How It Flies; or, The Conquest of the Air. Richard Ferris
MACHINES.
Mythological—Leonardo da Vinci—Veranzio—John Wilkins—Besnier—Marquis de Bacqueville—Paucton—Desforges—Meerwein—Stentzel—Henson—Von Drieberg—Wenham—Horatio Phillips—Sir Hiram Maxim—Lilienthal—Langley—Ader—Pilcher—Octave Chanute—Herring—Hargrave—The Wright brothers—Archdeacon—Santos-Dumont—Voisin—Bleriot.
The term Flying Machines is applied to all forms of aircraft which are heavier than air, and which lift and sustain themselves in the air by mechanical means. In this respect they are distinguished from balloons, which are lifted and sustained in the air by the lighter-than-air gas which they contain.
From the earliest times the desire to fly in the air has been one of the strong ambitions of the human race. Even the prehistoric mythology of the ancient Greeks reflected the idea in the story of Icarus, who flew so near to the sun that the heat melted the wax which fastened his wings to his body, and he fell into the sea.
Perhaps the first historical record in the line of mechanical flight worthy of attention exists in the remarkable sketches and plans for a flying mechanism left by Leonardo da Vinci at his death in 1519. He had followed the model of the flying bird as closely as possible, although when the wings were outspread they had an outline more like those of the bat. While extremely ingenious in the arrangement of the levers, the power necessary to move them fast enough to lift the weight of a man was far beyond the muscular strength of any human being.
It was a century later, in 1617, that Veranzio, a Venetian, proved his faith in his inventive ability by leaping from a tower in Venice with a crude, parachute-like contrivance. He alighted without injury.
In 1684, an Englishman, John Wilkins, then bishop of Chester, built a machine for flying in which he installed a steam-engine. No record exists of its performance.
In 1678, a French locksmith by the name of Besnier devised what seems now a very crude apparatus for making descending flights, or glides, from elevated points. It was, however, at that date considered important enough to be described in the Journal of the Savants. It was a wholly unscientific combination of the “dog-paddle” motion in swimming, with wing areas which collapsed on the upward motion and spread out on the downward thrust. If it was ever put to a test it must have failed completely.
In 1742, the Marquis de Bacqueville constructed an apparatus which some consider to have been based on Besnier’s idea—which seems rather doubtful. He fastened the surfaces of his aeroplane directly to his arms and legs, and succeeded in making a long glide from the window of his mansion across the garden of the Tuileries, alighting upon a washerwoman’s bench in the Seine without injury.
Paucton, the mathematician, is credited with the suggestion of a flying machine with two screw propellers, which he called “pterophores”—a horizontal one to raise the machine into the air, and an upright one to propel it. These were to be driven by hand. With such hopelessly inadequate power it is not surprising that nothing came of it, yet the plan was a foreshadowing of the machine which has in these days achieved success.
The Abbé Desforges gained a place in the annals of aeronautics by inventing a flying machine of which only the name “Orthoptere” remains.
Meerwein’s Flying Machine. A, shows the position of the man in the wings, their comparative size, and the operating levers; B, position when in flight.
About 1780, Karl Friedrich Meerwein, an architect, and the Inspector of Public Buildings for Baden, Germany, made many scientific calculations and experiments on the size of wing surface needed to support a man in the air. He used the wild duck as a standard, and figured that a surface of 126 square feet would sustain a man in the air. This agrees with the later calculations of such experimenters as Lilienthal and Langley. Other of Meerwein’s conclusions are decidedly ludicrous. He held that the build of a man favors a horizontal position in flying, as his nostrils open in a direction which would be away from the wind, and so respiration would not be interfered with! Some of his reasoning is unaccountably astray; as, for instance, his argument that because the man hangs in the wings the weight of the latter need not be considered. It is almost needless to say that his practical trials were a total failure.
Plan of Degen’s apparatus.
The next prominent step forward toward mechanical flight was made by the Australian watchmaker Degen, who balanced his wing surfaces with a small gas balloon. His first efforts to fly not being successful, he abandoned his invention and took to ballooning.
Stentzel, an engineer of Hamburg, came next with a machine in the form of a gigantic butterfly. From tip to tip of its wings it measured 20 feet, and their depth fore and aft was 5½ feet. The ribs of the wings were of steel and the web of silk, and they were slightly concave on the lower side. The rudder-tail was of two intersecting planes, one vertical and the other horizontal. It was operated by a carbonic-acid motor, and made 84 flaps of the wings per minute. The rush of air it produced was so great that any one standing near it would be almost swept off his feet. It did not reach a stage beyond the model, for it was able to lift only 75 lbs.
Stentzel’s machine.
In 1843, the English inventor Henson built what is admitted to be the first aeroplane driven by motive power. It was 100 feet in breadth (spread) and 30 feet long, and covered with silk. The front edge was turned slightly upward. It had a rudder shaped like the tail of a bird. It was driven by two propellers run by a 20-horse-power engine. Henson succeeded only in flying on a down grade, doubtless because of the upward bend of the front of his plane. Later investigations have proven that the upper surface of the aeroplane must be convex to gain the lifting effect. This is one of the paradoxes of flying planes which no one has been able to explain.
In 1845, Von Drieberg, in Germany, revived the sixteenth-century ideas of flying, with the quite original argument that since the legs of man were better developed muscularly than his arms, flying should be done with the legs. He built a machine on this plan, but no successful flights are recorded.
In 1868, an experimenter by the name of Wenham added to the increasing sum of aeronautical knowledge by discovering that the lifting power of a large supporting surface may be as well secured by a number of small surfaces placed one above another. Following up these experiments, he built a flying machine with a series of six supporting planes made of linen fabric. As he depended upon muscular effort to work his propellers, he did not succeed in flying, but he gained information which has been valuable to later inventors.
Von Drieberg’s machine; view from above.
Wenham’s arrangement of many narrow surfaces in six tiers, or decks. a, a, rigid framework; b, b, levers working flapping wings; e, e, braces. The operator is lying prone.
The history of flying machines cannot be written without deferential mention of Horatio Phillips of England. The machine that he made in 1862 resembled a large Venetian blind, 9 feet high and over 21 feet long. It was mounted on a carriage which travelled on a circular track 600 feet long, and it was driven by a small steam engine turning a propeller. It lifted unusually heavy loads, although not large enough to carry a man. It seems to open the way for experiments with an entirely new arrangement of sustaining surfaces—one that has never since been investigated. Phillips’s records cover a series of most valuable experiments. Perhaps his most important work was in the determination of the most advantageous