614 
Surely this is a most wonderful development of 
social instinct on the part of a colony of birds. 
When the chicks have changed their downy 
coats for a covering of feathers, it is time for both 
young and old to depart. The sun will soon be 
gone, the sea be frozen over, and the long An- 
tarctic night begun. So the youngsters make 
their way to the water’s edge, and here they learn 
to swim and to catch their own food. Some take 
to the water at once; others are more tardy, and 
these are encouraged to enter the new element by 
the old birds, who take pains to show them that 
they are as safe here as on land. Then in bands 
of some dozens at a time, the whole rookery takes 
to the sea and departs for the north, where the 
floating pack ice of the Antarctic seas affords 
r 
NATORE 
[AUGUST. 13, 1914 
Stable aeroplanes have been built before; Lieut- 
Dunne, Mr. Handley Page, and others, have pro- 
duced aeroplanes which are inherently stable, and 
yet the RE1, from a theoretical point of view, 
has an importance of a different character from its 
predecessors. If the older machines be examined 
they will be found to possess marked peculiarities 
in their wing construction, and in some cases have 
been clearly produced as the result of the study 
of natural wing forms. In all cases, however, 
the design is primarily based on the requirements 
for stability, and the strength of construction is 
a matter for important but secondary considera- 
tion. 
On the other hand, as was remarked in a recent 
number of one of the technical flight periodicals, 
7 
Fic. 4.—A group of nests. 
them a safe home and the proximity of open 
water from which they must derive their food. 
G. Murray LEvIck. 
RECENT, PROGRESS IN 
SGlE NCB. 
WO lectures delivered recently have directed 
attention to striking progress in the develop- 
ment of aeronautical science. Simultaneously 
with these lectures, the ‘ Wilbur Wright” lecture 
by Dr. R. (is) Glazebrook, andsthe, ~ James, For- 
rest’ lecture by Mr. F. W. Lanchester, results are 
published of experiments on an inherently stable 
aeroplane, the RE 1, constructed at the Royal 
Aircraft Factory. The two lectures and the flying 
machine are not wholly unconnected with each 
other. 
AERONAUTICAL 
the absence of special stability features in the 
RE is striking. Superficially, the aeroplane 
differs little from standard biplanes designed 
chiefly for strength and efficiency, and the proce- 
dure followed in its production was a complete 
reversal of that leading to the older stable 
machines. It is shown clearly that neither ease 
nor strength of construction nor efficiency need be 
sacrificed in order to obtain a stable aeroplane. 
Like many other achievements, the RE 1 is not 
the sole production of any one person. The credit 
for some of the earlier links in the chain must go 
to those early mathematicians—Lagrange, Kelvin, 
Routh, etc.—-who put the theory of the small 
oscillations about a state of steady motion on to 
a sound and regular footing. Later, the method 
has been applied to the particular problem of the 
aeroplane by Prof. Bryan, whilst, at the same 
