Animal Locomotion; or, walking, swimming, and flying: With a dissertation on aëronauticsPettigrew, James Bell
Science
Animal Locomotion; or, walking, swimming, and flying: With a dissertation on aëronautics
Pettigrew, James Bell
Aeronautics; Animal locomotion
_Points wherein the Screws formed by the Wings differ from those
employed in navigation._--1. In the blade of the ordinary screw the
integral parts are rigid and unyielding, whereas, in the blade of
the screw formed by the wing, they are mobile and plastic (figs. 93,
95, 97, pp. 174, 175, 176). This is a curious and interesting point,
the more especially as it does not seem to be either appreciated or
understood. The mobility and plasticity of the wing is necessary,
because of the tenuity of the air, and because the pinion is an
_elevating_ and _sustaining organ_, as well as a _propelling_ one.
2. The vanes of the ordinary two-bladed screw are short, and have a
comparatively limited range, the range corresponding to their area
of revolution. The wings, on the other hand, are long, and have a
comparatively wide range; and during their elevation and depression
rush through an extensive space, the slightest movement at the root or
short axis of the wing being followed by a gigantic up or down stroke
at the other (fig. 56, p. 120; figs. 64, 65, and 66, p. 139; figs. 82
and 83, p. 158). As a consequence, the wings as a rule act upon
successive and undisturbed strata of air. The advantage gained by this
arrangement in a thin medium like the air, where the quantity of air to
be compressed is necessarily great, is simply incalculable.
3. In the ordinary screw the blades follow each other in rapid
succession, so that they travel over nearly the same space, and operate
upon nearly the same particles (whether water or air), in nearly
the same interval of time. The limited range at their disposal is
consequently not utilized, the action of the two blades being confined,
as it were, to the same plane, and the blades being made to precede
or follow each other in such a manner as necessitates the work being
virtually performed only by one of them. This is particularly the case
when the motion of the screw is rapid and the mass propelled is in the
act of being set in motion, _i.e._ before it has acquired momentum.
In this instance a large percentage of the moving or driving power is
inevitably consumed in slip, from the fact of the blades of the screw
operating on nearly the same particles of matter. The wings, on the
other hand, do not follow each other, but have a distinct reciprocating
motion, _i.e._ they dart first in one direction, and then in another
and opposite direction, in such a manner that they make during the
one stroke the current on which they rise and progress the next.
The blades formed by the wings and the blur or impression produced
on the eye by the blades when made to vibrate rapidly are widely
separated,--the one blade and its blur being situated on the right
side of the body and corresponding to the right wing, the other on
the left and corresponding to the left wing. The right wing traverses
and completely occupies the right half of a circle, and compresses
all the air contained within this space; the left wing occupying and
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