to a means of determining
their laws SO that they could be foreseen
would be almost incalculable.
THE work of Langley may be summed
up as that of an eager searcher after truth.
a careful and persevering investigator. and
one whose life was directed to the extension
of human knowledge. not only in lines or
theoretical interest. but in those which. II
successful. would have the utmost practical
value"
Study Of the Air.
DIR. Chanute was the last to speak. He
said that Prof. Langley's contributions to
the study of the air were of the highest
order. He discovered and formulated
"Langley's Law" concerning the operation
of aeroplanes. The speaker declared that
Langley should have stopped his work
when he had made a model that would
fly, as he did and left the practical work
ing out of his own ideas to another and
more practical genius.
Il believe" DR.. Chanute said, THAT the
time is coming when all engineers will
consider seriously the ideas of artificial
flight that Prof. Langley put forth"
DR.. Chanute added that Prof. Langley
had been grossly misrepresented by the
press in 1908 and that the criticism of his
machine had been too severe. 1t was ex-
actly the same as his successful models, he
held and in DR.. Chanutes opinion would
have flown had it been properly launched.
A large framed portrait of Prof. Langley
stood on an easel in the front of the room
during the evening. 1t was surrounded by
a wreath of evergreen.