How It Flies; or, The Conquest of the Air / The Story of Man's Endeavors to Fly and of the Inventions by Which He Has Succeeded

by Richard Ferris

The Call Aviation Engine, of the opposed type; water-cooled. The cylinders are large and few in number. The 100 horse-power engine has but 4 cylinders, and weighs only 250 pounds. (The Gnome 100 horse-power engine has 14 cylinders.) This is an American engine, built at Girard, Kansas.

In practical work the number of blades which have been found to be most effective is two. More blades than two seem to so disturb the air that there is no hold for the propeller. In the case of slowly revolving propellers, as in most airship mechanisms, four-bladed propellers are used with good effect. But where the diameter of the propeller is about 8 feet, and the number of revolutions about 1,200 per minute, the two-bladed type is used almost exclusively.

The many differing forms of the blades of the propeller is evidence that the manufacturers have not decided upon any definite shape as being the best. Some have straight edges nearly or quite parallel; others have the entering edge straight and the rear edge curved; in others the entering edge is curved, and the rear edge straight; or both edges may be curved. The majority of the wooden propellers are of the third-mentioned type, and the curve is fashioned so that at each section of its length the blade presents the same area of surface in the same time. Hence the outer tip, travelling the fastest, is narrower than the middle of the blade, and it is also much thinner to lessen the centrifugal force acting upon it at great speeds. Near the hub, however, where the travel is slowest, the constructional problem demands that the blade contract in width and be made stout. In fact, it becomes almost round in section.

Many propellers are made of metal, with tubular shanks and blades of sheet metal, the latter either solid sheets or formed with a double surface and hollow inside. Still others have a frame of metal with blades of fabric put on loosely, so that it may adapt itself to the pressure of the air in revolving. That great strength is requisite becomes plain when it is considered that the speed of the tip of a propeller blade often reaches seven miles a minute! And at this velocity the centrifugal force excited—tending to tear the blades to splinters—is prodigious.

Just as the curved surface of the planes of an aeroplane is more effective than a flat surface in compressing the air beneath them, and thus securing a firmer medium on which to glide, so the propeller blades are curved laterally (across their width) to compress the air behind them and thus secure a better hold. The advancing side of the blade is formed with a still greater curve, to gain the advantage due to the unexplained lift of the paradox aeroplane.

Where the propeller is built of wood it is made of several layers, usually of different kinds of wood, with the grain running in slightly different directions, and all carefully glued together into a solid block. Ash, spruce, and mahogany, in alternating layers, are a favorite combination. In some instances the wooden propeller is sheathed in sheet aluminum; in others, it is well coated with glue which is sandpapered down very smooth, then varnished, and then polished to the highest lustre—to reduce the effect of the viscosity of the air to the minimum.

Two propellers, the one on the left of left-hand pitch; the other of right-hand pitch. Both are thrusting propellers, and are viewed from the rear. These fine models are of the laminated type, and are of American make; the one to the left a Paragon propeller made in Washington, D. C.; the other a Brauner propeller made in New York.

In order to get the best results, the propeller and the motor must be suited to each other. Some motors which “race” with a propeller which is slightly too small, work admirably with one a little heavier, or with a longer diameter.

The question as to whether one propeller, or two, is the better practice, has not been decided. The majority of aeroplanes have but one. The Wright and the Cody machines have two. The certainty of serious consequences to a machine having two, should one of them be disabled, or even broken so as to reduce the area, seems to favor the use of but one.