184 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE VOL. 27 



in Plate 61, which shows the aerodrome mounted on its launching car at the 



rear end of the track, and with the fronl pair of wings in place and all the 

 guy-wires adjusted. The details of the guy-posts are shown in Plate 62, where 

 it will be aoted that the lower guy-post was of wood, with metal fittings, and 

 was 2 metres long from the center of the midrod to the bottom, while the 

 upper guy-posi was a steel tube 109 centimetres long from the center of the 

 midrod to its top. The guy-wires from the middle rib of each of the pair of 

 wings were fastened to the fittings at the bottom of the lower guy-post, while 

 the wires from the front main rib were fastened to the fittings which were 

 brazed and riveted to the slidable collar, which was mounted on the steel tube 

 forming the cap on this guy-post. This collar was made slidable to permit the 

 angle of lift of the wings to be readily changed without affecting the length of 

 the guy- wires. This collar, when once set for any particular angle of the wing, 

 was prevented from sliding by a taper pin (not shown) which passed through 

 it and the guy-post. In order to secure the wings more rigidly to the main 

 frame and thereby throw on it all torsional strains from the wings, which it 

 was specially designed to take, each of the middle main ribs was secured to 

 one of the main tubes of the main frame by an auxiliary clamp at the point 

 where this rib crossed the mam tube. These auxiliary clamps are clearly shown 

 in Figs. " and 4 of Plate 59. 



Projecting from the lower end of each of the lower guy-posts was a iive- 

 sixteenth-inch steel rod about one inch long, as clearly seen in Plate (52. Brazed 

 to the side of this rod, in such a position that it would project towards the rear 

 • if the aerodrome when the guy-post was in position, was a small arm or bracket. 

 When the guy-posi was in place with the aerodrome on the launching car, 

 this pin was in a slot formed in a metal cap on the top of the small folding 

 uprighi at the front or rear of the car, as seen in Pig. 1, Plate 63, while 

 Pig. 2 of Plate 63 shows the pin just being inserted into this slot as the 

 guy wires of the guy-post are being fastened. This small arm or bracket on 

 this rod projected under the cap to prevent the rod of the guy-post from l>e- 

 ing lifted out of the slot in the folding upright, when the wind acting under 

 the wings tended to lift the aerodrome from the car. Particular attention is here 

 called to this apparent]} insignificanl detail, for it was this arm or bracket on 

 this small rod of the front guy-post which, hanging in the cap on fop of the 

 folding upright, caused the accident in the launching of the aerodrome on Octo- 

 ber 7, L903. Certain it is that but for the accident due to this apparently in- 

 significanl detail, success would have crowned the efforts of Mr. Langley, who 

 above all men deserved success in this field of work, which his labors had so 

 greatly enriched. 



