The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-09-19
ISSUES BULLETIN
CONTINUED from page mne3

boiler and furnace with gasoline fuel
weighed seven pounds and developed
one and quarter horsepower. But
this success was won at vast eX.
pense of nervous energy lie was
working i'm secret all the time for fear
of ridicule, which hurt him worse than
serious criticism. Ten or twenty boil
ers and as many blast lamps were
made aud discarded before he got a
combination that would raise 40
pounds of steam and keep it up. In
the meantime he had built and dis
carded five machines before he sue
ceeded in making one theoretically
light and powerful enough to fly.
At the end of all, when machine and
power plant both we're completed,
came the problem of launching. This
proved almost an absolute stumbling
block His experiment station was at
Whitewater, Va, a point selected for
physical reasons and to escape Obiec-
tionable publicity. 1t was thirty miles
from Washington, and the return trip
wasted the larger part of day. How
ever, a launching device was installed
after total of twenty trips spread
over two years of constant work and
discouraging failure.
First Flight of Machine
/ At the end, May 26, 1896, the first
of these experimental machines few
1t was a model with thirteen-foot
spread of wings and weighed thirty
pounds 1t flew half a mile at the first
successful launch and afterward in
creased this distance to almost a mile.
1t was not flown in high winds, but
in a wind up to twelve miles an hour
/ it flew. circled and rose to a height
! of some hundred feet without a guild
/ ing hand on board. Thus at the end
of practically fourteen years of work
the problem of mechanical fight was
/ solved. demonstrated, as Prof. Lang
ley said, in the only satisfactory way,
by a machine really flying
/ But apparently the world was not
yet ripe for artificial fight. There
were men all over the world working
at the problem, as they had worked in
all ages. But though the news Of these
flights was transmitted to the French
Academy and a popular story written
under Prof. Langleys personal super
vision was published in The Star, little
popular attention was paid to the
achievement, and the discovery was
allowed to rest so far as the public
was concerned for ten years.
In the meantime the country was
drifting as the officials of the govern
ment well knew, into the inevitable
war with Spain. Prof. Langley was
asked if he could build a flying ma
chine for Mr.. Roosevelt, then assist
ant secretary of the navy, who recog-
nized it's inestimable advantages as an
engine of war. Prof. Langley replied
that probably he could, and coming
reluctantly from his scientific retire
ment, he undertook the work.
It was a repetition of the discourag-
ing work on the small machines. Case
line had been substituted for steam
as a motive power and at that late
age, being then siXty-two, Prof. Lang,
ley took up the study of gasoline en-
gineering. He did not want to build
a gasoline engine himself, but after
p securing this country and Europe for
maker who would turn him out an
engine of ten pounds per horsepower
he was forced, with the aid of few
faithful Smithsonian workmen, to de
sign and build an engine himself.
His Engine a Success.
The engine was of fifty-two actua
horsepower and weighed, with radi
q ators, batteries and twenty pounds o
: cooling water, 2O7 pounds. The me
moir gives the details of construction
;, of this engine and is a subject tina
, even the builder of modern gasolin,
= engines could study with advantage
-, It was an engine that was reliable
and ran without vibration. 1t was
, costly engine to build, but owing Il
q the improvement of brazing appl
h ances since then it would be duplicat
ed at comparatively small expense.
Almost every one is familiar wit
t the end of the experiments with tn
big man-carrying machine. 1t was nc
finished till long after the close {
the Spanish-American war When
- finally was tried out Prof. Langley il
sisted on a launch over the water o
the score of greater safety to the ope
y ator In this launching apparatu