Monsieur Nadar being, perhaps, the most zealous4 advocate of this machine, we draw our information chiefly from his writings. Of course the reader will understand that we do not support the views which we are about to set forth5; neither, however, do we treat them lightly, because we have lived long enough to see proposals which, not many years ago, would have been deemed worthy6 of the most visionary of lunatics, carried out to a successful issue and reduced to sober facts.
When we hear of a flying machine which is to rise from the earth at the bidding of man, and, like the fabulous7 creations in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainment, dart8 through the air with passengers and luggage bound for definite localities, turning hither and thither9, or alighting on the earth according to the will of a steersman—we confess to a feeling which is apt to wrinkle our visage with the smile of incredulity; but we sternly rebuke10 the smile, for we know that similar smiles wreathed the faces of exceedingly wise people when, in former days, it was proposed to drive ships and coaches by steam, and hold instantaneous converse11 with our friends across the Atlantic by means of electricity!
Let us therefore gravely consider the aerial locomotive.
Monsieur Nadar, as the reader already knows, scouts13 the idea of steering balloons.
In reference to this he states with truth that, “a balloon which presents to the action of the atmosphere a volume of from 22,000 to 42,000 (cubic) feet of a gas from ten to fifteen times lighter14 than air, is, by its very nature, smitten15 with incapacity to struggle against the slightest current, no matter what may be the resisting motive12 force which may be imparted to it. Both by its constitution, and by the medium which drives it hither and thither at the pleasure of the winds, it can never become a vessel16. It is a buoy17, and remains18 a buoy.”
Discarding, therefore, with contempt, the balloon as an aerial locomotive, he announces his belief that it is the screw which is destined19 to drive us, or clamber with us, into the blue vault20 above, and convey us from place to place. And here it is right to assure the reader that the theoretical power of the screw to accomplish the end in view is not a disputable question. It has been practically proved by models, and the only point that remains to be settled is the possibility of applying the power to machines large enough to carry human beings with a sufficient degree of safety to warrant risking the attempt.
Monsieur Nadar sets out with a statement which he deems self-evident, namely, that, “in order to contend against the air, we must be specifically heavier than the air”—a truth which was also, we are told, announced by the first Napoleon in the epigrammatic sentence, “There can be no progress without resistance.” From this the Frenchman proceeds to prove that, in order to command the air, it is necessary to support one’s-self upon it, instead of being at its mercy; that we can only rest upon that which resists, and that the air itself furnishes us amply with the needful resistance—it being “the same atmosphere which overturns walls, tears up by the root trees a century old, and enables ships to ascend21 impetuous currents.” Glowing with the ardour of a man whose faith is refreshingly22 great, he tells us that the time has at last come when the atmosphere must yield to man. “It is for man,” he says, “to restrain and subdue23 this insolent24 and abnormal rebellion, which has for so many years laughed at our vain efforts. We are in turn about to make it serve us as a slave, just as the water on which we launch the ship, as the solid earth on which we press the wheel!”
There is a toy called the spiralifer, which is common enough in towns, and which is, doubtless, known to almost every one. It consists of four flat fans attached to a spindle somewhat after the manner of the arms of a windmill. It is placed in a hollow tube and made to spin violently by pulling a string wound round the spindle. The result is that the spiralifer leaps out of the hollow tube and ascends25 powerfully as long as the violent spinning motion continues. If properly constructed, this toy acts with great force and certainty, and if the spinning motion could only be kept up, by any means, the ascent26 would be continued. The principal here involved is precisely27 the same as that which causes a windmill to turn, a screw-propeller to drive a ship, and a cork28-screw to enter a cork. It is pressure against a resisting medium. Air is the resisting medium in the case of the mill; water and cork respectively in the other cases. The only difference between the windmill and the spiralifer is, that the first is moved by the air pressing against it, the other by itself, in its rotatory action, pressing against the air. If you turn a bottle upside down, and, while in that position, send a cork-screw up into the cork, you set in motion the same force which is applied29 in the spiralifer. As the screw screws itself up into the cork, so the spiralifer screws itself up into the air. Of course the screw remains sticking there when the motive power ceases, because of the density30 of the medium through which it moves, while the spiralifer, when at rest, sinks, because of the fluidity of the air; but the principle of motion in each is the same. The screw-propeller of a ship is just a spiralifer placed horizontally, acting31 on water instead of air, and having a vessel placed in front of it.
Now, Monsieur Nadar’s aerial locomotive is a huge spiralifer, made strong enough to carry up a steam-engine which shall keep it perpetually spinning, and, therefore, perpetually ascending32. Perhaps we should have said that his locomotive is a huge machine to which several spiralifers are attached, so that while one set raises or (by reversing the engine) depresses it, other sets drive it sideways. The theory is perfect, and the practice has been successfully attempted in models. Messieurs Ponton d’Amécourt and de la Laudelle, we are told—“the one a man of the world, and the other a man of letters”—engaged the services of two skilled mechanics, Messieurs Joseph of Arras and J. Richard, who constructed models of machines which ascended33 the atmosphere, carrying their motive power (springs) along with them.
Besides horizontal screws, it is proposed to furnish additional guiding power to the locomotive by means of inclined planes. These, by being arranged in various positions, while the machine is in motion, would act on the air, as do the wings of a bird, and give it direction.
No doubt, despite the simplicity34 of all this, difficulties will present themselves to most minds, some of which may perhaps bulk very large in the minds of mechanicians—such as the power of materials to withstand the violence of the forces to which they are to be applied, etcetera. We do not know; however, no difficulties seem to have afflicted35 Monsieur Nadar, who thus grandly waives36 them all aside, and revels37 in the contemplation of the triumphant38 flights that lie before him in the future:—
“It will be understood,” he writes, “that it belongs not to us to determine at present either the mechanism39 or the necessary manoeuvres. Neither shall we attempt to fix even approximately the future velocity40 of the aerial locomotive. Let us rather attempt to calculate the probable velocity of a locomotive gliding41 through the air, without the possibility of running off the rails, without any oscillation, without the least obstacle. Let us fancy such locomotive encountering on its way, in the midst, one of those atmospheric42 currents which travel at the rate of forty leagues an hour, and following that current; add together these formidable data, and your imagination will recoil43 in adding still further to these giddy velocities44, that of a machine falling through an angle of descent of from 12,000 to 15,000 feet in a series of gigantic zigzags45, and making the tour of the globe in a succession of fantastic leaps.”
Truly Monsieur Nadar seems to us to be right! There are few men or women, we suspect, who would not recoil from such “fantastic leaps,” and unless the prospect46 of a more sedate47 style of travelling be held out, it is not probable that aerial locomotives will receive much patronage48 from the general public.
Lord Carlingford, who mistook the sentiments of Monsieur Nadar in regard to the aerial locomotive, claimed for himself, in 1863, the honour of having previously49 invented and successfully launched an aerial chariot, weighing seventeen stone, which rose on the air without any assistance but that of the wind, and, having arrived at a horizontal position on the air, it remained stationary50 there until pulled down.
Monsieur Nadar, at the conclusion of a courteous51 letter in reply to this claim, gives his intentions and opinions on the subject pretty clearly as follows:—
“In fine, and that there may be no possible mistake on the part of any one regarding what I am attempting, I desire to find the necessary resources for the constitution of a society, which shall be the centre of all hitherto isolated52 and therefore lost attempts to solve a question so profound, so vast, so complex that it does not seem to belong to a single individual to achieve it. I have my system, which I believe to be good, since it is mine; but I shall aid with all the strength of my will, and with all the energy of my perseverance53, every system which shall be proved to be better than mine. The question to me is not at all who may have determined54 the great problem; it is that the solution may be found at last. The fruit is ripe; I long to see it plucked, no matter by whom; and this is the sole cause of the agitation55 which I have endeavoured to call forth, and which I am now pursuing.”
A man who takes up a subject with such hearty56 enthusiasm, and in such a liberal spirit, is, we hold, entitled to the utmost respect. As we have, however, done our best to lay his case before the public, we feel entitled to express with all humility57 some of the doubts which have been suggested to our own mind while meditating58 on the subject.
No doubt the theory propounded59 is correct, and, as carried into practice with models, the aerial locomotive has been a great success. No doubt also it is pleasant to contemplate60 the possibility of traversing space like a bird, a meteor, or a comet, and the absolute impossibility of “getting off the rails;” but what, we would ask, would be the result of a hitch—ever so small—in the working of the steam-engine or of the spring motor?
If a railway engine breaks down, there are all sorts of chances of escape open to the traveller. The engine may not quit the rails, or it may bound off alone, snap the coupling chains and leave the carriages to run until they come to a gradual standstill; or, the concussion61 may be so modified that no serious injury may result; or, should it come to the worst, the traveller may be among the fortunate number who make “miraculous escapes.” But if a crank of an aerial machine should snap while it is careering through space, or even a screw get loose and cause a momentary62 stoppage of the motor, it is abundantly evident that escape from total and swift destruction would be “miraculous” indeed, for the whole affair would come to the ground like a thunderbolt, and “leave not a wrack63 behind!”
Probably it might be answered in reply that a parachute attached to the machine, or the inclined planes acting as a parachute, would moderate the descent. Well, there may be something in that; nevertheless, parachutes have not yet proved themselves to be very trustworthy,—and we are constrained64 to reiterate65 the fact, that while an accident causing the break-down of the motive power of a steamboat or a railway carriage does not necessarily involve fatal consequences, an accident which should stop the motive power in an aerial locomotive would almost to a certainty, result in a grand smash, which would involve machine and passengers in one inconceivable whirl of chaotic66 destruction.
Whether this machine shall ever be successfully completed or not, it is evident that it still engages the earnest attention of men, as we gather from the following paragraph recently published in the San Francisco Bulletin:—
“At a meeting of the Aerial Navigation Company, held on Friday, July 24, 1869, in San Francisco, it was voted to raise the necessary funds to construct an improved avitor of large size. The opinion of the engineers of the company was unanimous as to success so far, and the feasibility and success of the projected flying-ship. It will be about 150 feet in length, 20 to 40 feet diameter of the gasometer, with propelling blades on each side of the centre, describing a radius67 of about 16 feet. The propellers68 are shaped like a steamship’s, with two blades, each very light. They will be driven by a steam-engine of five-horse power, weighing, with boiler69 connections and water, 430 pounds weight. The planes on each side for floating the machine will be about twenty feet wide at the centre of the machine, and made in sections, so that they can be depressed70 or elevated at pleasure with the rudder or tail. The gasometer will be made in sections, so that in the event of accident to one section, the remainder will be sufficient for all practical purposes; indeed, it is claimed that the ship can fly through the air with such speed that the sustaining power of the planes alone will be sufficient to maintain the avitor in mid-air. The gasometer will be made, probably, of thin muslin or silk, saturated71 with gutta-percha. It is to carry four persons, and will be ready for trial in sixty or ninety days. The result of this experiment will be looked for with great interest all over the country.”
The Americans, with that vigour72 of conception and promptitude in action for which they are celebrated73, have done a good deal in the cause of aerostation; but, as their doings and experiences have been in many respects similar to those men whose voyages have been already recounted or touched upon, it would involve too much repetition to detail them here. Some of their attempts, however, have outshone those of the men of the eastern hemisphere. For instance, Mr J. Wise, a noted74 aeronaut, has several times exploded his balloons while in the air, to show that the fragments with net-work form a sort of parachute which moderates the descent. He also, with Mr La Mountain and others, accomplished75 in 1859 the longest flight on record, namely, 1150 miles in less than twenty hours; and the latter gentleman did 300 miles in four hours in the same year. Another American, Mr Lowe, made an enormous balloon, with which he resolved to cross the Atlantic in about 48 hours. We await the accomplishment76 of this feat77 with much solicitude78!
In conclusion, we may say that the subject of aerostation is still in its infancy79, and that we have still to learn how to conduct ourselves properly when—Up in the Clouds.
The End.
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1
supplant
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| vt.排挤；取代 | |
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2
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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16
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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buoy
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| n.浮标；救生圈；v.支持，鼓励 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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refreshingly
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| adv.清爽地，有精神地 | |
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subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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ascends
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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density
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| n.密集，密度，浓度 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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waives
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| v.宣布放弃( waive的第三人称单数 )；搁置；推迟；放弃（权利、要求等） | |
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revels
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| n.作乐( revel的名词复数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉v.作乐( revel的第三人称单数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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velocities
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| n.速度( velocity的名词复数 )；高速，快速 | |
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45
zigzags
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| n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 ) | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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sedate
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| adj.沉着的，镇静的，安静的 | |
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patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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49
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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50
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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51
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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52
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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53
perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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54
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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55
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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56
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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58
meditating
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| a.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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59
propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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61
concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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62
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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wrack
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| v.折磨；n.海草 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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reiterate
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| v.重申，反复地说 | |
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chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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radius
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| n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限 | |
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68
propellers
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器( propeller的名词复数 ) | |
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69
boiler
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| n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等) | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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71
saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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72
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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73
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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77
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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