MASTERY OF THE AIR. SANTOS DUMONT.

Progress, Volume II, Issue 6, 1 April 1907, Page 228

MASTERY OF THE AIR. SANTOS DUMONT.

There are many things in the engineering world, grand realities to-day, which but yesterday were dreams of the dreamer. Aeroplanes have already risen off the earth, taking with them their wheels, and there is a dispute between Santos Dumont, w ho claims that he achieved the problem of flying with his aeroplane the other day, and Mr. Ader, the veteran aeronaut, who does not deny that Mr. Santos Dumont new, but declares that if he did, then, he did so fifteen years after him. This introduces us to the young Brazilian who has devoted his large fortune to the study of the problem of flying, and has had more of the public attention than any man of his time m this connection. As he flew during the performance of his great feat, so he appeared in our recent illustration. As he has been pictured in words by an interviewer in the Illustrated London News, character, appearance, views and intentions, he is as follows — There is a man to-day who has distanced all others in his conquest of the air. His name is on everybody's lips. When the history of aerial navigation comes to be written, he will certainly have a foremost place in it. He is the very figure, the very type of energy. Small and wiry, he is of the stuff of explorers and conquerors. It is no light test of nerves to thrust oneself into the impalpable air upon the back of one's own invention. Every one remembers Santos Dumont's sensational flight round the Eiffel Tower in a motor air-ship. It seemed then that the first chapter had been written in practical aeronautics. But in this present year of grace, Santos Dumont turned away from his steerable balloon and gave himself, bcdy and soul, to the theory of " heavier than air " — that is to say, to a class of machine that does not lely upon a gas-bag to keep it suspended like Mahomet's coffin, midway 'twixt earth and heaven I asked him, in a recent conversation, wh> he had deserted his old love. " Well," h said, ' ti.e dtngible may be quite right for war puiposes, but for real sport it is not speedy enough it is much too bulky in the air. You must have an aeiopkne for high speed. My machine, for the moment, is a large affair, but I shall reduce the size of the wings in future constructions, until they will not measure more than three or foui feet m lengUi, ■•vith a width of two feet. The groat point m ae~o planing is to secure speed. ' Faster and faster " is. the cry. I have a wonderful motor, which I am fitting to my ' Bird of Prey.' This is the machine in which I have made all my experiments. The new motor weighs only 225 lbs , and develops 100 h.p. the lightest per horse-power ever made " Santos Dumont is a man of immense enthusiasm You feel that when you talk to him, and you are sure of it when you know he is asking his neck every day in the cause of aenal science, and is sacrificing youth and foitune to the same winged goddess.' " And so speed is everything in dealing the clouds ?" I said " Yes, undoubtedly Speed enables you to weather the tempest Supposing you are travelling at the rate of sixty miles an hour in the air — and I believe that m two years' time that speed will be perfectly possible— then you must be in a veritable hurricane to be senously affected. It is not often, in Europe at least, that the velocity of the wind sui passes sixty miles an hour. Of course there are different currents in the air — waves of air — some travelling much faster than others. A bird's wing accustoms itself, automatically, to these varying currents in the medium it is my business to learn that art. lam serving my apprenticeship to the metier de l'ois r au, observed the aeronaut, very happily The steering of the machine is half the battle. That is the subject to which Mr. Santos Dumont is now particularly attending. Asked :—": — " And the descent, is it not of great difficulty ? " " Oh, no," said M. Santos Dumont. "On the day when I made my first flight at Bagatelle, I descended ten times, and only had a slight accident on the last occasion, owing to having to descend suddenly to avoid crushing the people who were walking beneath me The machine glides down and touches the ground so softly that I haidly know when I come to earth I feel no shock " I am confident of the future of aeroplanes. Consider how inexpensive they are and how comparatively easy to make ; I constructed mine in a few months. The cost has been =hght in comparison with a steerable balloon, and is much less than an automobile." " But the danger is greater ? " " I fail to see that. On the contrary it seems to me that motoring on land provides a more fruitful source of accident than motoring in the air. At least, the risk of collision is lcr c ," mr 1 the aeronaut laughed gaily.

THE PROPELLER IN AERONAUTICS. The screw piopeller has long been familiar to engineers, for marine propulsion. Nor was it long before the aeronauts applied it to the wants of the dingable balloon Archdeacon was the first, however, who applied it to the motor cycle at a speed of over 50 miles an hour He was confident when he began to experiment that the screw propeller could give in the air a much better account of itself than it had done hitherto, sufficiently good to stand comparison with other methods of propulsion. His experiment therefore was only for the purpose of ascertaining the comparative values of different propellers, so as to find the best form and to be able to adjust the blades at the proper angle. The first experiment came off m Paris under the auspices of the Automobile Club. He produced at the start a motor c> cle with a shaft running its whole length and projecting far m fiont At the end was an enormous propeller, its great blades boldly curved, evidently for diagging the machine behind it at a pace to be presently determined In the centre of the machine was a cooled-air motor of some six horse-power. Two pullers and a belt, and the thing was complete Ihe famous Italian cyclist Angani, mounting, brought up the weight to 335 lbs , and started the motor gently , the machine moved forward quietly , speed was increased by quick steps, and almost at once the machine new over a measuied kilometre at the rate of 49 8 miles an hour The propeller blades were perforated and covered with gold-beater skin. The exhibition was given on the 12th of September last.