Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 56249-h.htm or 56249-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/56249/56249-h/56249-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/56249/56249-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/problemofmanflig00meanrich Transcriber’s note: Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). Price, 10 Cents. THE PROBLEM OF MANFLIGHT. by JAMES MEANS [Illustration: The Flight of Otto Lilienthal, of Steglitz, Prussia, as Actually Accomplished in 1893. Accurately Drawn from an Instantaneous Photograph.] Boston, Mass.: W. B. Clarke & Co., 340 Washington Street. 1894. THE PROBLEM OF MANFLIGHT. by JAMES MEANS. This pamphlet will be sent, postpaid, to any address on receipt of ten cents in stamps. Boston, Mass.: W. B. Clarke & Co., 340 Washington St. 1894. Copyright, 1894, by James Means. Press of Rockwell and Churchill, Boston. THE PROBLEM OF MANFLIGHT. As the century draws to its close the interest in the subject of aeronautics steadily increases. There already exists a keen curiosity to know what the aerial machine of the future is likely to resemble, and also to know whether the nineteenth or the twentieth century will claim it for its own. In the present article the writer wishes to show what inferences may be drawn from the laws of nature as so far ascertained by observation and experiment, and he wishes also to point out a way which may lead to further progress. The investigators of this subject are now divided into two camps: on the one side there are men who, like Mr. Maxim, are endeavoring to construct machines which will carry motors and therefore be self-propelling; on the other side there are men like Mr. A. M. Wellington, who maintains that a motor is unnecessary and that wind-power is sufficient.