THE PROBLEM OF FLIGHT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2349, 16 November 1908, Page 6

THE PROBLEM OF FLIGHT.

FRENCH EXPERIMENTS.

While inventors are at Avork devis ing- Hying machines, scientists ar< still trying to discover the secret of i bird’s flight. The mystery defie them, though there have been inipor tant contributions to the discusskn of the problem. The “Globe” give an interesting account of some ex periments carried out by Profes&o Depress at Paris. Professor Depre: has caused a body heavier than ai to “soar” and even to remain mo tionless in the air merely by using th force of the air. The “bird” wa niado of thin sheets of aluminum, on of large horizontal surface represent ing the Avings, and a small vertica one representing the head and body By directing a current of air of th right force and direction against.thi body obliquely it was made to floa motionless in the air, and by ; alter ing the force of the current it wa made to rise or fall. Quito anothe i theory lias been advanced by M Georges Debrudk. Belying on th theory that each atom is a reservo i •of energy, which is set free when th atom breaks up, he suggests . fha the soaring ' bird- has' the .power ot J setting, free some ju this < - v stop f ed 'Aip inyiitop^wX: : Kl; ing the % oiill, thc^ iNlr r±i.c fa»“«- 'V-..,;- J her night give tUbway in Ayliit'U tumimdijTs Uin.l

mystery really remans unsolved. ‘‘At present,” says ihe “Times,V “wo speculate about, the vements ivluoh birds perform with such eons uni urn to ease, but our speculations .are rather unsubstantial. Wo nmy talk about air currents, but the talk is, not very convincing to one who has watched an eagle poised high .in. air without a movement save perhaps the quiver of Ills wing -tips. There'is some secret over and above the known laws of aerial iluids which xVe have not yet grasped. Wo can/ calculate floatation to an ounce, /but the subtle application of small forces by the bird involves something that wo do not yet understand. The paradoxical trick is played before our eyes every yet we are helpless before Nature’s jugglery.” It is not for want of investigation that the scientists have failed, i ind it may be that the experiments now being carried out in the Old World will vet wrest from Nature this ancient secret of hers.