THE PROBLEM OF FLIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 279, 19 November 1908, Page 3

THE PROBLEM OF FLIGHT.

The Globe gives aa account of some curious experiments carried out by Professor Marcel Deprez, of tire Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, with a 1 view to explaining the mystery of the soaring bird on scientific principles. Til the course of these experiments Professor Deprez has caused a body heavier than air to '" soar"—that is, to remain suspended motionless in the air without any other motive power than that derived from the force of the wind. The "bird'' experimented with was made of thin sheets of aluminium, one of large horizontal surface representing the wings, and a small vesical one representing the head and boo.>\ By di- _ reetiag a current of air of tk< rig.it force and direction against this body obliquely it was made to float motionless in the air, and by altering the force of the current it was made to rise or falfc Quite another theory has been advanced bv M. Georges Debruek. Helving on the theory that each atom is a" reservoir of energy, which is set f :ee when the atom breaks up, he suggests thai the soaring bird has the power of setting free some of this energy stored up in" atom-, and thus counteracting the force of gravity, This sounds very like, our old friend, " odic force," with which the early spiritualists were supposed to perform their wonders. "The laws of the natural (light, accepted as a. model, are still very im perfectly understood,'' writes the Times, discu-i'ug Zeppelin's airship. ''At present we speculate about the movements which birds perform with such consummate ease, but our speculations are rather unsubstantial. We may 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 oi his wiug tips. There is some secret over and above the known paws o5 I aerial fluids which we have not yet grasped. ••It is the fascination of the hcavie.'-thau-air principle that there is plainly so much to learn. We can calculate dotation to an ounce, but the subtle application of small forces by the bird involves something that we do not vet understand. ' J 'he paradoxical trick is plaved before our eyes every day, yet we' are helpless before Nature's jugglery. Msinv acute minds are now in I pursuit M th* secret, which eiminnt a'-ain be neglected. It is regrettable. I though possibly not so fatal as some | are disposed to think, but for the pre- ' „ent this country is. not taking a very prominent part in the investigation, although the Army airship is a very promising experiment in the flotation department." "The world seems rather to hn\c got llviii" machine- upon the brain just at present," says the Times, writing m a merrv mood.' "If they are going to do a tenth of wli.it is freely predicted lor them, quiet people may well begin to wilder what sort of pandemonium Inearth will be when what is called the conune-t <>f the air' is complete. Apparently we shall have again to become eave-dwollcrs. Tubes in London clav will take the place "f London -livel- and Mr. Halilane's Terrilorials will have to lodge and manoeuvre n the spacious eaves of Inglehorough and Hie Peak. The chemists will have to hum- up with Itio weird product- upon which a- thev tell the man ol the future is to 'subsist; for neither eultiI vitors nor crop* will have mwh chance I w'lun the air is thick with steerahle-, j aeroplanes, and the debris which they must drop promiscuously. Still. In" average man may console lnmseii witn (he thought that performance at pi» I «ent falls'vcrv far short of the speciilai tions engendered by the existing excitement."