EDITORIAL COMMENT.

Progress, Volume III, Issue 4, 1 February 1908, Page 115

EDITORIAL COMMENT.

The Progress of Aviation. The successful flight of the French aviator — the word is, we observe, now in established use — of which news has reached the Dominion during the past month, has drawn attention to the progress made of late in the development of the aeroplane, of the " heav-ier-than-?ir " type. Of that progress it is noteworthy that the performances of M. Farman stand at the head. This aviator, before winning the Deutsch-Archdeacon prize of £2000, made three different attempts without success. Roughly speaking, the conditions are that the aeroplanes must fly 500 metres and back. To do this the aeronaut must fly, as one authority puts it, " across the starting line, which is determined by two poles placed P0 metres apart, and then make the turn about another post situated at 500 metres, upon a line running from the middle point of the starting line and at light angles to it. After making this turn the aeronaut must come back and cross the starting line while in full flight." This is evidently the course over which M. Farman flew his 1100 yards " through goal posts " as the cables had it. The goal posts mentioned in the message are the two at the ends of the starting line, and the two 500 metres' lengths make 3280.8 feet, or 1.093 (nearly 1100) yards of the English measure. On the first trial, early in November, M. Farman flew the first 500 metres and made the turn arouod the turning-post and got back over the starting line, but failed to win because he touched ground several times while making the turn. On the 18th of the month he reached tbe turning-post, but wes unable to round the same. >. On the 23rd this aviator had an interesting experience in other ways, but was

prevented by a storm from competing for the prize. His experience was this : After leaving the shed he was obliged to fly across a field to reach the starting-point. Starting with the wind he crossed the field, described a semi-circle, and landed against the wind, having covered 900 metres (slightly over 1000 yards). This was decidedly a good performance—it was flight. So was the next step made in the competition. During the preparations for the flight the wind suddenly increased and blew as hard as 12 to 18 miles an hour. M. Farman started his machine and rose in the air at a high rate of speed. The wind, however, continuing to increase, threatened to carry him off the course indefinitely into space. He therefore decided to wait for better times. These evidently came on the day on which he won the prize, as chronicled by the cables in terms published in our column devoted to the Mastery of the Air. It is clear, therefore, that M. Farman has flown under the required conditions, namely, over a course of 500 metres and back to start, going between fixed goal posts at one end and round a mark post at the other, situated exactly half-way across tbe course, without touching the ground anywhere from start (flying) to finish, also flying. This is controlled flight That is a great fact. As to the conditions, though nothing appears regarding them in the cabled accounts of the flight for the prize, there is little doubt, judging by the descriptions of the previous trials to which leference has been made above, that the weather was calm. The second great fact about the aeroplane, therefore, is that it has not mastered the art of coping with the powers of the air, even to the same extent as the dirigible; for the dirigibles all have proved themselves equal to a wind of 30 miles to 35, whereas the aeroplane which has won the big Parisian prize was once defeated by a wind of a little more than 18 miles an houi. There is hope, however, in the statement of an eye-witness, an expert according to the limited lights that aviation has so far provided foi the experts to be fashioned by, which is as follows : " The fact that he was able to manoeuvre the aeroplane and keep it on a fairly level keel, under such adverse conditions, is another evidence of the inherent stability of this type of machine." Now, of course, the main question at the present stage of the aeroplane development is of stability rather than pace or power. It follows, therefore, that the winning of the prize is a great advance on the road which everyday's experience seems to declare to be the right one. Fifty yeais ago the Duke of Argyll argued that without weight greater than air, like the weight of the birds who fly in the aii to great distances and keep the^air under all possible conditions, flight of the controlled order would always be

impossible. The experience of M. Farman reminds us cf the dictum of the distinguished authority by supporting his conclusion. Stability gained, the stability after which so many have striven in vain during later years, power to cope wth the conditions of the air, various and terrible as they aie, will follow as day follows night. This stability, is it attainable in perfection? The question may be asked hopefully in view of certain details of other experiments than those of M. Farman above referred to. We have, as explained elsewhere, to-day a record of the failure of Santos Dumont's latest geroplane. But recent advices received show that though the failure of this aeronaut with his new machine was complete in the matter of the big prize, he achieved some good results at the preliminary trials, varying direction and dip at will for fairly long distances under conditions cf good stability. He has a motor of 20 horse-power, his machine is known as a " monoplane," its sustaining surface is of 107 square feet, and it has no more than 2£ lbs. per square foot to carry. This monoplane is after the style of Hargreaves aeroplane, patented in Sydney,

N.S.W., in 1890, the illustration of which we published in these pages last March, and now reproduce. Add a big two-bladed screw, horizontal and vertical rudders stem and stern, a motor at the head, and three wheels tricycle fashion underneath, with a saddle for the aeronaut, and you have 2 good idea of the new Dumont machine which has some points in its favour. Iyastly we have to consider a suggestion made by a noted aeronaut in the leading aeronautical publication, La Conquete de I' air, for the application to aviation of the gyroscope. The suggestion is supported by the plea that the thing which has secured the stability of two kinds of oscillating vehicles ought to secure the same advantage for the aeroplane which suffers from lack of stability in an especial degree. On the whole, then, it appears that the aviators have achieved actual flight, and are preparing to improve their position.

" A man so universal that he seemed to be all science's epitome." Such a paraphrase of a famous verse might fairly stand for the description of the position attained in the scientific world by the late I,ord Kelvin, so difficult it is to decide where he was really pre-eminent. At the outset of his career his teeming brain seemed to press him into the study of the whole range of scientific discovery. In his early twenties he was an astronomer, and even a musician, and, if we may judge by analogy where there is no direct evidence of proficiency, it seems certoin that he was on the high road to eminence in both these regions of human effort so far apart from each other. Would he, one can not help wondering, have rivalled Wagner with&a

stately series of symphonies, or the'Herschels in closeness of observation, or the achievements of Newton and Laplace and the other great men ? The question is, of course, bootless. But one can say safely that with his mathematical instinct for accuracy, his marvellous sense of order, his untiring industry, and his never-failing inspiration he must have made a prodigious mark. Many things have been said of him, but of these none were truer than the saying that be possessed all the qualities which are necessary to convert ingenuity into genius. Recognising early that some limit must be set to the field of his activity, Professor Thomson turned from the last-named pursuits, concentrating his mind on the practical field open to his boundless enterprise. He had attained to his position early through his proficiency in mathematics, graduating, like many other great men before him, as second wrangler of Cambridge University. Prominent among these may be mentioned Clerk-Maxwell and Clifford, who with him made the three best mathematicians produced in the British Isles during the last century. To the soundness of his mathematical knowledge and the close rigour of his mathematical training were no doubt due the extraordinary skill to which Thomson attained in after years as an inventor. It was this skill in the minutest details which built up the value of his patents. The wealth