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
Fig. 112, p. 217, embodies M. de la
Landelle’s ideas.
[105] Report on the First Exhibition of the Aëronautical Society of
Great Britain, held at the Crystal Palace, London, in June 1868,
p. 10.
[106] Mons. Nadar, in a paper written in 1863, enters very fully into
the subject of artificial flight, as performed by the aid of the
screw. Liberal extracts are given from Nadar’s paper in Astra Castra,
by Captain Hatton Turner. London, 1865, p. 340. To Turner’s handsome
volume the reader is referred for much curious and interesting
information on the subject of Aërostation.
[Illustration: FIG. 112.--Flying Machine designed by M. de la Landelle.]
In the helicopteric models made by MM. Nadar, Pontin d’Amécourt, and de
la Landelle, the screws (_m n o p q r s t_ of figure) are arranged in
tiers, _i.e._ the one screw is placed above the other. In this respect
they resemble the aëroplanes recommended by Mr. Wenham, and tested by
Mr. Stringfellow (compare _m n o p q r s t_ of fig. 112, with _a b c_
of fig. 110, p. 213). The superimposed screws, as already explained,
were first figured and described by Sir George Cayley (p. 215). The
French screws, and that employed by Mr. Phillips, are _rigid or
unyielding_, and strike the air _at a given angle_, and herein, I
believe, consists their principal defect. This arrangement results in
a ruinous expenditure of power, and is accompanied by a great amount
of slip. The aërial screw, and the machine to be elevated by it, can
be set in motion without any preliminary run, and in this respect
it has the advantage over the machine supported by mere sustaining
planes. It has, in fact, a certain amount of inherent motion, its
screws revolving, and supplying it with active or moving surfaces. It
is accordingly more independent than the machine designed by Henson,
Wenham, and Stringfellow.
I may observe with regard to the system of rigid inclined planes wedged
forward at a given angle in a straight line or in a circle, that it
does not embody the principle carried out in nature.
The wing of a flying creature, as I have taken pains to show, is _not
rigid_; neither does it always strike the air _at a given angle_. On
the contrary, it is capable of moving in all its parts, and attacks
the air at _an infinite variety of angles_ (pp. 151 to 154). Above
all, the surface exposed by a natural wing, when compared with the
great weight it is capable of elevating, is remarkably small (fig. 89,
p. 171). This is accounted for by the length and the great range of
motion of natural wings; the latter enabling the wings to convert large
tracts of air into supporting areas (figs. 64, 65, and 66, p. 139). It
is also accounted for by the multiplicity of the movements of natural
wings, these enabling the pinions to create and rise upon currents of
their own forming, and to avoid natural currents when not adapted for
propelling or sustaining purposes (fig. 67, 68, 69, and 70, p. 141).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Animal Locomotion; or, walking, swimming, and flying: With a dissertation on aëronautics — John Shaqi
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