Every-day Science: Volume 7. The Conquest of Time and Space

by Henry Smith Williams; Edward Huntington Williams

PROGRESS IN MECHANICAL FLIGHT

The attempts at navigating a balloon having proved thus far so unsuccessful, many inventors now returned to the idea of producing a flying-machine which was independent of the inflated balloon. It was evident that the resistance presented by the great surface necessary in a balloon of sufficient size to have the required lifting power was such that no known efforts of propulsion could overcome this resistance even in the face of a slight breeze, to say nothing of a strong wind. The balloon was by no means abandoned, however, and two definite schools of aeronauts gradually came into existence, each having ardent advocates.

As early as 1784, the aeronaut Gérard had proposed a flying-machine which was to be made with body, wings, and steering apparatus, in which propulsion was to be accomplished by the use of escaping gas and gun-cotton. The inventor himself was so sanguine of the results, and so many contemporary inventors were of the same opinion, that when this machine proved to be an utter failure, the blow to the advocates of the flying-machine was so great that they did not rally from it for something like a quarter of a century. In 1809, however, a Viennese watchmaker named Degen revived interest in attempts at mechanical flight by inventing a flying-machine which consisted essentially of two parachutes. These were worked by hand, and the inventor was said to have been able to rise to a height of over fifty feet from the ground "moving in any desired direction."

These claims were not borne out in fact, but they stimulated an interest in the possibilities of mechanical flight, and in the parachute, which had never come into popular favor despite its successful use by the inventor, Garnerin. Hopes were again entertained that a modification of this device might be utilized in solving the problem of aerial flight, and in 1837 an aeronaut, Henry Cocking, invented a new type in which he proposed to descend from a balloon. The parachute of Garnerin, as we know, had been constructed like a huge umbrella, whereas Cocking's parachute had the general appearance of an umbrella held upside down. An unusual interest was aroused in the prospective experiment from the fact that a great majority of scientists did not consider that this parachute was constructed on correct scientific principles, and predicted that the aeronaut would be killed when he attempted to use it. Before the day of the trial arrived numerous articles had been published, presenting arguments for and against Cocking's device, and on the very day itself one of the newspapers contained a long article by a leading authority on aerostatics, reviewing the numerous reasons why the attempt would surely prove a failure.

Despite the protests of the majority of interested persons, however, Cocking and a companion named Green made the ascent at the appointed time. After rising to a certain height the parachute was cast off, the parachute's car containing the inventor, while Green remained in the balloon. Instead of sailing slowly toward the earth, however, the parachute fell rapidly, with an oscillating movement, gaining speed and jerking violently as it descended, until finally when several hundred feet in the air, Cocking was thrown from the car and dashed to pieces, while the wreck of the parachute landed a few yards away. Thus the predictions of the majority came true, although as we know now, the cause of the tragedy was due to faulty material rather than the design of the machine. For the American aeronaut, Wise, demonstrated a little later that parachutes built on the same principle as that of Cocking could be used successfully.

As we have seen, most of the flying-machines attempted heretofore took for their model the bird with flapping wings. There were certain persons, however, who had observed that this flapping movement was not essential to flight—that certain large-winged birds, such as buzzards and hawks, were able to soar in any direction at will, holding their wings rigidly. It was evident, therefore, that shape, position, and construction of the bird's wing played quite as important a part as the flapping movement. The lifting power of plane surfaces, or aeroplanes, was also carefully studied in this connection and in 1842 the inventor, Henson, constructed a flying-machine utilizing this aeroplane principle, his machine having thin, fixed surfaces, slightly inclined to the line of motion, and supported by the upward pressure of the air due to the forward movement.

Everyone will remember the distance to which a skilful juggler can project an ordinary playing-card by giving it a certain inclination in throwing. It will travel upward or on a level, and continue this direction until the force of the movement of throwing is exhausted. Obviously, if this force were self-contained in the card—if it could continue rotating and moving forward—it could fly indefinitely. Henson had studied and experimented with these miniature aeroplanes, and was convinced that if the same principle that governed their flight were to be applied to larger machines, practical flying-machines could be made.

"If any light and flat, or nearly flat, article," he wrote, "be projected edgeways in a slightly inclined position, the same will rise on the air till the force exerted is expended, when the article so thrown or projected will descend; and it will readily be conceived that if the article possessed in itself a continuous power or force equal to that used in throwing or projecting it, the article would continue to ascend so long as the forward part of the surface was upward in respect to its hinder part, and that such article, when the power was stopped, or when the inclination was recovered, would descend by gravity only if the power was stopped, or by gravity, aided by the force of the power contained in the article, if the power be contained, thus imitating the flight of a bird."

But when Henson attempted to fly in his elaborately planned and constructed flying-machine, it proved a complete failure. It showed a tendency to rise, but its lifting power was insufficient for the weight of the engine driving the propellers. It was evident, however, that if the power of the engine could be sufficiently increased, or, what amounts to the same thing, its weight sufficiently lightened, a machine built on the aeroplane principle could be made to fly. But at that time the lightest type of engine was a crude, heavy machine, and for the moment nothing more was attempted in producing a mechanical flying-machine propelled by steam.

Meanwhile the possibility of producing a dirigible balloon was again brought into prominence by the suggestion of two aeronauts, Scott and Martainville, to change the shape of the envelope of the balloon. Hitherto, all balloons had been made globular or pear-shaped—shapes that offered great resisting surfaces to the atmosphere. Now it was proposed to make them in the form of long, horizontal cylinders, with pointed ends, these cigar-shaped, or boat-shaped balloons offering much less resistance. But here, as in the case of the flying-machine, engines that were sufficiently strong to work the propellers were found to be too heavy for the balloon to lift. Meanwhile the aeroplane idea was brought into prominence from an unexpected quarter.

Among the numerous observers in the middle of the century who had noted the soaring power of birds, was a French sea-captain named Le Bris. On his long voyages he had studied the movements of the great albatross, which, with wings rigidly distended, outsailed the swiftest ship without any apparent exertion. Anxious to study the wing-mechanism of this bird, the captain, overcoming the scruples of the mariner against killing the sacred sea-rover, shot one of the birds. On removing a wing and spreading it in the wind he thought that it had a very appreciable tendency to pull forward into the breeze, and tended to rise when the wind was strong. Convinced that by duplicating the shape of the bird he could construct a successful flying-machine, Le Bris set to work and succeeded in producing a most remarkable "air-ship."

The body of this machine, which was supposed to correspond to the body of the bird, was made boat-shaped, and was about thirteen feet long and four feet wide, being broadest at its prow, in imitation of the breast of the bird. The front part was decked over, something like the bow of the modern torpedo-boat, and through this deck protruded a small mast which was used for supporting the pulleys and cords used in working the machinery of the wings. Each wing was about twenty-five feet long, so that the entire spread of the machine was fifty feet. There was a tail-like structure so hinged that it could be used for steering up, down, and sidewise, the total area of surface presented to the atmosphere being something over two hundred square feet, although the entire "albatross" weighed something less than a hundred pounds.

The front edges of the wings were made of pieces of wood fashioned like the wings of the albatross, and feathers were imitated by a frame structure covered with canton flannel. The front edges of the wings could be given a rotary motion to fix them at any desired angle by an ingenious device worked by two levers. In operating this artificial bird the captain proposed to stand in the boat and control its flight by these sets of levers and by balancing his body.

Having full confidence in the ability of his invention to soar once it had been given an initial velocity, the captain selected a morning when a good breeze was blowing and hired a cart-driver to carry him out into the neighboring fields. The machine was placed horizontally upon the cart and fastened to it with a rope which could be loosened by the pulling of a slip-knot held by the captain, who took his position in the boat. On reaching the open country the driver put his horse into a brisk trot when, the levers controlling the wings being set, the machine rose gracefully into the air and travelled forward a distance of perhaps a hundred yards. At this moment the running-rope in some unaccountable manner became wound about the body of the driver, hauling him unceremoniously from his seat, and dangling him writhing and shrieking at the end of the rope, several feet above the ground. As it happened, his weight was just sufficient to counterbalance the wind, so that acting in the capacity of the tail of a kite, he assisted materially, if involuntarily, in keeping the artificial bird in flight.

When the captain became aware of what was going on below, he altered the angle of the wings and came slowly to the earth, descending without accident either to himself or to his machine. All things considered, this was a remarkable performance, and it was so considered by people in the neighborhood, who made a hero of the gallant mariner. His next attempt, however, was less successful. Something went wrong with the machine shortly after starting, landing the inventor in a stone-quarry with a broken leg and a shattered machine. This accident also shook the courage of the captain, and for several years he made no more attempts at flight, confining his attention to sailing a coasting-vessel. But his faith in his "albatross" never wavered, even if his courage did for a time, and in 1867 he began building a more elaborate machine, aided by public subscriptions. The outlook for this new device seemed very promising, several fairly successful flights of perhaps two hundred yards having been made, when a sudden gust of wind catching up the machine one day during the momentary absence of the inventor, dashed it to pieces upon the ground. This was the final blow to the hopes of Captain Le Bris, who made no further attempts, his means and his energies being entirely exhausted.