8 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 6 



year by saying that at the writing of this report in the early fall of 

 1936 the mail response had increased to an average of over 2,000 let- 

 ters a week, A large number of the letters come from teachers and 

 others particularly interested in education, many of whom state that 

 the informative material contained in the dramatized stories of re- 

 search, exploration and art, and in the advance summaries mailed out 

 to those requesting them, is of real, practical use in their work. 



The Institution is grateful to the Office of Education and to the 

 National Broadcasting Co, for making possible this effective means 

 of disseminating knowledge in the fields of science and art. 



ROCKET EXPERIMENTS OF DR. R. H. GODDARD 



For 12 years — from 1916 to 1928 — the Institution supported 

 through annual grants Dr. R, H, Goddard's investigations on rocket 

 flight, with the primary purpose of supplying a means of exploring 

 the unknown upper atmosphere. Dr. Goddard's pioneering researches 

 on the design of the rocket itself and on the most effective rocket fuel 

 and the means of utilizing it in the rocket led to a successful trial 

 flight in July 1929, and in my annual report for 1930 I said : 



The apparently assured success of Dr. Goddard's experiments has drawn 

 support from a source better equipped financially to provide it than the Smith- 

 sonian. Tlie late Simon Guggenheim, at Colonel Lindbergh's suggestion, made 

 a large grant of funds and set up an advisory committee, of which the Secretary, 

 Dr. Abbot, is a member. Dr. Goddard's experiments are now going on under 

 these auspices in New Mexico. It is a pleasure to record here that the Smith- 

 sonian has again been able to support during its more or less uncertain pioneer- 

 ing stages an investigation of great promise for the increase of knowledge. 



Dr. Goddard has continued to advance the development of his 

 liquid-propellant rocket with marked success, and early in 1936 he 

 made a report on these later researches to the Daniel and Florence 

 Guggenheim Foundation. From this report, which was published by 

 the Smithsonian Institution on March 16, 1936, it will be of interest to 

 quote a few paragraphs: 



Inasmuch as control by a small gyroscope is the best as well as the lightest 

 means of operating the directing vanes, the action of the gyroscope being inde- 

 pendent of the direction and acceleration of the rocket, a gyroscope having the 

 necessary characteristics was developed after numerous tests. 



The gyroscope was set to apply controlling force when the axis of the rocket 

 deviated 10° or more from the vertical. In the first flight of the present series 

 of tests with gyroscopic control, on March 28, 1935, the rocket as viewed from 

 the 1,000- foot shelter traveled first to the left and then to the right, thereafter 

 describing a smooth and rather flat trajectory, * * * 



In subsequent flights, with adjustments and improvements in the stabilizing 

 arrangements, the rockets have been stabilized up to the time propulsion ceased, 

 the trajectory being a smooth curve beyond this point. * * * The oscilla- 

 tions each side of the vertical varied from 10° to 30° and occupied from 1 to 2 



