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SMITHSONIAN CONTBIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE VOL. -I 



of Doctor Langley, and the unsuccessful outcome of the experiments is too well 

 known to require reiteration. It may be said, however, that at the time of the 

 trials the Board was of the opinion that the failure of the aerodrome to suc- 

 cessfully operate was in no manner due to the machine itself , bul solely to acci 

 dents in the launching apparatus, which caused the wreck of the aerodrome he- 

 fore it was in free flight. _ . 



Doctor Langley considered it desirable to continue the experiments, but the 

 Board deemed it advisable, largely in view of the adverse opinions expressed 

 in Congress and elsewhere, to suspend operations in this direction. 



These adverse , .pinions expressed in Congress were wholly due to the bit- 

 ter criticism by the newspapers, whose hostility was engendered by Mr. Lang- 

 ley's refusal to admit their representatives to the shops and house-boat where 

 the work was in progress. Mr. Langley had at all times tried to make his po- 

 sition in the matter clear to the newspapers, but, on August 19, 1903, at the 

 time of one of his visits to the experimental station near Widewater, Va., he 

 found the newspaper representatives so persistent in their misrepresentations 

 of his reasons for excluding them that he gave out the following statement, 

 which was published at that time: 



Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C, 



August 19, 1903. 



To the Press: The present experiments being made in mechanical flight 

 have been carried on partly with funds provided by the Board of Ordnance 

 and Fortification and partly from private sources, and from a special endow 

 men! of the Smithsonian Institution. The experiments are carried on with the 

 approval of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The public's interest in them may lead to an unfounded expectation as to 

 their immediate results, without an explanation which is here briefly given. 



These trials, with some already conducted with steam-driven flying ma- 

 chines, are believed to he the first in the history of invention where bodies, far 

 heavier than the air itself, have been sustained in the air for more than a few 

 seconds by purely mechanical means. 



In my previous trials, success has only been reached after initial failures. 

 which ah. iie have taughl the way to it, and I know no reason why the prospective 

 trials should he an exception. 



It is possible, rather than probable, that it may he otherwise now, but judg- 

 ing them from the light of past experience, it is to be regretted that the en 

 forced publicity which has been given to these initial experiments, which are 

 entially experiments and nothing else, may lead to quite unfounded ex- 

 pectations. 



II is the practice of all scientific men, indeed of all prudent men, not to 

 make public the results of their work till these are certain. This consideration, 

 and not any desire to withhold from the public matters in which the public is in- 

 terested, has dictated the policy thus far pursued here. The fullest publicity, 

 consistent with the national interest (since these recent experiments have for 

 their object the development of a machine for war purposes), will be given to 

 this work when it reaches a stage which warrants publication. 



(Signed.) S. P. Langley. 



