Aeroplanes

ject of flight study, proceeds on the theory that in order to fly man

s the proper example to use for mechanical flight. We have shown that they differ so radically

bles the bird's wing, is the rounded end of the planes, and judging from other machines, which have sq

so sounded wing ends, made not so much for the purpose of

a boat with a hull of the shape or outline of a duck, or other swimming fowl, he would be laughed at, and justly so,

llow the forms laid down by nature, or in what respect man uses the types which

e principles on which the operations of mechanism depend; but in doing so he has, in nearly every instan

paper web by hand, and placed in rows, equidistant from each other. This necessitates the cooperative functi

adless pin, and did the work with greater accuracy than it was possible to do it by hand. There was n

wed nature's form in the building of the locomotive, it would move along on four legs like an elephant. Curiously en

no prototype in nature. It is maintained that the tail of a fish in its mo

n making his graceful lateral oscillations, simulates the propelling motion of the tail in an absolutely perf

propeller than any wing or fin movement, in air or sea. Ther

re has produced. The man-made universal joint has a wider range of movement, possesses greater strength, and is more perfect mechanically. A

nd in all directions, and man, the greatest of all of nature's products, whil

ts special work, and in doing so makes it better adapted to do that particular thing. The hands and fingers can do a multiplicity of things

ith the special machine made for that purpose. On the other hand the bind

ventor can, and will, eventually, bring out a form which is as far superior to the form which nature has taught us to

ch have been attained by vessels sailing on the surface; and while the means of transportation on land are arriving at points where the developments are swift and remar

rm in a flying machine is, that we cannot invest the mechanism with that which the bird ha

bird is a supple, pliant organism; a machine is a rigid structure. One is capable of being directed by a mind which is a part of th

independently of the prototypes pointed out as the correct things to follow. It does not, necessarily, have to be unlike the bird f

een written on the subject. The Seventh Duke of Argyle, and later, Pettigrew, an Englishman, contributed a vast amount of wri

shape of the wing which is most effective, or in the matter of the relation of surface to weight,

. By far, the greater majority use beating wings, a method of translation in a

which seek to recognize nature's form only, while

es we cannot fail to be impressed with one feature, namely, the determination to insis

all the troubles in its train. The literature on aviation is full of arguments on this

forms of machines were shown, all of them capable of flying, as proven by numerous experiments, and among them were a half dozen type

as spots here and there which are, apparently, like holes, so that one side or the other of the machine wil

n motion. When heat or cold penetrate the mass it does so, in a general way, so as to permeate the entire body

on and intensity. When, therefore, a rapidly-moving machine passes through an atmosphere so disturbed, the surfaces of the planes strike a mass of air moving, we may say, first toward

s. The outstretched wings, many of them over forty feet from tip to tip, offer opportun

akes the weight useless to counterbalance th

obvious that a machine which is of such a structure that it moves through the air broadside on, will be

orm which, by its very nature, invite

ure against the wing surface is dependent on the speed. The broad outstretched surfaces compel the wing at the out

ine while at rest, being below the planes, a centrifugal force is exerted, when turning a circle, which ten

Wright machine, or the ailerons, or small wings at the rear margins of the planes, as illustrated by the Farman machine. The object of this arrangement is to dec