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
_The Artificial Wave Wing can be driven at any speed--it can make its
own currents, or utilize existing ones._--The remarkable feature in
the artificial wave wing is its adaptability. It can be driven slowly,
or with astonishing rapidity. It has no dead points. It reverses
instantly, and in such a manner as to dissipate neither time nor
power. It alternately seizes and evades the air so as to extract the
maximum of support with the minimum of slip, and the minimum of force.
It supplies a degree of buoying and propelling power which is truly
remarkable. Its buoying area is nearly equal to half a circle. It can
act upon still air, and it can create and utilize its own currents.
I proved this in the following manner. I caused the wing to make a
horizontal sweep from right to left over a candle; the wing rose
steadily as a kite would, and after a brief interval, the flame of the
candle was persistently blown from right to left. I then waited until
the flame of the candle assumed its normal perpendicular position,
after which I caused the wing to make another and opposite sweep from
left to right. The wing again rose kite fashion, and the flame was a
second time affected, being blown in this case from left to right. I
now caused the wing to vibrate steadily and rapidly above the candle,
with this curious result, that the flame did not incline alternately
from right to left and from left to right. On the contrary, it was
blown steadily away from me, _i.e._ in the direction of the tip of the
wing, thus showing that the artificial currents made by the wing, met
and neutralized each other always at mid stroke. I also found that
under these circumstances the buoying power of the wing was remarkably
increased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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