The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-04-01
Audience Which Heard Ad-
dress of Patent Attorney of
Famous Aviators Highly
Entertained.
AIR CURRENTS WERE
THE GREAT PROBLEM
Was Harder Than Producing
a Machine to Navigate the
Air-Solved by a Close
Study of Birds.

Before d large and interested audi
encc at the Masonic Temple last even
ing II. A. Toulmin, patent attorney for
the famous Wright brothers of Day
ton, Ohio, told of the long years of eX-
navigation used by birds to mechanics
for aerial flight, and explained in de-
tail how the problem was finally work
ed out by the Wright brothers and
other prominent aviators, from the
of gravitation to the one which now
seemed to be approaching perfection.
tive address through and through. and
Mr.. Toulmin held the close attention
of his auditors for more than an hour
and a half.
In his capacity as patent agent for
the Wrights, Mr. Toulmin has come to
have an intimate knowledge of aero
planes and the principles of their con
struction, and his knowledge was Civ
en- over to the audience last evening
in SO clear and concise a manner that
aviators themselves, or at least we'll
versed on the subject.
rL> D>.t
According to Mr. Toulmin, very lit
tie difficulty, if any, was ever eXper-
fenced. iii producing machine which
would make progress in the air, but
for years the problem which baffled
the Wrights and other men was to
manufacture machine which could
be manipulated in the varying air
currents SO as TO keep the balance
and be propelled through the air with
out danger of it's being upset by a
sudden shift in the air and dashed to
the ground
study of the means used by birds
in balancing gave the aviators the key
to the problem said Mr. Toulmin AS
finally worked out the balancing ap-
paratus consists of a lever which
when changing air currents cause one
side of the machine to dip. is moved
by a turn of the wrist, elevating a por-
ton of the upper plane of the side that
is high and lowering a portion of the
plane on the side that is dipping
The apparatus differs on various
machines, and this was illustrated by
, the most successful planes. In the
Farnam biNane the upper plane is
split at the ends SO that portion of
it can be raised or dropped on hinges;
the Curtis machine has small plane
between the two main planes at each
end. which are operated for this pur-
pose: while the Wright biplane and
the Bleriot monoplane is balanced by
raising and lowering of the ends of
the main upper plane which is made
| flexible.
Operation Explained.
The operation of the plane was ex-
planned in this way. When one end
of the machine dips. the end of the
plane, hinged portion of sub bplane. is
| lowered and the friction of the air on
this projection tends to raise that
| end while the friction of the air on the
elevated projection at the other end
tends to force that side of the machine
| down. As slight turn of the wrist on
lever raises and lowers both ends,
the balancing operation is made quite
| simple.
The first type OF aeroplane develop
| ed by the Wrights, it's trial and subse-
quent efforts and their success to ell
inmate the faults which had been eX-
| posed were explained in detail by the
| speaker He also explained in general
the principles of aviation and the OBJ
! stacles which had TO be overcome in
aerial navigation.
! The consensus of opinion was that
the lecture was one of the best of its
! kind ever delivered in the city.