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“When will man cease to crawl in the depths to live in the azure and quiet of the sky?”
To this question of Camille Flammarion’s the answer is easy. It will be when the progress of mechanics has enabled us to solve the problem of aviation. And in a few years—as we can foresee—a more practical utilization of electricity will do much towards that solution.
In 1783, before the Montgolfier brothers had built their fire-balloon, and Charles, the physician, had devised his first aerostat, a few adventurous spirits had dreamt of the conquest of space by mechanical means. The first inventors did not think of apparatus lighter than air, for that the science of their time did not allow them to imagine. It was to contrivances heavier than air, to flying machines in imitation of the birds, that they trusted to realize aerial locomotion.
This was exactly what had been done by that madman Icarus, the son of Daedalus, whose wings, fixed together with wax, had melted as they approached the sun.
But without going back to mythological times, without dwelling
on Archytas of Tarentum, we find, in the works of Dante of Perugia,
of Leonardo da Vinci and Guidotti, the idea of machines made to
move through the air. Two centuries and a half afterwards inventors
began to multiply. In 1742 the Marquis de Bacqueville designed a
system of wings, tried it over the Seine, and fell and broke his
arm. In 1768 Paucton conceived the idea of an apparatus with two
screws, suspensive and propulsive. In 1781 Meerwein, the architect
of the Prince of Baden, built an orthopteric machine, and protested
against the tendency of the aerostats which had just been invented.
In 1784 Launoy and Bienvenu had maneuvered a helicopter worked by
springs. In 1808 there were the attempts at flight by the Austrian
Jacques Degen. In 1810 came the pamphlet by Denian of Nantes, in
which the principles of “heavier than air” are laid
down. From 1811 to 1840 came the inventions and researches of
Derblinger, Vigual, Sarti, Dubochet, and Cagniard de Latour. In
1842 we have the Englishman Henson, with his system of inclined
planes and screws worked by steam. In 1845 came Cossus and his
ascensional screws. In 1847 came Camille Vert and his helicopter
made of birds’ wings. in 1852 came Letur with his system of
guidable parachutes, whose trial cost him his life; and in the same
year came Michel Loup with his plan of gliding through the air on
four revolving wings. In 1853 came Béléguic and his aeroplane with
the traction screws, Vaussin-Chardannes with his guidable kite, and
George Cauley with his flying machines driven by gas. From 1854 to
1863 appeared Joseph Pline with several patents for aerial systems.
Bréant, Carlingford, Le Bris, Du Temple, Bright, whose ascensional
screws were left-handed; Smythies, Panafieu, Crosnier, &c. At
length, in 1863, thanks to the efforts of Nadar, a society of
“heavier than air” was (...)
(......)
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