The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-07-06
NOT BY MATHEMATICS.

he death of the late Wilbur Wright
mas been commented upon by public
writer's throughout the civilized world.
he was everywhere recognized at the
mead OF aviation progress, and as a
man who had done more than anv other
to develop the aeroplane and make
hight by heavier-than-air machines
practical fact Due praise has been
awarded to Mr., Wright accordingly, and
even the London Times gave him warm
fnentloni but it has been taken to task
Tor its sighting allusion to him when
1t said that ii was surprising to see
now much he had managed TO do with
a Very ordinary education. - And 1t
added that "thcre is no reason to sup.
pose that he ever knew ANYTHING of the
refined mathematical reasoning that is
now applied TO the problems of avia.
ton. -
1t is probable, indeed, that Wilbur
Wrifht never knew nor cared much
about those refined mathematics nor
Is there any evidence that these re-
tined mathematics have cut any spe.
clal figure In advancing the work of
aviation. Mr.. Wright made practical
experiments, he tested weighed, bal.
anced. and tried He worked in this
primitive field as the primitive man
worked when he wrought out the prob
lem of feathering the arrow, or giving
circular motion 10 the flight of a pro-
Jectile by twists in the flint. Mr.. Wright
was practical above all things else, and
he was successful above all others, not
because he wrought out problems in
mathematics, but because he actually
made aeroplanes and operated them. 1t
was not that he was able to demon.
strate by mathematical proof that he
could do this, but he was able TO show
by actual test that he not only could
make the flights but he actually did
make them And that is the great
thing.
Mathematieians have been figuring
for ages upon intricate problems of all
kinds They have been figuring ON
balloons and on every possible means
of aerial flight. The mathemat tical
Judgment was decidedly against the
proposition that any machine heavier
than air could support itself in flight,
much less that it could carry the weight
OF a man. So far as the fine mathe-
matics went, therefore, the achieve.
ments of Mr.. Wright did not exist. |
Mathematlcally they were impossible |
just as refined matbematicians showed
IN the early days Of .railroading that it |
ascend a grade, much less to draw q
load up that grade, so it was a matbe.
matlcal demonstration that a heavier |
than n-alr machine could not rise from
the ground or sustain itself in the air, |
1t is probable that il Mr.. Wright |
had been an expert mathematician. and
had sat down to figure out his problem |
theoretically, he would have been dis |
couraged like so many hundreds of |
others, and might have convinced him
self that flight by heavier-t -than-air ma.
chimes was impossible.
But Professor Langley, Secretary of |
the Smithsonian Institution, demon.
strated by practical flight that
heavier -than-air machine could rise
from the ground and sustain itself for
time IN the air, and actually make a |
flight. His machine was very sim. |
pie, primitive affair, but it was enough |
to demonstrate the possibility, and il |
was enough also to refutc the refined |
mathematicians who had demonstrated |
through their mathematical conclu.
sions that what Secretary Langley de
c]arcd to be fact was. in fact, inn
possible.
Mr.. Wright seems to have taken hold
of the matter from the point where
Secretary Langley dropped it, after
Langley death. he pursued the prac,
tical phases Of aviation and made avi'
alton the brilliant success that it is.
So far from refined mathematics being
a help to Mr.. Wright in doing this, it
is practically certain that such mathe-
MATES would have been a discourage
ment, and perhaps might have deferred
him from his success altogether IL he
had been expert enough In mathemati-
cal calculations TO be able to figure
ont the problem as others had done.
The summary of the whole matter
is that the success of aviation has been
demonstrated not by refined mathe.
matics but in spite of. mathematical
reasoning. IL * fortunate, therefore,
for the world that Mr.. Wright was not
a refined mathematician, but that he
employed practical, actual methods.
making ihs tests experimentally, and
by so doing won the great success
which he did. and the fame that he
acquired
Those demonstrations for one
candidate or another, both at Chicago
and 3t Baltimore bore every evidence