6 SMITflSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 95 



Strip, moved at a constant speed by clockwork. The sights at the 

 front and rear of the telescope, similar to those on a rifle, were used 

 in following the rocket when the speed was high. In plate 7, figure i, 

 which shows the clock mechanism in detail, the observer is indicating 

 the altitude trace. This device proved satisfactory except when the tra- 

 jectory of the rocket was in the plane of the tower and the telescope. 

 For great heights, short-wave radio direction finders, for following 

 the rocket during the descent, will be preferable to telescopes. 



During this period a number of flights were made for the purpose 

 of testing the regulation of the nitrogen gas pressure. A beginning 

 on the problem of automatically stabilized vertical flight was also 

 made, and the first flight with gyroscopically controlled vanes was 

 obtained on April 19, 1932, with the same model that employed the 

 first liquid nitrogen tank. The method of stabilization consisted in 

 forcing vanes into the blast of the rocket " by means of gas pressure, 

 this pressure being controlled by a small gyroscope. 



As has been found by later tests, the vanes used in the flight of 

 April 19, 1932, were too small to produce sufficiently rapid correction. 

 Nevertheless, the two vanes which, by entering the rocket blast, should 

 have moved the rocket back to the vertical position were found to 

 be warmer than the others after the rocket landed. 



This part of the development work, being for the purpose of 

 obtaining satisfactory and reproducible performance of the rocket in 

 the air, was conducted without any special attempt to secure great 

 lightness, and therefore great altitudes. 



In May 1932 the results that had been obtained were placed before 

 the advisory committee, which voted to recommend the 2 additional 

 years of the development. Owing to the economic conditions then 

 existing, however, it was found impossible to continue the flights in 

 New Mexico. 



A grant from the Smithsonian Institution enabled the writer, who 

 resumed full-time teaching in Clark University in the fall of 1932, 

 to carry out tests that did not require flights, in the physics labora- 

 tories of the University during 1932-33, and a grant was received 

 from the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation which made 

 possible a more extended program of the same nature in 1933-34. 



RESUMPTION OF FLIGHTS IN NEW MEXICO 



A grant made by the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation 

 in August 1934, together with leave of absence for the writer granted 



'U. S. Patent, Mechanism for Directing Flight, No. 1,879,187, September 

 27, 1932. 



