The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-09-21
Real CONQUEST of the Air

Buckner Speed in Harper's Magazine.
The latest triumph of aviation. the sue
cessful crossing of the Atlantic--only en-
| phaszes the problems that must be solv-
ed before our boosted mastery of the
air becomes fact. After weeks of prep
| aration, with destroyers vigilantly sta
toned along the course, only one of our
naval machines reached its goal by way
| of the closest natural stopping places.
while of the two daring attempts on the
direct route, the first narrowly escaped
disaster in mid-ocean. over a dozen years
| ago all in stroke, the Wrights did their
thirty miles at Dayton, and yet with all
| the pressure of the war-business econo-
mics thrown to the winds-flying Is still
| apparently confronting practically insup-
cradle difficulties.
| Let us put our finger at once where
! the difficulty lies. 1t is a need for very
| much more power-yes, half a dozen times
| as much for the same weight of engine
and fuel as we have now, and materials
| of construction for the aeroplane several
| times as stiff and strong for the same
weight as anything now obtainable, and
1 think the real conquest of the air will
1 be achieved, little by little as we accom-
plsh these two things.
improvements that will give us many
| times more power for the same weight
of machinery and weight of fuel will take
| their rise in the laboratory in studies APP
parently not directed toward the art of
| flying at all. Much has already been
| done. The tiny wire in modern mean
descent lamp is a stronger piece of
metal by dozen times than they were
| a few years ago; and, little by little we
are learning mething of the ways OF
metals.
| If we take bit OF steel and polish 1t
to very brilliant surface-and for this
purpose the grinding and polishing mot
ais has been carried far beyond the polish
of razor blade-if. say we polish a bit
of steel and then etch 1t with a bit
| of acid and examine 1t under micro
scope with the right kind OF illumination,
we find that it Is made up of number
of irregular grains. these grains separat-
| ed from their neighbors by boundary
walls, and the grains all about the same
| size Now If we take this piece of steel
and heat t suitably, or draw its temper
| or anneal It, as we say, and then polish 1t
and etch 1t, and look at it again. we ftnd
| that those grains have grown enormous
lily, and at the same time we know very
we'll that we have softened the steel. 1t
is not so hard nor SO strong. If now we
take the same steel and hammer It or
roll it cold, and again polish it and exam
inc it, we shall find that we have crack
ed up these grains, the little cracks In the
=, grains being very different indeed from
the boundary walls between the grains.
! They seem to be little fractures. little
slips of the material on itself, but strange
to say, instead of having shattered the
strength of the steel by such treatment,
we have made 1t stronger and harder. II
again we heat up the bit Of steel and
work it and hammer It hot and auench
it with water while 1t is red hot, we get
a bit of steel so hard that it will scratch
glass or make a razor blade exceedingly
hard and strong. Now let us again pol
ish this. etch 1t, and look Mt 1t. We
now find that the grains have become
very minute. This short paragraph Is
the summing up of volumes OF recently
acquired lore. filling several shelves fun
of books with the title Autobiography.
The war gave great impetus to the study
of autobiography because OF the need OF
| knowing exactly how another metal
brass, could be made into cartridges
without the brass being too soft and
stretchy or too brittle. This is only a
hint of the way the universities and
great Industrial Laboratories are findins
out in other parallel lines of effort, the
trick that will give use the material
strong enough for the real achievement
of flight which will take flying out OF
the field Of acrobatics.