FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1911
1911 - 0396.PDF
ipum MAY 6, 19x1. ADDITIONS TO OUR LIBRARY. " THE AEROPLANE, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE." By Claude Grahame-White and Harry Harper. Published by T. Werner Laurie at 15^. It is to be hoped that Mr. Harry Harper will obtain the reward that he deserves for the painstaking way in which he has compiled the book that has been issued by Mr. Claude Grahame-White and himself. It is a singularly interesting collection of chapters, all the more so because most of them have been written by different authors. Mr. Claude Grahame-White himself contributes a brief section on the fascination of flying. Mr. C. G. Grunhold provides a most attractive series of word pictures describing his recollections of early historical flights, and among other writers are Colonel Capper, M. Louis Paulhan, M. Louis Bleriot, and Messrs. Howard T. Wright, Henry Farman, Roger Wallace, G. Holt Thomas, C. G. Grey, Mervyn O'Gorman, S. F. Cody, and F. K. McClean. It is, as we have said, an interesting collection of authors and individual preference of readers for any particular section will doubtless vary widely. For our own part we have found nothing that is better reading than the views of the late Mr. Cecil S. Grace as put into writing by Mr. Harry Harper following a conversation that took place between them in the Lord Warden Hotel at Dover just before the fatal journey. It is impossible to resist a feeling of sadness in recalling the name of one who showed so much promise, and, indeed, if the book in which his last remarks have thus been so fittingly made public has a fault at all, it is the somewhat unfortunate prominence that has been given to the chapter of death. Mr. Harper has meant well in reviewing aeroplane fatalities in the light of such evidence as may exist for the purpose of guiding others in avoiding the faults of those who have gone before. The author has done his work well, too, but the unpleasant fact still remains that there are fifty pages or so all about accidents, and that little paragraph introducing this section, which says so strikingly that "from February 17th, 1908, to February 9th, 1911, during slightly more than two years of entirely experimental work, there have been thirty-four aeroplane fatalities." During this period appreciably more than 1,000 men have learned to fly, is apt to be forgotten by the time one has arrived at the thirty-fourth. For the rest the book should contain something to attract and please all interested in flight. It is particularly well illustrated and is a work that should be bought and read at once. " ENCYCI.OP.ED1A BRITANNICA." Eleventh Edition. Aeronautics and Flight. Published by Cambridge University Press. A very great deal has already been published throughout the general Press about this latest edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," with its india paper and flexible leather binding, but as yet little has been said concerning the contents of this stupendous work, and, after all said and done, india paper and leather covers are no commensurate return in themselves for an outlay that runs into something between twenty and forty sovereigns according to quality of paper and of binding. It is. of course, impossible for any one person to give anything like a comprehensive idea of the utility of so vast a work of reference, which is about the best of its kind that has ever been produced, so it is with all the greater willingness that we comply with the Editor's request and confine our atten tions to the sections devoted to Aeronautics and Flight, in which we have a particular interest. To confess that we are disappointed with the articles in question is to express but mildly our astonishment at the inadequate treatment these two subjects have received. In no encyclopaedia, of course, can aeronautics and flight, taken separately, very well make more than two sections out of many thousands ; but that valuation seems precisely to sum up the full significance of the most epoch-making develop ment of modern times in the eyes of the Editor of the eleventh edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." When J. W. L. Glaisher contributed his article on aeronautics to the ninth edition of this work, which was published in 1875-1889, and when J. Bell Pettigrew wrote for the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " an article dealing with the science of flight, the navigation of the air was in an utterly different state to what it is to-day. And yet, forsooth, the Editor of this sup posedly up-to-date eleventh edition, in his note on this particular subject, says that " So far as aerial transport is a reality, it is discussed in ' Aeronautics ' and ' Flight and Flying,' " while he adds : " The former deals with balloons and dirigibles and is based, with additions, on the article by J. W. L. Glaisher in the ninth edition. The latter deals with the problems of flight (the late Prof. J. Bell Pettigrew) with 393 additions covering the modern development of machines heavier than air (aeroplane)." Well, so far as aerial transport is a reality, all we can sav is that the eleventh edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britanmca does it a singular injustice. Glaisher and Pettigrew were most able men in their time, and the author who re-arranged their articles " with additions " learned, let us hope, some thing in the process. It is all very interesting of its kind, too, only unfortunately most of it has been thoroughly done to death by every man who has ever put pen to paper in the interests of the subject, and who has resorted to the public library and to its encyclopaedia for inspiration. Even as an effort at sub-editing it is open to criticism, for among the gems is one to the effect that " the reader has only to imagine Figs. 8 and 9 cut out in paper to realise that extensive inert horizontal aeroplanes in a flying machine would be a mistake." And, in order to avoid misunderstanding, a footnote explains •" by the term aeroplane is meant a thin, light, and expanded structure, inclined at a slight upward angle to the horizon, intended to float or rest upon the air and calculated to afford a certain amount of support to any body attached to it." "Calculated to afford a certain amount of support" is rather delightful when one comes to imagine the timid passenger of to-day invited to experience a flight in one of these "mistaken" machines inquiring if the calculated support will be enough for two. But, joking apart, it is seriously to be deplored that such an article should appear at the present time in such a professedly reliable compilation as the eleventh edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," which has received the additional distinction of being issued under the aegis of the University of Cambridge. As to the so-called " additions " these comprise mostly a few half-page photographs of aeroplanes and dirigibles in flight. The text of the article on " Aeronautics " manages to take things up to the year 1908, when the Zeppelin was- burned at Echterdingen. In the "Flight and Flying" article success has been achieved in squeezing in an extra year, but in any case the period from Lilienthal onwards- occupies about two pages out of about sixteen—and this in view of all that has been learnt and done since the Wright Brothers came over to Europe. " BIRD FLIGHT AS THE BASIS OF AVIATION." By Ottc- Lilienthal. Translated from the second edition by A. W. Isenthal, and published by Longmans Green at gs. The practical art of flying was born when Otto Lilienthal con ceived the idea of gliding. This he did as the result of his observa tions of birds, for having watched bird flight he saw very clearly that notwithstanding their obvious muscular exertion at times, much of the aerial navigation that they accomplish is obtained without the expenditure of lheir own energy. Otto Lilienthal was born in Pomerania in 1848, and developed an interest in flight at the early age of thirteen, his initial experiments being carried out at school with the aid of his brother Gustavus. After the Fianco-Prussian War of 1870, Otto Lilienthal resumed his researches in the light of a more matured mind, and realising that his past failures were largely due to an incomplete study of first principles, he set himself the task of scientifically observing the anatomy and behaviour of birds. In 1889 he published his first pamphlet, under the title of " Bird Flight as ihe Basis of Aviation," and it is the second edition of this work that has at last been rendered into English. Those in England who respect with more than superficial legard the labours of the fathers of aviation will hurry to'secure this useful memento of one whom many consider, with some reason, to be the greatest of all pioneers. But, apart from these, the sterling merit of the book itself will attract many other readers now that it has been so ably translated ; a ready distribution of the present edition should result. "THE GYROSCOPE." By V. E. Johnson, M.A. Published by E. and F. N. Spon, at 3s. 6d. So much has been said about gyroscopic control of aeroplanes and the gyroscopic force of rotary motors that it behoves every student of flight to be really familiar with the gyroscope itself. There is no better way of doing this than bv purchasing a gyroscopic top, which may be bought for is., but on which the sum of 10s. or more may be spent with advantage. Having obtained the top, quite the next best thing to do is to buy this little book of Mr. Johnson's, for therein the reader will learn how to conduct a series of interesting experiments, all < f which will lead him to a more precise-acquaint ance with the fascinating and wonderful ways of this perfectly- natural, although little understood, phenomenon.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
