Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AERO- NAUTICS. With the swift passage of time, new inventions and new sciences unfailingly creep into our lives, some perhaps un- seen and unnoticed for a time but grad- ually the best and truest fight their way to the front. Among the foremost of our new sciences is that of aeronautics. It was in the middle of the eighteenth century that men began to experiment with the science of fight in the air. Perhaps be- cause of their close observation of na- tural life it was first proposed that wings be strapped to the flyer. This idea soon proved itself impracticable, for it was found that man vas not powerful enough to propel himself through space. We are all familiar with the legendary failure of Darius Green. Then, probably through the results gained by the experiments of Henry Cavendish in 1776, proving hydrogen gas seven times lighter than air : and of Tiberius Cavallo in using this new gas to raise soap bubbles, Joseph and Stephen Montgolfier, managers of the paper works at Annonay, France, utiliz- ing the theory of the suspension of the clouds and the ascent of smoke, suc- ceeded in raising a balloon filled with rarefied air, generated by the burning of moist straw, wool, and rags below the mouth of the gas container. This feat set Paris in an uproar and the Mont- golfiers were allowed to demonstrate the capability of their invention before the King of France in court at Ver- sailles, in September, 1783. Strangely enough the brothers did not have the confidence in their invention to make the ascent themselves but sent up sheep and ducks in the carriage of the balloon. Soon after this ascension Professor J. A. Charles, a teacher of National Philosophy in Paris, rose from Champs de Mars in a hydrogen gas balloon at a rate of 3,000 feet in two minutes and fell in three quarters of a hour some fifteen miles from Paris. There is a somewhat interesting story connected with the journey of Professor Charles’s balloon. Of course it was sent up with- out a human occupant; so when the craft landed in the field of a peasant, immediately the whole neighborhood was aroused and flocked to see this strange monster of another world, as they thought. They did not quite dare a ' proach the thing, however, and for some hours stood at a distance to ob- serve it. Then one of the men, a little bolder than the rest, crept up to the bal- loon and fired at the gas bag with his shot gun. The bag began to collapse and the crowd rushed at it with their pitchforks and scythes. The remains of the balloon were tied to a horse and dragged over the surrounding country. After that experience the King issued an order to prevent such a thing’s hap- pening again and had the nature of the strange craft explained to the people. These balloons of the Montgolfiers and Charles represent two principles of elevating power: one, the rarefication of common air by heat; and the other, the use of a gas lighter than air which would be almost continously buoyant. The fire balloons of the Montgolfiers gave way to the gas type in time and coal gas was introduced for although its bouyancy was not as great as hy- drogen yet it was far cheaper to gener- ate. An attempt to combine these two types in order to obtain the power of in- creasing or diminishing the weight of the apparatus at will without unusual expenditure of gas was made by Pilatre de Rosier. On June 15, 1785, he at-

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tempted to cross the English Channel in a balloon of this combination type, but although the theory was correct the application was in error for the dis- tention of gas in elevation forced the contents of the bag into the carriage and when it reached the fire that gener- ated the rarefied air it ignited and burned the balloon causing the death of the inventor. The history of the balloon from that time on is a record of flights, distances, time, and height, for very little change has been made in the form or theory of the invention. True some few improve- ments have been added, as the ripping panel to aid in a quick assent and the drag rope to steady the elevation of the balloon. Perhaps the first time a balloon was employed by an army was during the French Revolution when it found a place as an observing agency. In al- most every war since, we find the bal- loon holding its own. While speaking of v ar it might be well to touch on the dirigible type since that word in con- nection with balloons will probably be more familiar to you. We must remem- ber that dirigibles as perfect and effi- cient as the German Zeppelin of the late war were the result of countless ex- periments. This will be more clearly seen by following through the develop- ment of that type of air craft. At first oars were used to propel the dirigible but it was found that there was not enough power in this method so in 1852 a small steam engine weigh- ing one hundred fifty four pounds to the horsepower was introduced by Henri Gifford. It was not successful, however, and in 1870, during the siege of Paris we find the hand propelled machine in use again. It was not until 1883 and 1884 that Tessandier suc- ceeded in raising a dirigible with an electric motor. After a number of methods were tried, one with the propeller in front which made fourteen miles an hour; another, with a cigar shaped balloon driven by a gas motor which was wrecked by an explosion, and still an- other having an aluminum frame which was damaged beyond repair, the theory of light, powerful sources of propul- sion developed and motors of incred- ible power and lightness resulted. Beside the lighter than air crafts we have another branch of aeronautics dealing with heavier than air type, the airplanes. Europe took the lead early in the development of this new craft but in 1900 the scene shifted to the United States, when the Wright bro- thers ccmpleted a plane and after two years of experimenting in Ohio and on the planes of Kitty Hawk N. C. made their first public flight in 1908. In Sep- tember of that year Orville Wright made a duration flight at Washington, staying in the air a little over one hour. The next year, 1909, in July Jean Bleriot crossed the English Channel in a plane of his own invention, and in 1910 Charles Rolls made a trip from Dover, England to Calais, France and return, a distance of fifty miles. The two types of ships used by these early aviators were biplanes and mono- planes, the biplanes being the Wright brothers’ invention while the mono- plane is credited to Bleriot. Airplanes have developed since 1900 in countless ways. During the late war many new machines were built each one somewhat different and more perfect than the one before. When the American tractor biplane, N. C.-4, driven by four Liberty Motors, having a total of 1600 horsepower, at the average rate of eighty miles an 19