Pebkuary 12, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



269 



The progress of knowledge has brought us to 

 a point where our nation needs the services 

 of a body of men who shall be engaged in work 

 of a distinctively different type from that car- 

 ried on in our traditional institutions of learn- 

 ing, a work which belongs peculiarly to the 

 present and future, because it was not possible 

 in the past. Looking at our intellectual his- 

 tory, we have grown from the high school of 

 our revolutionary ancestors to the college; 

 from the college stage we have grown to the 

 university stage. Now we have grown to a 

 point where we need something beyond the 

 university. We want an institution at the 

 city of Washington at which shall be organ- 

 ized a system of research on that higher plane 

 and larger scale which the progress of experi- 

 mental science and observational knowledge 

 now requires. Such a work would be at a 

 disadvantage in being connected with any ex- 

 isting university for the same reason that the 

 college was at a disadvantage when grafted 

 on the preparatory school, and for the same 

 reason that our universities are now at a dis- 

 advantage in being grafted upon the colleges. 

 What we want might be appropriately called 

 the N'ational Research University. If the 

 Carnegie Institution is not to grow into any- 

 thing of this kind, is there not among us some 

 possessor of great wealth ready to become its 

 founder? — Professor Simon Newcomb in The 

 North American Review. 



EXPERIMENTS IN FLYING. 



In October last we resumed the trials on the 

 Kill Devil practice ground with the machine 

 which we had used during the previous year, 

 and succeeded in making flights in which the 

 operator remained in the air over a minute, 

 at one time being suspended 1 minute 11.80 

 seconds. While carrying on the experiments, 

 our power machine was under construction. 

 In dimensions it measures a little over 40 feet 

 from tip to tip of the wings, of which there 

 are a pair. Its length fore and aft, to use 

 a nautical phrase, is about 20 feet, and the 

 weight, including that of the operator, as well 

 as the engine and other machinery, is slightly 

 over 700 pounds. We designed the machine 

 to be driven by a pair of aerial screw pro- 

 pellers placed just behind the main wings. 



One of the propellers was set to revolve ver- 

 tically and intended to give a forward motion, 

 while the other underneath the machine and 

 revolving horizontally, was to assist in sus- 

 taining it in the air. 



We decided to use a gasoline motor for 

 power, and constructed one of the 4-cycle type, 

 which, revolving at a speed of 1,200 revolu- 

 tions a minute, would develop 16 brake horse- 

 power. It was provided with cylinders of 

 4-inch diameter and having a 4-inch stroke 

 and intended to consume between 9 and 10 

 pounds of gasoline an hour. The weight of 

 the engine, including the wheel, is 152 pounds. 



We had calculated that this amount of me- 

 chanical power would be sufficient to maintain 

 the machine in the air, as well as to propel it, 

 the calculations being the result of gliding ex- 

 periments, which showed that when the wind 

 was blowing at a rate of 18 miles an hour the 

 power consumed in operation was equal to 1.5 

 horse-power, while with a wind of 25 miles 

 an hour it represented 2 horse-power, being 

 capable of sustaining a weight of 160 pounds 

 per horse-power at the 18-mile rate. 



After the motor device was completed, two 

 flights were made by my brother and two by 

 myself on December 17 last. The apparatus 

 had been placed on a single rail track, built on 

 the level, the track supporting it at a height 

 of eight inches from the ground. It was 

 moved along the rail by the motor, and after 

 running about 40 feet ascended into the air. 

 The first flight covered but a short distance. 

 Upon each successive attempt, however, the 

 distance was increased, until at the last trial 

 the machine flew a distance of a little over a 

 half mile through the air by actual measure- 

 ment. We decided that the flight ended here, 

 because the operator touched a slight hum- 

 mock of sand by turning the rudder too far in 

 attempting to go nearer to the surface. The 

 experiments, however, showed that it pos- 

 sessed sufficient power to remain suspended 

 longer if desired. According to the time taken 

 of each flight a speed varying from 30 to 35 

 miles an hour was attained in the air. 



We should have postponed these trials until 

 the coming season, but for the fact that we 

 wished to satisfy ourselves whether the ma- 



