46 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM^ 1914. 



War, the Civil War, and the Spanish- American War, to the present 

 time. In this series the pistols and revolvers are also included, and 

 scarcely less interesting are the hunting, sporting, target, and tele- 

 scope weapons shown in separate cases. Among the hand weapons 

 displayed are the knife, dagger, saber, sword, battle-ax, foils, and 

 shields. The Gatling gun Avith a few other examples of larger ord- 

 nance and illustrations of military equipment are likewise contained 

 in the exhibition. 



In the west hall will be found a few of the exhibits belonging to 

 this division, namely, the time-keeping collection, which consists of 

 hourglasses, sundials, time candles and lamps, a large series of 

 Avatches and watch movements, and clocks, including a water clock; 

 the Eamsden dividing machine and slides, 1775, for equally dividing 

 tlie circular scales of astronomical and surveying instruments; one 

 of the original Howe pin-making machines, in use from 1835 to 1875 ; 

 many models of various agricultural implements, and other minor 

 appliances. 



The subject of flying machines, which holds to-day a transcendent 

 place in public and scientific interest, is of particular moment to the 

 Museum, in view of the extended and profound studies on aerod}'^- 

 namics by the late secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. 

 S. P. Langley, and of the fact that he produced the first heavier- 

 than-air machines, both in models and of full size, with which actual 

 flights have been successfully made. The collection in this branch, 

 though small, is so diversified in character and in the size of objects, 

 that it has been necessary to find accommodations for it in several 

 different places. A full-sized Wright biplane is suspended from the 

 ceiling of the west hall; while in the east hall are installed the 

 Stringfellow machine exhibited at the Crystal Palace Exposition, 

 London, in 1868; the Hargrave compressed-air machine of 1891; 

 the Lilienthal glider of 1894; the three Langley experimental ma- 

 chines, suspended in a row through the middle of the hall; the 

 original engine of the full-sized Langley machine; three models of 

 Chanute gliders of different types, 1896-1902, and the Zahm aerody- 

 namic models. 



What is certainly to be regarded as the most important of this 

 series is the Langley experimental aeroplane of model size, which 

 was flown on the Potomac Kiver at Quantico, Va., on May 6, 1896, 

 and made other flights on succeeding days. It was operated by a 

 single-cylinder, one-horsepower steam engine, using gasoline fuel. 

 Launched on the earlier occasion with a steam pressure of 150 

 pounds, it rose to between 70 and 100 feet and traveled more than 

 half a mile at a speed of between 20 and 25 miles an hour, the pro- 

 pellers making 150 revolutions per minute. The total weight of the 

 model is 30 pounds, and the sustaining wing surface 68 square feet. 



