A Project for Flying: In Earnest at Last! Part 1

A Project for Flying.

by Robert Hardley.

In Earnest At Last.

The following appeared in one of our public journals of the date indicated

_To the Editor of the Tribune._

SIR:--You rightly appreciate the interest with which the popular mind regards all efforts in the direction of navigating the air.

One man of my acquaintance was deeply interested to know the results of the California Experiment, because he alone, as he believed, had questioned Nature and learned from her the great secret of aerial navigation.

To-day's _Tribune_ brings us the full account of the machine, its performance and _modus operandi_; and without the authority of my friend, I can p.r.o.nounce at once that the thing is simply ridiculous. It is the same old useless effort, with the same impossible agents. But to-day, within twenty miles of Trinity steeple, lives the man who can give to the world the secret of navigating the air, in calm or in storm, with the wind or against it; skimming the earth, or in the highest currents, just as he wills, with all the ease, and all the swiftness, and all the exact.i.tude of a bird.

My friend is only waiting for an opportunity to perfect his plan, when he will make it known.

Yours truly,

W.H.K.

_New York; June 14th_, 1869.

Two years have pa.s.sed and no progress has been made in aerial navigation.

The California Experiment failed. The great Airs.h.i.+p "CITY OF NEW YORK," had previously escaped the same fate, only because more prudent than her successor she declined a trial. The promising and ambitious enterprise of Mr. Henson has hardly been spoken of for a quarter of a century. And notwithstanding the fact that the number of ascensions in balloons in the United States and Europe must be counted by thousands, and although the exigencies of recent wars have made them useful, yet it must be confessed that the art of navigating the air remains in much the same state in which the brothers Montgolfiers left it at the close of the last century.

The reason for this want of progress in the art referred to, is not to be sought in any want of interest in the subject, or of enthusiasm in prosecuting experiments. Certainly not for want of interest in the subject because _to fly_, has been the great desideratum of the race since Adam. And we find in the literature of every age suggestions for means of achieving flight through the air, in imitation of birds; or for the construction of ingenious machines for aerial navigation. And if history and traditions are to be credited, it would be equally an error to suppose that our age alone had attempted to put theory into practice in reference to navigating the air.

Even the fables of the ancients abound with stories about flying: that of Dedalus and his son Icarius, will occur to every reader. And the representations of the POETS, and the allusions in HOLY WRIT equally prove how natural and dear to the mind of man is the idea of possessing "wings like a dove."

But it is safe enough to a.s.sert, that hitherto, all attempts at _navigating_ the air have been failures.

Floating through the atmosphere in a balloon, at the mercy not only of every _wind_ but of every _breath_ of air, is in no adequate sense aerial navigation. And I do not hesitate to say, that balloons are absolutely incapable of being directed.

All the a.n.a.logies by which inventors have been encouraged in their expectations are false, the rudders of s.h.i.+ps and the tails of birds are no exceptions. They will never be able to guide balloons as sailors do s.h.i.+ps, by a rudder, because s.h.i.+ps do not float suspended in the water as balloons float in the air; nor do birds _float_ through the air in any sense. They are not bouyant--lighter than the element in which they move, but immensely heavier; besides they do not guide themselves wholly by their tails. We may depend upon it, if we ever succeed in navigating the air, it will be by a strict adherence to the principles upon which birds fly, and a close imitation of the means which they employ to effect that object.

It is true, that in respect to the means to be employed, animals designed by the Creator for flight, have greatly the advantage of us, but what natural deficiencies will not human ingenuity supply, and what obstacles will not human skill overcome? It has already triumphed over much greater than any that Nature has interposed between man and the pleasures of aerial communication.

We have to a great extent, mastered the mysterious elements of nature.

We have conquered the thunderbolt and learned to write with the burning fluid out of which it is forged.

We have converted the boundless ocean into a vast highway, traversed for our use and on our errands, by the swift agent, and by great s.h.i.+ps driven against wind and tide by the mighty power of steam.

And yet a single generation ago, we knew nothing of all this, Our grand-sires would have given these achievements a prominent place in the list of impossible things.

But, do you say, "the Creator never intended us to fly--_therefore_, it is impossible."

For what did the Creator give us skill and boundless perseverance?

Was it designed that we should _swim_, more than that we should furnish ourselves with wings and mount up as eagles? "We sink like lead in the mighty waters," we only fall a little faster through the air.

Still, I grant that the problem of aerial navigation will only be solved when the principles of flight are clearly understood, and we recognize precisely what are the obstacles which prevent us from flying by artificial means.

Will these obstacles prove insuperable? It is at present believed by the mult.i.tude that they will, but I entertain a different opinion, most decidedly.

From my earliest youth this subject has occupied my thoughts. It has been the study of my life, and I modestly trust that I have not questioned nature and science in vain.

In the first place, I undertook to make myself familiar with the obstacles to be overcome. I found the greatest of these to be gravity.

I found, however, that heavy fowls, who were unable to rise _from the earth_, and only accomplished flight by taking advantage of an eminence, sustained themselves without difficulty when once fairly embarked. I also found that the best flyers were not equal to the feat of keeping me company, when walking at my usual pace; hence I inferred that _velocity_ was a necessary element in flight, and that gravity, so fatal to human attempts to fly, might be made a powerful auxiliary when rightly used.

Acting upon this hint, I made experiments with heavy barn yard fowls, and finally constructed a light apparatus to be operated by myself, using, princ.i.p.ally, my feet as a motive power, which I repeatedly tried with various and _constantly increasing_ degrees of success.

Now I am satisfied that my system is right. It is my sober conviction that the time to realize the dream and hope of ages has come.

Startling as the announcement may be, I propose not only to make short excursions through the air myself, but to teach others to do the same.

Yet, knowing perfectly the obstacles in the way of flight, and knowing equally well how to overcome them, I am yet well aware that I must perfect my knowledge by practice before entire success can be achieved.

This is only reasonable.

How was it with the swimmer; how was it with the agile and dexterous skater; how with the acrobat, and what but practice has just enabled WESTON to walk one hundred and twelve miles in twenty-four hours, and four hundred miles in five days?

For want of a better name, I will call the machine upon which I am to practice, the "Instructor." It is simple, but it gives the learner just what he wants--an endless series of _inclined planes_.

It will prevent accidents, and until the student has mastered the mechanical movements necessary to flight, will supplement his efforts by partially balancing his weight.

It consists of a beam fifty feet long, poised and attached by a universal joint to the top of a form post, say twenty feet or more in height. Upon one end of this beam the pract.i.tioner stands, arrayed in his wings. A movable weight at the other end completes the apparatus; and yet this simple machine, will form the entering wedge to aerial navigation.

And now methinks I see you smile, but, my unbelieving friends, let me remind you that COPERNICUS, and GALILEO, and FRANKLIN, and FULTON, and MORSE,--all better men than your humble servant, were laughed at before me.

_Their_ work is done. Their monuments stand in all lands, and yet _one_ of this band of truly great and worthy names still lives, and to him I am indebted for many kind and encouraging words.

It is little besides this that I ask of _you_. The stock which you are solicited to take in this enterprise is small. But enable me by your patronage to devote myself for a time wholly to my project.

See to it, that I do not fail for want of support. Buy my little pamphlet at its insignificant cost, ask your friends to do so; and should any of you wish to contribute anything more to this cause, which I have made my own, and which I am determined to push to a triumphant issue, he may be sure that he will receive the acknowledgments of a grateful and earnest man, who has himself devoted to it the aspirations and efforts of a long life, and who is still willing to take all the risks of failure upon himself.

The undersigned would be pleased to have friends interested in this subject, call upon him, when the matter will be more fully described.

ROBERT HARDLEY,

17 PERRY STREET, or

114 Sixth Ave., cor. 9th St.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE AERIAL MACHINE.]