Every one is undoubtedly acquainted with the exceedingly simple mechanism—invented when boys commenced to exist—for the enjoyment of one of the most pleasant pastimes—kite flying. It is indulged in mostly during the fall, and, perhaps, a trifle more so in the rural districts than in the cities, because of the greater freedom of room which stubble fields and meadows allow.
But attention has also been given to the employment of this kind of ærostation as a means of support and conveyance; and kites have been made as much as thirty feet high, looking more like buoyant sails than boyish playthings, and exerting an immense power of waftage. Loaded wagons have been drawn over turnpikes; persons have frequently been carried up in the air by huge kites; and, in some parts of Europe, experiments have been made to signal and save shipwrecked people on dangerous coasts, proving sufficiently that the kite can be made, even in its present primitive state, to be quite useful.
In this connection it may "not be amiss" to state that the first person known to have ascended—some eighty years ago, as the "History of Kite Carriage" informs us, "was a Miss"—a young lady of some one hundred and twenty-six pounds, avoirdupois. She was seated in a chair underneath the gigantic structure which weighed nearly thirty pounds, had a surface of about sixty square feet, and rose most majestically to a hight of six hundred feet—an incontrovertible instance of the superior courage of the gentler sex over man.
The kite is maintained in the air by two opposing forces: the impelling power of the wind—lifting it by striking against it at an angle, and the restraining powers of the string—motive-force and gravitation combined; so that in the kite, above all, we possess in a crude form, the three principles requisite for artificial flight: the plain, weight and propelling force. By improving upon the kite, therefore, we will arrive at the practical solution of the problem of artificial flight.
X.—BALLOONS IMPRACTICABLE.
It is not creditable to the present age that the problem of ærial navigation has not been solved. But one of the causes has undoubtedly been the discovery of the balloon, which has retarded this science for nearly a century by misleading men's minds, and causing them to look for a solution of the problem by the aid of a machine lighter than air, and which has no analogue in nature.
Weight is one of three essential factors in flight, for a light body cannot be propelled through a heavier one. Hence all attempts at driving and guiding the balloons have signally failed. This arises from the vast extent of surface which it necessarily presents, rendering it a fair conquest to every breeze that blows, and because the power which animates it is a mere lifting power, which acts in a vertical line. The balloon, consequently, rises through the air in opposition to the law of gravity, by which all flying creatures are governed, very much as a dead bird falls downward in accordance with it. Having no hold upon the air, this cannot be employed as a fulcrum for regulating its movements, and hence the cardinal difficulty of ballooning as an art of locomotion and its uncertainty, because the air-currents cannot be regulated. A balloon starting from San Francisco might be intended for New York, but, against the desire of the passengers, alight in China or the Canibal Islands, which would be rather disagreeable.
It is simply astonishing to hear of people trying, year after year, to propel elongated or cigar-shaped balloons with a car underneath, and a screw-propeller, of course—an experiment which was tried, unsuccessfully, forty years ago. But this is generally the first conceived project of an aspirant for fame who commences to think on the subject, and soon fancies himself the happy possessor of the secret; yet what a very small amount of science is necessary to show its fallacy. In fact, all kinds of propositions for the propulsion of balloons have been advanced and experimented upon, but scarcely any improvements have been made since the first five years after its invention; proving, perhaps, more conclusively than anything else, that the practical propulsion of balloons is an impossibility.
The most remarkable idea in this respect, was undoubtedly that of Teissol. He flattered himself to be able to train geese or other birds to pull a balloon by being hitched to it, while the conductor, in a car underneath, was to direct their movements by the aid of a long pole. Although the training of birds is not so ridiculous as it may seem, yet he found that geese, if not too tough, answer the purpose of a good roast much better. And another genius, still more unique, long before balloons were invented, conceived the idea that air, like water, must have a defined limit, and that it was possible to sail on its surface like ships on the ocean. He did not state how to get up there, but lost no time in inducing the King of Portugal to forbid everyone, under penalty of death, to use said invention. So far, no one has come in conflict with that law.