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19. Tuesday at Baddeck 86
Herald New York 2 Dec 1906 

 Scientists Now Solving the Great Problem of Mechanical Flight

 ady Progress Being Made Toward Complete Success in Air Navigation.

INCIPLES OF AEROPLANES

Centuries before any one had conceived such a thing as a balloon man made his first attempts at flying. A bird flies through the air and soars overhead with so little apparent effort it is no wonder those early geniuses on whom man's ultimate mastery of nature was beginning to dawn would venture into this most alluring of territories.

As early as the fifteenth century a Spanish monk is said to have sailed two hundred yards from the top of a tall tower. This was probably the beginning of efforts at aerial flight which have continued to the present day. Ancient Greek mythology tells of Icarus and Deadalus, who flew with wings made of feathers cemented with wax, and how Icarus flew so near the sun that the wax melted and he fell into the sea. The story is evidently a fanciful legend, and as no other aerial ventures are recorded it is safe to assume that the ancients recognized the utter futility of attempting mechanical flight. And little wonder, for the mystery of a bird's flight is a complex problem to the wisest of scientists.

When the Montgolfier brothers exhibited in 1783 the first balloon, which sailed to a height of 1,500 feet, the achievement seemed then a long step in advance of any previous attempts at aerial navigation that [[?]] flying machine was almost neglected. [[?]]e then the balloon has been developed into the modern airship, equipped with a motor and steering gear by which it can be propelled in whatever direction the aeronaut may desire. But recently, while public attention has been diverted by the [[?]]ering success of the dirigible airship, several men have again taken up the problem of mechanical flight.

[[?]] CARRYING FLYING MACHINE.

The first man carrying flying machine was built in England twelve years ago, by Sir Hiram Maxim, at a cost of $100,000. [[?]] car was designed to carry two men, [[?]] the sails had a spread of four thousand square feet. The machine ran on a , while above it was a second track event it from rising unduly. A steam he was used to operate the air pro-rs, and when a speed of thirty-six an hour was reached the machine with such force that one hundred feet e upper track was torn out before steam could be shut off. Then, be- the apparatus was not properly ced, it fell to the ground and was de-hed.
 same fate befell a $100,000 machine by M. Ader, a French electrical en-r.
 fessor S. P. Langley, in this country, with little more encouragement, although his preliminary model was a success. This steam driven aeroplane, weighing about thirty pounds, soared over the Potomac River for three-quarters of a mile in 1896.
 The failure of Professor Langley's full sized man carrying apparatus was due not to fault in design or miscalculation of the necessary power, but to the difficulty of starting the machine. In order to safeguard the life of the operator and prevent damage to the mechanism in case of a possible fall the experiment was conducted over the Potomac River. With a view to giving the machine a good start a sort of catapult was rigged up on the upper deck of a float, and this was used to literally shoot the machine into the air. Unfortunately the catapult failed to work properly, and on several occasions the machine was thrown into the water. These failures and the lack of further appropriations by the United States government ended Professor Langley's experiments.
 But now we come at last to a glimpse of success. Three years ago, as attested by many affidavits of chance witnesses, Orville and Wilbur Wright, brothers, of Dayton, Ohio, made a successful flight with an aeroplane propelled by a gasolene engine. The achievement was kept secret, but their experiments were continued until last year, when, it is asserted, a flight of twenty-four miles was made. Since then no further flights have been attempted The brothers say they fear their secret would become public property if further open flights were made.
 Although the experiments were conducted in secret, affidavits of scores of witnesses are in existence testifying that the United States has produced the first successful flying machine.
 Second honors belong to France (or Brazil) because of the work now being done by M. Santos-Dumont. The greatest actual distance he has flown is under seven hundred feet, but his experiments are significant as showing that the flying machine is at last receiving the attention it deserves. It was M. Santos-Dumont who developed the balloon into an airship. Now that he has taken up the flying machine, no doubt the interest of other aeronauts will be turned to aeroplanes.
 Limitations of the airship have long been recognized. Even M. Santos-Dumont admitted them before he had perfected his airship. A balloon or airship floats in air, like a boat in water, because it is lighter than the volume of air it displaces. In order to make it lighter than air it must be extremely bulky and at the same time very fragile. But land wind storms are far more severe and treacherous than are the storms of the ocean, consequently the airship is absolutely useless except in very quiet weather.

HEAVIER THAN AIR.
 A flying machine or an aeroplane is a very different proposition, for it is far heavier than air. The idea of floating a flying machine in the air is like floating solid stone in water, but there are conditions under which even a solid stone will not sink. Every schoolboy has tried the trick of skipping a stone on the water. In just the same way a flying machine is buoyed up in the air by its flat shape and great speed.
 Professor Langley cites the game of "ticklish bender" to illustrate the aeroplane principle. This dangerous schooltoy game consists in skating very rapidly over thin ice. Ice that could not support a fraction of the weight of the skater can be safely traversed if the boy is travelling at high speed, because it takes a measurable instant of time for the smallest area of ice to break, and before that time has expired the skater has passed on to another area.
 The same is true of a rapidly moving flying machine, for before the air beneath it can yield to the pressure of the wings the latter will have passed on to another area. The principle is also true of birds, which may be classed as aeroplanes, for they are heavier than air and the larger ones in particular cannot rise from the ground without a running start. Visitors at a menagerie often express surprise at there being no roofs to the cages of the largest birds. But the keepers will explain that the condor, for example, must run twenty feet before it can lift itself from the ground, and its cage is too short to allow of such a run. Vultures are often trapped alive in baited open pens which are too cramped to allow the bird to make the necessary running start.
 A prime requisite of a flying machine is engine power sufficient to give it the necessary speed, but the engine power must be increased without increasing the weight of the engine. The United States Patent Office for years refused every application for a patent on a flying machine unless the inventor showed a balloon attached to the apparatus, on the ground tha no machine could be made to fly until an engine weighing under six and a half pounds per horse power was invented. The objection no longer holds for M. Santos-Dumonts latest engine weighs only three and one-half 

Great Engine Power the Prime Requisite of a Successful Flying Machine.

MUST HAVE GREAT SPEED

pounds per horse power. Furthermore, the Wright brothers succeeded in flying with a machine propelled by an engine weighing ten pounds per horse power.
LEARNING HOW A DRAWBACK.
 Undoubtedly the most serious drawback to mechanical flight is the question of learning how to fly. Until the necessary experience has been gained each flight is a gamble in which the aviateur's life is the stake. In this respect birds undoubtedly have a great advantage over men, for their flying mechanism is a part of their very bodies, and undoubtedly the slightes shifting of equilibrium is immediately fel and counterbalanced by an involuntary movement of the muscles.
 The aviateur, on the other hand, is liable to upset almost before he knows that a gust of wind has struck his machine. In order to acquire the necessary assurance and intuitive equilibrium, most beginners experiment with gliding machines, such as were invented by Herr Otto Lilientnal or M. Octave Chanute. The latter's machine consists of a pair of horizontal sails, one above the other, with a rudder fore and aft, one to control vertical motion and the other horizontal motion. No motor is provided, but the aviateur clings to the sails and runs down a hill until he has acquired sufficient speed to support his weight, when, with legs curled up, he glides down the slope just clear of the ground.
 To this machine the Wright brothers owe their mastery of flight. Not until they had thoroughly familiarized themselves with the use of these sails under variable conditions did they attempt to build a motor driven machine. Their present machine is quite similar to Mr. Chanute's flying machine, but the aviateur lies flat on his face in a swivelled cradle, which is connected with the sails in such a way that he can feather them by slight movements of the body to counteract the effects of sudden wind gusts or the change in relative direction of the wind when making a turn. This is evidently a marked step in advance for it makes the operator a part of the machine, enabling him to more effectively control it.
 An unusual interest in aeroplanes is now being aroused, and it is not rash to predict that before long wonderful developments will follow. As to the ultimate utility of the flying machine, it is difficult to predict. In warfare they are sure to play an important part, and as a sport nothing more exhilarating could be desired. But it is difficult to see what commercial values they may ever have, because of the limited weight they can carry and they enormous expenditure of energy necessary to propel this weight as compared with transportation by rail or steamboat.

Gazette Pittsburg
2 Dec 1906

SANTOS DUMONT 
NOT INFALLIBLE

His Criticism of Wrights for 
Aerial Experiments Causes 
Comment

DOESN'T FLY SO WELL, HIMSELF

[SPECIAL CABLE TO THE GAZETTE TIMES.]
[Copyright, 1906. by the New York Herald Co.]
LONDON, Dec. 8.-"So far as Dumont is concerned, all I want to say is this, the Wright Brothers have done more than he has done," said Maj. Baden-Powell.
 "Santos Dumont has done a lot of good work," he continued, "and I do not want to criticise him unfairly, but I don't think he should go out of his way to cast doubt upon other people. He is in the happy position of being able to make his trials in public and [[?]] trials, I don't think he has accomplished anything approaching the Wrights.'
 "He has flown a little distance and then come down with a wallop and [[?]]

Now Solving the Great Problem of Mechanical Flight

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