56 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



wings independent of support from guys. But the construction of 

 this new launching apparatus would involve further considerable 

 expenditures that there are no present means to meet ; and this, and 

 this alone, is the cause of their apparent failure. 



" Failure in the aerodrome itself or its engines there has been none ; 

 and it is believed that it is at the moment of success, and when the 

 engineering problems have been solved, that a lack of means has pre- 

 vented a continuance of the work." 



A regrettable controversy has arisen regarding the capacity of this 

 machine for flight. As our purpose here is only to recall the work and 

 attainments of Langley, and as far as possible by his own words, 

 we may well leave that question as he himself stated it. 



Our summary of Langley's work is far from complete. Such 

 important papers as " The Solar and Lunar Spectrum," " The Cheap- 

 est Form of Light," " Energy and Vision." " Observation of Sudden 

 Phenomena," " Good Seeing," " The History of a Doctrine," and 

 others have been entirely omitted. But space forbids further following 

 of the steps of this great man except to quote in closing that inimit- 

 able parable from the final pages of his charming book " The New 

 Astronomy " : 



" I have read somewhere a story about a race of ephemeral insects 

 who live but an hour. To those who are born in the early morning the 

 sunrise is the time of youth. They die of old age while its beams 

 are yet gathering force, and only their descendants live on to midday ; 

 while it is another race which sees the sun decline, from that which 

 saw it rise. Imagine the sun about to set. and the whole nation of mites 

 gathered under the shadow of some mushroom (to them ancient as the 

 sun itself) to hear what their wisest philoso]>her has to say of the 

 gloomy prospect. If I remember aright, he first told them that, in- 

 credible as it might seem, there was not only a time in the world's 

 youth when the mushroom itself was young, but that the sun in those 

 early ages was in the eastern, not in the western, sky. Since then, he 

 explained, the eyes of scientific ephemera had followed it, and estab- 

 lished by induction from vast experience the great ' Law of Nature,' 

 that it moved only westward ; and he showed that since it was now 

 nearing the western horizon, science herself pointed to the conclusion 

 that it was about to disappear forever, together with the great race of 

 ephemera for whom it was created. 



" What his hearers thought of this discourse I do not remember, 

 but I have heard that the sun rose again the next morning." 



