B.R. Winslow tells in the Technical World of a revolutionary discovery made in this tunnel:
One of the first things that the experiments in the tunnel did was to upset a long-cherished belief among aeronauts that skin friction of the air on a body passing through it was practically a negligible quantity. As a matter of fact, the action of air was proved to be almost identical with that of water, roughly speaking, being in direct proportion to the density of the two elements.
The current theory had been that the sharper the cylinder the easier it would cut through the air, and nothing was thought of the skin friction. It was found by experiment in the wind tunnel that as the sphere was reduced to a sharp-pointed cylinder, the air resistance rapidly diminished to a certain point. Then it rose again as the length of the cylinder was increased. Twelve to one as the proportion between length and diameter was found to be the shape of least resistance.
By shortening the forward section of the cylinder about one-half, and consequently making the end blunter, the air resistance was largely reduced; and, by turning the cylinder around and running its sharp end forward, the air resistance was almost doubled instead of being diminished. This discovery came as a surprise, and completely upset all preconceived ideas about the resistance of the air.
LAW SUCCUMBS TO WOMAN'S TONGUE.
ANOTHER TRIUMPH FOR THE SEX.
Curious Virginia Act Prescribed Ducking
for Loquacious Females, But Modern
Jurist Gives Up the Fight.
Are men less chivalrous to-day than they were two hundred years ago?
This is a question that is often asked nowadays, but the mass of evidence submitted is so conflicting that it is not likely to be answered until long after the present generation has passed away.
One thing is certain, however. In the present day man-made laws vouchsafe unto women far better opportunities for the speaking of their minds than they enjoyed two centuries ago. Here are two cases in point: