September 30, 1909J 



NA TURE 



597 



A\ I AT ION. 



THE successful aviation week recently concluded 

 at Rheims should do much to popularise avia- 

 tion, if that subject is not sufficiently popular already. 

 The large number of newspapers and periodicals 

 ■devoted to aerial navigation is, however, sufficient 

 evidence of the amount of public interest which 

 <-entres round the new form of locomotion. At a 

 railway bookstall at Tarbes, in the Pyrenees, a few 

 weeks back, the present writer saw no fewer than 

 five different papers devoted to flying machines. 

 Possibly the number of such journals is equal to, even 

 4jreater than, or at any rate compar.-ible with, the 

 number of successful flights that have been per- 

 formed; it certainly appears as if the frequency with 

 "which a new journal comes out is not small in pro- 

 portion to the frequency of aeronautical successes. 

 Indeed, at the present rate, the assigning of new 

 titles to these journals will soon take the form of a 

 problem in permutations and combinations. 



When it is attempted to draw scientific conclusions 

 from these successful flights there is not, after all, 

 so very much to be said. The difference between a 

 machine that will fly one mile and a machine that 

 ■will fly a hundred miles is mainly that the latter 

 must be able to carry a heavier load in the form of 

 petrol or other fuel than the former. In the case of 

 high flights the same remarks apply, though the 

 construction of a machine which is capable of ascend- 

 ing or safely descending at a considerable angle to 

 the horizon presents many points of scientific interest 

 ■which, no doubt, will receive the attention thev de- 

 serve sooner or later, unbeknown to the average 

 newspaper reader. In saying that when aviation 

 takes the form of record-breaking it ceases to be a 

 science and becomes a sport, we are, of course, not 

 taking into account all the work of an experimental 

 ■character in the construction and perfection of motors, 

 propellers, and aeroplanes which has to be gone 

 through behind the scenes before the sport can be in- 

 •dulged in. We have, however, failed to find that any 

 very definite and striking new result has been proved 

 by the recent triumphs. 



It would seem, in fact, as if writers on the subject 

 ■were directing their attention to the early history of 

 aerial navigation to make up for the fact that there 

 Is very little to write about in a mere statement of 

 records. Under the title of Ua, a weekly journal is 

 appearing in connection with the International Aero- 

 nautical Exhibition at Frankfurt, of which the his- 

 torical section is an important feature. It is interesting 

 to revive acquaintance with the early, and in many 

 cases fantastic, devices of Barth^leniv Lourenijo de 

 Gnsman, Besnier, Jacob Degen, Rlanchard, the 

 'Minerva of Robertson, with its suspended ship and 

 cabins, and an old cartoon of an omnibus and horses 

 hanging from a balloon. .\s for Lourenco, a special 

 nunibcr ( Illustrierte .Aeronautische .Mitteilungen xiii, 

 17, lla iii.) contains references to his exploits in view of 

 ;\u£fust 8 of this vear being the 200th anniversary 

 of his supposed flight. The article bv Mr. B. Wilhelm 

 Is prefaced by a short editorial note by Capt. 

 H. W. L. Moedebeck, and seems to support tl;e view 

 that Lourengo actually went so far as to make a small 

 niodel of a fire-balloon rise in the air in presence 

 of the King of Portutral. Of pictures of Lourenijo's 

 .<;rotesque and fantastic design we have two in the 

 number in Question, but in No. to of lla it is pointed 

 nut that if Gusman really did*fly, his ship must cer- 

 1,'iinly have looked quite different. 



.Another article dealing with the general history of 

 nerial navigation, both past and present, forms the 

 subject of a soecial number of ha Nature, issued on 



NO. 2083, VOL. 81] 



.\ugust 2 1 in connection with the Rheims meeting of 

 the following week. A useful feature is the series of 

 illustrations, each showing in one figure a collection 

 of the principal types of airships and aeroplanes, in 

 much, the same way that the early history of the sub- 

 ject is summarised in the interesting old " Tableau 

 dWviation " of fame. Of these we reproduce the two 

 illustrations of the most recent aeroplanes. The article 

 concludes with a calendar of " the great dates of 

 aviation," which is here given, with addition of the 

 Rheims records : — 



When the newspapers state that one portion of the 

 course has come to be called "the valley of death," 

 from the numerous wrecks that every day strew its 

 fields, and when we refer to the accidents to Paulhan, 

 Fournier, Bleriot, and still later to the death of 

 Lefebvre and the accidents to Lieut. Calderara, to 

 Bossi, and to Le Blanc, it will be seen that aeroplane 

 triumphs are being bought at the expense of many 

 thousands of pounds spent in rebuilding completely 

 smashed-up machines, not to mention the risk to 

 life and limb. 



Of course, a considerable proportion of these acci- 

 dents are undoubtedly accidents in the true sense of 

 the word, but when we read, as we have done over 

 and over again, that machines have suddenly stonned 

 dead from no explicable cause, and then suddenly 

 plunged to the ground, the idea of longitudinal in- 

 stability at once suggests itself, and the obvious 

 remedv is that aviators should wait until this subject 

 has at least been thrashed out mathematically, or 

 should devote a fraction of the sum they spend on 

 repairs of broken parts to furnishing the assistance 

 which would enable the theoretical investigations to 

 be pushed forward without delay instead of being 

 hung up for months at a time owing to pressure of 

 other work. 



Such a course would have been by far the shortest, 

 cheapest, and best wav of disposing of one of the 

 important difficulties connected with aviation. But 

 what chance of success would a mathematician have 

 if he made an appeal of this kind? The world is full 

 of people who have made, or imagine they have 

 made, epoch-making discoveries, and who only re- 

 quire funds for their development. Their effusions 

 find their way into every journal that does not adopt 

 the most strict censorship over the scientific value 

 of its contributions. The time has passed when any 



