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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0305.PDF
APRIL 6, 1912. curves, so that if possible both of these should be proportionately large. Then, as Mr. Handley Page pointed out in his paper last week before the Aeronautical Society, curves for the surfaces can be selected such that they are efficient at good-sized angles of incidence, and also through a fairly wide range on either side of this best value, also a little consideration will show that those machines having the elevator in front, i.e., the so-called " tail-first " machines, are not subject to this trouble. But in nearly every case the chief pre ventive must always be care on the part of the pilot. I should like (if I do not rob others of your valuable space by so doing) to add a few words in connection with M. Bleriot's interesting suggestion that one's own personal "factor of safety" should deter mine the constructional factor of safety of a machine. He says, " I feel certain that a man seated cannot resist a shock directed from beneath upwards of a magnitude greater than twice his own weight without being immediately upset." Now some few years ago I, among many thousands of others, on many occasions indulged in the sensation of "looping the loop "(at the Crystal Palace). In this case the centrifugal force on anyone at the top of tholoop is con siderably greater than his weight ; therefore, at the bottom the force acting on one is considerably over twice one's weight (if the loop is a perfect circle it is easily seen to be over six times). I have on some such occasions tried to analyse my feelings, but beyond feeling very ® ® THE WRIGHT PATE WITH reference to the action of the .German Patent Office in annulling the main claim of the Wright Patents, the following letter has been sent out by the Wright Brothers. " We are in receipt of information from Germany, regarding the recent action of the German Patent Office, nullifying the main claim of the Wright German patent. A letter from our attorney says :— " ' After the discussion of all these points, the Division took one hour and a half to deliberate, and then pronounced as their judgment that claim 1 should be annulled on the disclosure contained in /'Aeronaut, page 103, passage 5, in connection with Automotor, of February 15th, 1902, page 197, column 1, lines 2 t04- The full grounds were not verbally pronounced. It was said that they would be given in writing.' " The citation from VAeronaut is from a report of an address by Mr. Chanute before the Aero Club of France, in April, 1903, describing the experiments of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1902. The citation from the Automotor is a synopsis of the address of Mr. Wilbur Wright before the Western Society of Engineers in 1901, describing the experiments at Kitty Hawk in 1901. The statement of Mr. Chanute which is cited as a disclosure of the Wright invention was as follows : — " ' To assure transverse equilibrium, the operator works two cords, which warp the right and left wings, and at the same time adjust the vertical rear rudder.' [/ycHf] heavy, especially noticeable in the arms, I have not felt further discomfiture. Concerning M. Bleriot's report on the failure of monoplanes, which we published last week, there appears to have been some room for misinterpretation of the exact significance of the factors involved, particularly with reference to the influence of flight speed on the forces produced. The top pressure that comes u]x>n the plane through the checking of its momentum depends upon the rate at which the flight path is caused to change in direction, consequently the primary emphasis attaches to the brusqueness with which the pilot utilises his elevator in order to change altitude for the vol plant'. For a given brusqueness of elevator manipulation, the effective rate of change of direction, that is to say, the angular velocity of the machine, will depend on the absolute flight speed at the moment of the o)>eration. In other words, an abrupt use of the elevator might be quite safe on a slow speed machine, but very dangerous on a high speed machine, as events have proved ; conversely, a gentleness of control is itself a factor of safety when flying fast. The purpose of this paragraph, however, is to emphasise the fact that il is the angular velocity of the machine that is the important point in M. Bleriot's report. NTS IN GERMANY. " Under the laws of Germany and France, a disclosure of an invention by the inventors, or by anyone else, who lias knowledge of it, before the application for a paten! is filed, is sufficient to render the patent void. The disclosure musi be sufficient to enable anyone to understand how to build and use the invention. " The German Patent Office has taken the extreme position that these few words were sufficient to teach anyone how to build and operate a flying machine in 1903, and thai they have cancelled the right of the inventors to any property in their invention in Germany. The Wright brothers do not believe that this action of the Patent Office is based on a proper interpretation of the law, and will lake an appeal to a higher tribunal. " The address of Mr. Chanute, on which the German decision turned, was delivered about two weeks after the dale of the French application, and, therefore, could not be used against the Wright! in the French trial, which they won. The German application was not filed until after the date of this address by Mr. Chanute. " WRIGHT BROTHERS." The reference to our sister journal the Automotor—familiarly known as the Auto.—will recall to many of ovr readers the fact that the early doings of practical workers in the field of flight were fully recorded in those pages, until the foundation of FLIGHT as a separate journal in 1909, in spite of the fact that it was generally thought that no practical result would be forthcoming, and no other paper considered them worth devoting space to. The gale which swept the country on Friday and Saturday accounted for the demolition of the hangar sheltering Captitn E. W. Wakefield's two hydro-aeroplanes on Lake Windermere. In its collapse both machines were damaged, part of one of the planes being seen in our photograph of the wreckage protruding from the side. This Incident, we presume, will be regarded as a score in their favour by the anti-aeroplanists of Windermere. 305
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