In a milder form, this invisible and intangible air does some of our work for us in at least two ways that are conspicuous: it moves ships upon the ocean, and it turns a multitude of windmills, supplying the cheapest power known.
That this atmosphere is really a fluid ocean, having a definite substance, and in some respects resembling the liquid ocean upon which our ships sail, and that we are only crawling around on the bottom of it, as it were, is a conception we do not readily grasp. Yet this conception must be the foundation of every effort to sail, to fly, in this aerial ocean, if such efforts are to be crowned with success.
As a material substance the air has certain physical properties, and it is the part of wisdom for the man who would fly to acquaint himself with these properties. If they are helpful to his flight, he wants to use them; if they hinder, he must contrive to overcome them.
In general, it may be said that the air, being in a gaseous form, partakes of the properties of all gases—and these may be studied in any text-book on physics, Here we are concerned only with those qualities which affect conditions under which we strive to fly.
Of first importance is the fact that air has weight. That is, in common with all other substances, it is attracted by the mass of the earth exerted through the force we call gravity. At the level of the sea, this attraction causes the air to press upon the earth with a weight of nearly fifteen pounds (accurately, 14.7 lbs.) to the square inch, when the temperature is at 32° F. That pressure is the weight of a column of air one inch square at the base, extending upward to the outer limit of the atmosphere—estimated to be about 38 miles (some say 100 miles) above sea-level. The practical fact is that normal human life cannot exist above the level of 15,000 feet, or a little less than three miles; and navigation of the air will doubtless be carried on at a much lower altitude, for reasons which will appear as we continue.
The actual weight of a definite quantity of dry air—for instance, a cubic foot—is found by weighing a vessel first when full of air, and again after the air has been exhausted from it with an air-pump. In this way it has been determined that a cubic foot of dry air, at the level of the sea, and at a temperature of 32° F., weighs 565 grains—about 0.0807 lb. At a height above the level of the sea, a cubic foot of air will weigh less than the figure quoted, for its density decreases as we go upward, the pressure being less owing to the diminished attraction of the earth at the greater distance. For instance, at the height of a mile above sea-level a cubic foot of air will weigh about 433 grains, or 0.0619 lb. At the height of five miles it will weigh about 216 grains, or 0.0309 lb. At thirty-eight miles it will have no weight at all, its density being so rare as just to balance the earth’s attraction. It has been calculated that the whole body of air above the earth, if it were all of the uniform density of that at sea-level, would extend only to the height of 26,166 feet. Perhaps a clearer comprehension of the weight and pressure of the ocean of air upon the earth may be gained by recalling that the pressure of the 38 miles of atmosphere is just equal to balancing a column of water 33 feet high. The pressure of the air, therefore, is equivalent to the pressure of a flood of water 33 feet deep.
Comparative Elevations of Earth and Air.
But air is seldom dry. It is almost always mingled with the vapor of water, and this vapor weighs only 352 grains per cubic foot at sea-level. Consequently the mixture—damp air—is lighter than dry air, in proportion to the moisture it contains.
