Stoneham High School - Wildlife Yearbook (Stoneham, MA)

Page 13 text:

HOCKEY TEAM, STONEHAM HIGH SCHOOL

Page 15 text:

THE STONEHAM HIGH SCHOOL AUTHENTIC of fl }t JWoplmte” •jdrestrm axfuell Who, was the first conquerer of the air? The man’s name is unknown to most people and does not really mat- ter, but it is interesting to know that as early as 1500 a Frenchman, Jean Dante by name, constructed a glider with which he made several successful flights. There followed a few unsuc- cessful attempts to make and fly glid- ers in which one man using a glider with movable wings, fell into the Seine Elver when his wings failed to act. Then came the theory, in 1809, on which all our modern aeroplanes are built. It seems remarkable that Sir George Cayley who had never seen a heavier-tlian-air machine fly, had the initiative and boldness to state that such a thing was possible and then pro- ceeded to tell how. But as usual the discovery of the great things of life is left to those who have the necessary attributes and are not afraid to tread where others have feared to go. In 1810 an Englishman gave the first 1 proof of Cayley’s theory when he built an aeroplane using a steam engine to furnish its motive power, a remarkable thing, since at the present time we would not think of an aeroplane with- out a gasoline engine. Following this, many men interested in flying investi- gated different problems of the aero- plane. Among them was a man who probably contributed more than any other individual toward its perfection. Samuel Langley, a professor at the Smithsonian Institute, was the first real scientist to study the aeroplane, and it was he who laid the scientific foundation for the heavier-than-air machine by first working out his ideas in a laboratory and subsequently ap- plying them to models, in which he also installed steam engines of his own design. One of these models flew a distance of about 3-4 of a mile and descended without being injured. It is important for us to remember that Langley was to the aeroplane what Fulton was to the steamboat, and Stephenson was to the locomotive. Langley later made a “man-carrying- areodrome” which was twice wrecked while being launched, and abandoned until 1915, when Glen Curtiss flew it successfully without making any changes in its construction. While Langley was experimenting, Hiram Maxim, who usually is associat- ed with guns and explosives, devised a machine which had a lifting power of 3000 pounds and in which was installed a steam engine of his own design -which delivered 360 horsepower. This ma- chine cost $100,000 to build, and when it was wrecked while would-be pilots were learning to operate it, Maxim dis- covered he did not have enough money to construct another model. In reviewing all these experiments, we are impressed with the fact that no aeroplane could be successful and carry the heavy cumbersome steam engine, at that time the only motive power. It remained for the gasoline engine to supply the light-weight source of pow- er that made the aeroplane possible. In the meantime Otto Lilienthal, a wealthy German, became interested in aeronautics. The first result was his motto, so true even today, “To contrive is nothing, to construct is something, to operate is everything,” and he be- gan operating at once. He designed a method of stabilizing the machine, in which he used his legs to good advan- tage in securing lateral control. It has been said that Lilienthal’s legs were of more help to the development of flying than his brains, and even his legs were insufficient for lateral control. Lilienthal’s experiments gave the Wright brothers much to think about. They decided that in order to produce a successful aeroplane it was necessary to construct one that would maintain three long years of heart breaking la- bor, during which they were almost discouraged by several failures, they at last attained the thing for which they had striven so long. On December 17, 1905, the Wright brothers using a bi- plane glider driven by a 16 horse pow- er gasoline motor, both of their own construction, made several successful flights. The last one, which was made by Orville, being recognized as the World’s first successful, sustained flight. He travelled 852 feet in the air, at a rate of about thirty miles an hour, for 59 seconds. Although this was a crude machine, little progress towards its perfection was made until the World War brought its demands. It seemed that overnight