A FLYING MACHINE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2242, 20 November 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FLYING MACHINE.

The report just made public by Professor Isaac Lancaster, as the result of his observations regarding tho flight of birds, contains many statements equally novel and extraordinary. The problem, to the solution of which the professor's attention was chiefly addressed, was that which concerns motionless wing flight. With a view to conducting his experiments under the most favourable circumstances possible, he spent five years on tho Gulf Coast of South Florida, watching the frigate birds, pelicans, eagles, and cranes which congregate along that shore iv vast numbers. He observed a group of twenty buzzards, on one occasion, for fourteen consecutive hours, during which they rested in tho sea-breeze absolutely motionless, not a dozen flaps being made for each bird. Ho saw frigate birds move on fixed wings against a tempest of eighty miles an hour, at a speed equal to that of the wind itself. The professor finally made up his mind that if n feathered creature could float indefinitely without lining muscular exprtion, a board or other body of tho same weight and shape ought to be able to do the same thing. Acting upon this supposition he constructed floating planes, which would draw into the breeze from the hand and simulate the soaring birds perfectly, moving on horizontal lines, or on any inclination to a vertical. These "ethVies" would float for hours in any steady wind, although they were occasionally capsized by a variation in the air current. But the most interesting experiment tried was with a balanced arm, rotating in a horizontal plane like a merry-go-round. Tho frigate birds, Professor Lancaster noticed, had a way of going round and round in enormous and interminable circles on fixed wings the whole day long, and if they could do this sort of thing he thought a plane of the weight and dimensions of the frigate Lird ought to move in the same manner if similarly placed. Not being able to make the experiment a mile high, he tried it from the top of a lighthouse with a rotating arm 94 feet long and planes 24 by 12 feet. The machine would only operate in calm air, but under such conditions it travelled several days without stopping, thus solving the problem of perpetual motion. — Court Journal.

Adulteration of Silk. — The weighting of silk by means oi tin is, according to M. Moyrefc, increasing every day, and some surprising results are obtained on raw, boiled off, or souple silk, an increase of from 100 to 120 per cent, in weight being obtained. The bichloride of tin obtained by the oxidation of ordinary tin salt (or stannus chloride) by moans of aqua regia is in favour for black dyed silks, but for white or colours it has some drawbacks, and is therefore not used. For the purpose of charging or weighting white or light coloured silks, better results are obtained from the tin bichloride produced by the oxidation of tin salt by means of chlorate of potash and hydrochloric acid. Boiled milk leaves the healthy stomach much sooner than unboiled milk, and its digestion is more rapidly accomplished.

It is estimated that the receipts in connection with the Colonial and Indian Exhibition will show a surplus of about £60,000 over expenditure. A kom v\TK' young lady in London obtained recently the desire of her heart — she met the Poet Laureate at dinner, and the sympathetic hostess oven arranged that she should bo placed next to him. One remark, and one alono, did tho poet address to the jru*hing maiden at his side, and it was this : " I hko my mutton in wedges. %)