L. MECHANICS AND ENGINEERING. 453 



oscillations due to the heat of solar radiation. La Aero- 

 7iaute^ 1875, 287. 



THE PAEAKITE. 



An English aeronaut has lately invented a flying-machine 

 to which he gives the above name, and with which a toler- 

 ably successful experiment is said to have been made at the 

 Alexandra Palace. The machine in principle is substantially 

 a kite, and like this is held by a cord, on the severance of 

 which, however, the inventor affirms the apparatus will de- 

 scend as safely and securely as a parachute. In the experi- 

 ment referred to, the machine employed was thirty feet high 

 and thirty feet wide. As soon as the sail was over the frame- 

 work and the front or windward point of the parakite was 

 raised, so as to allow the wind to touch the machine on its 

 under surface, it was instantly converted into a concave 

 form, and manifested symptoms of rising. The wind was 

 blowing: at the rate of about two miles an hour, but with 

 this sliffht breeze Mr. Simmons was carried into the air. The 

 inventor claims that his device can be used successfully in 

 any wind ranging between four and forty miles an hour, and 

 that an altitude of from six hundred to one thousand feet 

 may be attained. The machine used on the occasion above 

 named covered an area of seven hundred superficial feet, and 

 its weight (exclusive of its occupant) was one hundred pounds. 

 On a previous occasion some trials were made with a small 

 parakite carrying a two-pound weight, which several times 

 attained an altitude of one thousand feet, and remained toler- 

 ably steady, though its descent was rather rapid. These exper- 

 iments, it is said, will be repeated, with the view of determin- 

 ing the practical utility of the device. 3 ^,VI., 42G, 490. 



FLUID-COMPRESSED STEEL AND GUNS. 



In a paper with the above title, read before the Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers, Sir Joseph Whitworth remarked 

 that the difficulty he experienced in obtaining sound, ductile 

 steel had induced him to institute experiments in compress- 

 in ir steel while in the fluid state. He affirmed that crucible 

 steel for constructive purposes was largely superseded by the 

 metal produced in the Bessemer converter or the Siemens 

 furnace ; and although the crucible steel was yet occasionally 



