Evening star., 1934-08-22
TRIBUTE IS PAID
SAMUEL LANGLEY
Smithsonian Marks tooth
Anniversary of Its Third
Secretary.

-. The Smithsonian Institution today
Is observing the Tooth birthday ami
versary of its third secretary, Samuel
Pierpont Langley.
Coming to manhood in that ex-
traordinary age Of physical discovery
upon which rests so much Of the ma
terial civilization of the present, ac-
cording to a statement issued by the
institution, few men of his time can
be credited with more fundamental
contributions to that development.
To the general public his name is
associated chiefly with the early his
tory of aeronautics, but his researches
on the sun and other studies in
astronomy and physics have classi-
cal importance to specialists.
Became Secretary In 1887.
He became Secretary of the Smith
sonian In 1887 At that time he had
been for more than 20 years director
of the Allegheny Observatory near
Pittsburgh, where he first expert
mented on the problem of flight with
, heavier -than-air machines. For GEN.
turies men had watched the soaring
Failure had been so consistent up to
the time Prof. Langley started his
famous experiments that flight was
regarded as among such established
impossibilities as perpetual motion,
and those who talked about it were
considered crack-brained. At Allie
gheny, Langley made q scientific at
tack on the problem by experiments
on the lift and resistance of rapidly
moving surfaces in air, using a
wf1irling arm to carry them. Only
after he became Secretary Of the
Smithsonian did he publish these
results.
Conclusions Not All Sound.
"These new experiments show" he
wrote, that If in such aerial motion
there be given a plane of fixed size
and weight, inclined at such an angle
. and moved forward at such a speed
I. that it shall be sustained in hori-
yontal flight, the less will be the
power required to support and ad-
vance it. This statement may, am
aware, present an appearance so para
doxical that the reader may ask him
self II he has rightly understood 1t.
To make the meaning quite indu-
bitable, let me repeat 1t in another
form and say that these experiments
show that definite amount of power
SO expanded at any constant rate will
attain more economical results at high
speeds than low ones"
He went on to describe various other
experiments in the same publication
in 1891 and made the bold statement,
'Such mechanical flight is possible
with engines we now possess" Lang
ley's data long since have been super
seded and even his conclusions were
not all sound. The famous Langley's
law, that the more rapid the hori-
zontal flight the less power is required
to support and advance a moving
plane, does not hold good for speeds
much higher than those he tried. But
it is beyond question that his earlier
work gave tremendous impetus to
the development Of aeronautics.
Watched Buzzard's Flight.
Langley ever was on the alert for
q clue which would aid in solving the
question Of flight. Crossing bridge
over the Potomac on windy Winter
evening, he watched the buzzards and
meditated upon their remarkable
ability to remain in the air almost
without effort. THAT nearly inert
bodies" he said, weighing from to
10 pounds and many hundreds of
times denser than the air should be
visibly suspended in it above our heads
might be called physical miracle"
1t was after completing these studies
that Langley proceeded to use the
data in a serious attempt to accom-
plish mechanical flight. After several
years of experimenting, in the pres.
ence of Alexander Graham Bell and
others, he successfully catapulted from
q houseboat on the Potomac 13-foot
steam powered model, which few over
half a mile and landed softly and un-
harmed upon the water. This was
on May 8, 1896. A few months later
a similar model made q flight of
three -fourths of mile.
He then turned his attention to an
"aerodrome or flying machine" large
enough to carry a man. He was given
a grant of $50, 1000 by the War De-
machine was complete and an effort
made to launch it from houseboat
about 40 miles below Washington. The
effort failed, but without fair trial.
The machine never even got in the
air. The rear portion caught on the
launching car.
Prof. Langley himself wrote: at
seems proper to emphasize that the
machine never had q chance to fly at
all, but that the failure occurred on
the launching ways. Failure on the
aerodrome itself, or in the engines,
there has been none"
In honor of the Langley centenary
o special volume of selections from
his own writings, telling of his most
fundamental discoveries, has been pre-
pared by DR.. Charles G. Abbot, sec
retary of the institution, and formerly
--one of Dr. Langley's assistants.
A special exhibit case also has been
prepared containing the originals of
some of his outstanding inventions and
articles associated with him in life,
including the bolometer, an instru-
ment which is able to detect heat
change of as little as a millionth of
q degree centigrade.