Evening star., 1924-06-15

goal of man since the days of King
Mnos of Crete. when Ddedalus, with
his son, Icarus, essayed to escape
from their prison by flying on wings
across the sea to more friendly
land.
As mythology sets forth. large
wings were fashioned by Daedalus
and the flight was finally attempted.
but lcarus, not needing the warning
of his elder approached too near to
the sun chariot and the heat melted
the wax with which. the feathers in
his wings were attached and he
plunged into the sea to his death.
Daedalus reached his goal in safety.
While it is probably a far cry from
the myths of the ancient Greeks to
the palatial air liners OF today, still
the story of Icarus is told in a wax
model now under construction in the
Smithsonian Institution, to be placed
In what will he the most complete
collection of airplanes in the world.
Zach step in the history of flying
from the earliest recorded account of
mans efforts is told in models con-
structed by Paul l.. CARRIER. technical
expert at the Smithsonian, and en-
years before Christ up to the Martin
BON bers of today.
While the story of Icarus is looked
upon as myth, as far as actual flight
is concerned, some credence is given
the story, as it is believed that in the
early days some inventive genius did
make an effort to, emulate the birds
of the air, and the account of his
venture was handed down, though
embellished. together with the
legends of the mythical gods of an
cient civilization. At any rate, the
wings of Icarus will have a place in
the collection of flying machines in
the Smithsonian.
When compared with the efforts
OF the Marquis de Bessnier, who is
credited with having made a more or
less successful flight with mechanical
wings early in 1850, when he at
tempted to fly across the Seine River,
the tale from mythology is given
more or less serious consideration by
experts of the Smithsonian.
The first chronicled attempt at fly
ing can be traced back TO 300 years
B. {. when Greek, Archytas of
Athens, was commissioned to con-
trive some new form of diversion
which might find favor in the sight
OF returning conqueror The first
mechanical toy was created, being
fashioned as a bird, and operated BY
a series of springs
x x
SUCCESS crowned the efforts of the
inventor, the bird flying about
fifty yards, and, the power exhausted.
setting TO the ground. The only ac-
count other than a meager descrip-
tion of the marvel goes on to state
that the bird flew, but when at rest
could not rise again. The historian
Of that early day only embodied the
story of the mechanical bird in his
records, for the reason that the con-
queror found favor in the flying ex-
hibition. model built from the de-
scription is on exhibit in the museum
here.
Archytas evidently tired of his toy
or else, finding more manly diversion
In the arena or on the field of battle
against the enemies of Greece, did
nothing further on this line and his
name is not again found in history as
having done naything Of moment in
the field of invention
1t was not until 500 A. d. that o+bar
eHorts were made to master the air,
when a monk in France fashioned a
glider, and, flying from a high wall
managed to land in safety on a level
plane several hundred feet below the
monastery.
When this daring feat, which was
looked upon more as sorcery than
genius, was called to the attention of
the Pope :he monk was directed tn
return to his prayers and cease to
meddle in matters which were the
concern of the Almighty. AS ancient
chronicles set forth, the Pope in a
message told the inventive monk that
If men had been intended to fly God
would have given them wings.
More than 600 years elapsed before
other inventors entered the field, or
else any efforts at flying were not
considered worthy Of being chroni-
cled together with the feats of kings
and knights of the Holy Cross, when,
in 1890, Da Vinca, an Italian, startled
the known world by an invention of
weird machine, hand and foot pro-
PEELED, that made a few short flights
with success.
AS superstition was rampant, Da
Vinci had little success in following
his invention through to perfection,
and while his one plane was more or
less feasible, no further efforts were
made by this genius to solve the
problem of long flights.
During the close of the fifteenth
century and the early part of the
sixteenth century inventive geniuses
of Europe were seeking to gain for
their respective nations some method
new to warfare that would assure
supremacy of their armies on the
field of battle. Gunpowder had been
discovered, watch towers thought of,
and tactics employed in the field, the
old weapons of the days of knight
hood having been discarded as worth
less and more modern weapons of de-
fense put to use.
The courier system in the field was
found to be inadequate, and finally an
Italian professor, whose name has
been lost, organized the first school
of what would now be called avia-
ton Selecting twenty lads of ten
years, the professor fashioned wings
like those of bird and taught the
youngsters how to move them in the
same manner as birds.