University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1908-11-12
CAN AERONAUTS
CROSS OCEAN d?

established across the Atlantic
between New York or Boston and Liv-
erpOOl is a question on which two aero
nautical experts, speaking at different
places in the Boston district recently,
took opposite views. Professor w. H.
Pickering of the Harvard Observatory
told the Merchants Club at the New
Algonquin Club that transatlantic ae-
roplane trips were all nonsense; Profes-
sor II. II. Clayton of Blue Hill Observa-
tory, speaking at the Harvard Union,
told the students there that he would
not be surprised to see balloons navi-
eating from the United States to Eng
land. carrying decklOads of passengers.
The difference was that Professor Pick
ering was talking of aeroplanes, while
Professor Clayton was discussing bal
looms.
Professor Pickering said: "Aeroplanes
can have little influence on international
war. 1t is doubtful if these machines
will ever cross the ocean," he said, "and,
in spite of the recent success of the
Wright brothers, they offer little men
ace to any army in time of war;"
THE only practical aeroplane at the
present time is the sort with which the
Wright brothers have been attaining
such astonishing results. 1t was first
tried in 1910. In 1905 the Wrights sue
ceeded in flying twenty-four miles in
forty minutes. These daring inventors
have been so successful that the public
has been led to overestimate the posi-
bilities of the aeroplane. People have
pictures of themselves sailing through
the air at rate of several hundred
miles an hour. They imagine that in
another generation they can fly over to
London in day.
This is manifestly impossible, be-
cause every time you double the speed
of an object passing through the air
you have to overcome a resistance four
times greater than that which it has
been meeting. There has been no evil
dence supplied that it can acquire much
lifting power. The popular conception
is of machine to be perfected in
few years which will carry twenty or
thirty people on it's deck, and in twenty
years the expectation is that several
hundred passengers can be borne about
rs though on an ocean going vessel.
That's all nonsense, I'm sorry to say"
THAT aerial navigation will before
long entirely supplant the existing
methods of travel was the opinion
by Professor Clayton. His
subject was THE Navigation of the
Air." and his remarks were illustrated
" stereopticon views of the earth as
cen by the aeronaut. Speaking of sue
essful efforts of aeronauts in the past. .
e said: s
The elongated form of balloon has t
een tried with good success, especially
n reconnoitering in war times, and the
allOOns are protected from the observa- \
ion of the enemy by means of large C
Greens, which have the appearance of t
louds. These balloons should prove
seful, as they can be made to carry
reat weights, as their lifting power in t
eases as the cubes of their dimensions. a
| which they have an advantage over o
he ships like those of the Wright
rothers. the lifting power of which
'creases only as the square of their t,
mensions, and their strength at the g
lme rate.
1T would not surprise me in the
ast if before very long great, elongated W
lllOOns were crossing the ocean, carry "
g hundreds of people, who could walk
ound the decks of the airship and look
'er on the water, just as the people OF
| the steamers do at present" ra
The annual election of officers of the
erchants Club resulted: President, ].
Meyers; vice-presidents, B. C. Clarke,
enry Parkman, George A. Frost; treas G,
er, A. F. Estabrook; secretary, Fred -,
ick o. North. a.,