398 



NA TURE 



[September 30, 190Q 



value can be attached to projects for aerial navigation 

 which are not supported by either theory or experi- 

 ment, yet such projects still succeed in appearing in 

 print, and naturally ninety-nine people out of every 

 hundred mistake the chaff for the grain. In the 

 Journal of the Franklin Institute for July, for in- 

 stance, Mr. Russell Thayer propounds the idea that all 

 you have to do is to attach a gyroscope to a dirigible 

 balloon and provide it with a sail in order to make 

 it abandon its path of least resistance, drifting with 

 the wind, and plough through the air in a different 

 direction. Even the heading of the paper contains 

 the sentence " The lever in space without a fulcrum 

 on the earth ! " 



We leave readers of Nature to form their own 

 opinions of this recent contribution to a journal pro- 

 fessing to be " devoted to science and the mechanic 

 arts." But if Mr. Russell Thayer will turn to 7/a, 

 No. 10, p. 174, he will see that his idea of an airship 

 supported bv balloons and driven by sails was antici- 

 pated in the year 1670 by the Jesuit priest Francesco 

 Lana, of Brescia, whose design possesses the addi- 

 tional merit of dispensing with the gyroscope ! 



Returning to the serious side of the problem, it 



suggested of enabling an aviator to observe the resist- 

 ance, and consequently to ascertain the relative 

 velocity of his machine. Captain Renard concludes 

 his "conferences" on aviation in the Bulletin de la 

 Society d'Encoitragemcnt for June. From Mr. 

 Octave Chanute we have received by a recent mail 

 papers on " The Evolution of the Two-surface 

 Machine," and " Soaring Flight " (.American Aero- 

 nautics, September and October, igoS, April, 1909), 

 which remind us of the useful pioneer work in which 

 Mr. Chanute was engaged, particularly before the 

 \\'right brothers took the subject so much in hand. 

 In the Rci'uc scientifique for August 14, Capt. Paul 

 Renard writes on " The Antoinette Aeroplane and 

 High Flights." Prof. Houssay, as a zoologist, writes, 

 in the Revue generate des Sciences, xx., 14, on the 

 stabilisation of fishes bv fins and other appendages, 

 and points out a certain analogy with the stabilisa- 

 tion of dirigibles. Photography by carrier pigeons 

 is discussed is 7/a for July 10, which also contains 

 illustrations, which should interest philatelists, of 

 letters sent by balloon post during the siege of Paris 

 in 1870, and now exhibited at Frankfurt. 



In view of the immense ainount of popular enthu- 



FlG. I. — 1. Wright glider (igoo-3>. 2. Ader (1890-7). 3. First Eleriot monoplane (igo6). 4. Santos Diimont's machine which made 

 the first officially recorded flight (1906). 5. Farman's biplane which made the first circuit of a kilometre (January 13, rgo8). 6. Robert 

 Esnault Pelterie monoplane (1907-8). 7. Delagrange biplane (1908). , 



is impossible to glance at the two illustrations accom- 

 panying this article without forming the general 

 impression that in many of the types figured the 

 longitudinal stability is defective and the lateral 

 stability nil, or worse than nil. It is merely the 

 danger of making statements which are unsupported 

 by the most circumstantial evidence that prevents us 

 from expressing a very strong and einphatfc view 

 regarding pretty well every machine in the collection. 

 The one f:ict which appears definitely established is 

 that aeroplanes which are unstable, both longitudin- 

 ally and laterally, can perform flights of indefinite 

 length in the hands of skilled aviators, and this result 

 will receive its full and proper explanation in the 

 prospective mathematical theory. Indeed, for those 

 who can appreciate them, mathematical researches on 

 stability are much more fascinating than flights on 

 aeroplanes. 



A few further papers are deserving of mention. In 

 the number of La Nature referred to, an apparatus 

 called " wrightmeter " is suggested, invented by 

 M. Dalloz for the stated purpose of determining the 

 coefficient of resistance of air. As this resistance is 

 measured on a sphere, this does not go very far in 

 determining the resistances commonly occurring in 

 aerodynamics, the more useful application being that 



NO. 2083, VOL. 81] 



siasm aroused by aeroplanes, long before thev have 

 reached the stage at which they are likelv to be used 

 as a common means of transport, it is somewhat 

 interesting to think that an invention has appeared 

 almost unnoticed which is accessible to everyone, and 

 is capable of affording quite as much genuine enjoy- 

 ment to those who use it as the aeroplane, at a 

 fraction of the cost. The piano-player was heralded 

 by no flourish of trumpets, it received no attention 

 in the Press, save in the makers' advertisements, and 

 there is no journal devoted to its interests. Yet from 

 a scientific point of view it possesses many remark- 

 able — almost marvellous — properties, which afford 

 abundant material for research. But if such re- 

 searches were undertaken, no one would publish or 

 read them. All the fasliion is for aeroplanes. 



G. H. Bryan. 



Since the above article was in proof, the 

 science of aviation has sustained a sad loss by the 

 death of Captain Ferber. Although Captain Ferber's 

 name has not come prominently before the public as a 

 record-breaker, this perhaps is in some measure due 

 to the scientific spirit in which he studied aviation. 

 Captain Ferber commanded the .Mpine Battery at 

 Nice from 1900 to 1904, and during that time became 



