The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1915-01-15
WHY WHY WWECAN'T FLY
The Reason Man Is Unable to Rise
In the Air Like a Bird.
HE LACKS THE BREASTBONE.

In the Bird II Is Very Massive and
Developed Like the Keel of Yacht,
and Therein Lies the Secret of Its
Enormous Wing Power.
Man has always longed to fly like a
bird, and all the ancient attempts at
fight were based upon the tapping Of
wings attached to human arms.
These efforts were given up long ago
when it was realized that man was
not and could not be strong enough to
sustain himself in the air by the use of
his arms. A man can only just lift
himself with his arms-chinning the
bar, for example-but be finds himself
pretty heavy after he has done it
few times.
The reason why no man will ever be
able to fly with self moved wings is
that his breastbone is not big enough.
A birds breastbone has along its mid
die deep keel, from which spring the
enormous muscles that draw down the
wings when tapping or hold them level
when soaring, the muscles, in other
words, that support the entire weight
of the bird.
The most powerful fliers have the
eton of an albatross, a condor or a
humming bird in museum and you
will notice that the keel Of its breast
bone projects like the keel Of a racing
yacht
You can see this keel, only much
smaller in proportion to the size of the
bird, on the carcass of any chicken or
turkey after the meat has been re-
moved. and the tender white flesh from
the breast is nothing but the muscles
with which the bird flew when alive
You notice that even on a chicken,
| which is one OF the weakest Of fliers.
this flesh forms the greater part of the
| body. On a humming bird there is lit
| tie else but this mass of flying muscle
! In other words, the humming bird is
nothing but tiny flying machine
! An albatross has a vast spread oil
!
but a pair of powerful pectoral mus
cles. These are attached by tendonS
to the bone called the humerus, which
is the counterpart of the upper arm
bone Of man. They spread out like {
solid fan and are fastened to th'
breastbone with its deep keel, to the
| clavicles, or "wishbone." and to the
ribs
A mans breastbone has no keel His
humerus, or upper arm bone, is hinged
to the clavicle, or collarbone, and
shoulder blade. His pectoral muscles
which move the arm forward, and del
told muscles, which lift it. are attach
ed to it by strong tendons and spreaC
fanlike over his upper chest, being In
serted In the ribs and collarbone.
These are the muscles that do tn,
same work for man as the pectora
muscles do for a bird. These are the
muscles on which he would have t
rely if he were to fasten wings to hi
arms and try to fly.
Compare these muscles with those 0
an albatross and you will see how in
adequate they are Though an alba
tross weighs only a few pounds, it ha
pectoral muscles that are actually lar
ger than those of the most powerful
athlete
In order to have muscles powerful
enough to lift his weight Ia the air b.
Tapping wings a mans breastbon
would have to develop a keel like
birds and his collar bone would hav
to be changed to a giant ''wishbone."
Some writer on aviation has calcu
lated that this keel and "wishbone
would have to project at least six fee
in order to furnish attachment for tn
necessary muscles, for man in propol
ton to his size is far heavier than a
albatross. This bird has small an
very light legs. whereas mans legs ar
solid and heavy. The albatross' Ion
wing bones are hollow tubes.
This makes 1t plain why experiment
ers In flying long ago gave up the ide
of self moved wings and fight lik
that of bird.-San Francisco Chron
Gle.