RESULTS IN AERIAL NAVIGATION. 557 



spection of the original confirmed this; and Hkewise enlightened us about the 

 eyes. For the left orbit was found to occur, not in woody structure, like that of 

 the right side, but in a dark material having the appearance of pitch or cement 

 of some sort. 



We may rest assured that whatever there may be which is factitious in this 

 most curious lusus naturce, originated before it came into the hands of His Excel- 

 lency the Brazilian Minister at Washington. If these marks were hot discerned 

 by any of the Parisian savants in question — which we are slow to believe — they are 

 less likely to have been noticed by Senor Lopez Netto, whose honor and good 

 faith are incontestable. — American Journal of Science. 



PHYSICS. 



RESULTS IN AERIAL NAVIGATION EXPECTED FROM THE STOR- 

 AGE OF FORCE AND THE CHEAPENING OF ALUMINUM. 



PROF. E. C. STEDMAN. 



The following bit of news, with some remarks by Professor Newberry upon 

 its importance, appeared iu the Tribune of Thursday, Dec. 14: 



'' London, Dec. 13. — A process for the cheap production of aluminum has 

 been discovered The invention causes no little excitement in the metal trade at 

 Birmingham and Sheffield." 



I contributed to Scribner's Alonthly February, 1879, an illustrated article en- 

 titled " Aerial Navigation {A Priori).''^ In it I gave the gist of certain notes and 

 diagrams made in 1858 concerning the greatest of unsolved mechanical problems 

 — that of the true method of navigating the air, that "element everywhere 

 abounding, covering one all over like a cloak, earth's garment, man's aureola, in 

 which he moves, breathes, and has his being ; the most delicate, the strongest of all ; 

 invisible, yet making all things plain ; light, yet pressing everywhere ; elusive, yet 

 waiting to be overcome, and to confer gifts upon its sovereign beyond his most 

 extravagant conjecture !" 



In the quoted article I claimed that the model of the future "acrobat " or 

 " aeronon " would be taken from the fish, and not, as many believed, from the 

 bird, but added : 



" Various hints, however, may be gained from the bird, one of which relates 

 to the structure of the frame and machinery of a vessel that shall navigate the at- 

 mosphere. The hollow bones of the bird furnish the natural model for the union 

 of lightness and and strength in aerial mechanics." 



In 1879 three factors were still needed for the successful construction and 

 use of an aeronon built upon the model suggested — that of a " parabolic spin- 



