b15957913_0017_125


AERIAL NAVIGATION.
1sf. Patrice, an ingenious Frenchman, has just invented what Is termed a “System of Aerial Navigation,” by which he hopes to attain thee long-desired power of rendering the balloon subservient to our will. As yet, we have but the instrument it is necessary to know how to make use of it, is subdue it, Is direct it in feet, else ire shall continue to have nothing but a tOy upon our hands. Thus, then, is the problem to solve which many illustrious dreamers have dedicated their studious hours, without having as yet obtained the results for which they labour.
We gather from an interesting paper in snr Parisian contemporary, V illustration (whence lice accompanying Engraving has been copied), that “to attain hula end cenrage alone is net sufficient m 1st. Patio must inspire confidence, enforce eosvietisn, snake himself understood, in fact and in thus,” adds the writer, “we must do him time justice to say that lie has perfectly succeeded. Na one among these who leave been to heat hun at tluc Pelais National doubted as long as he opake as logical woe all that lee said, so strict were Ins dedurtimis, cc much teed the wings the appearance of propelling his mactune pest pusoue wstls his demonstration, Ituat if, at ttis termination of Ins tecture, lee had ttsomughf proper to state tital the Palate National was en immense aerial mactune, which hod been sailing in the clouds during the whole silting, none would leave boon surprised, and none would leave appeared afraid l Lot us endoaracmr, then, foltoning It. Pet in, te give to those of onr readers svbs have not heard him acm idea of the principle of hem invention, nt the same tune that we place before them time gigantic apparatus.”
lip to tIme present tinec, those who liars ssscglmt to direct balloons hum the air leave not property investigated natural laws tins appears paradoxical, and yet nothing is msre true. Let us explain. Sense leave studied the mechanism of the wings of a bird, and leave sought Ia apply it to tIme balloon etluero leave looked for their model in the depths of time ocean, and iriths them the solution of the problem has been in the construction of an immense sIlrial fish : but no one, tv our knowledge, has analysed the eammaes of tlee movement of the bird in the air ar of lice fish su thee water; no oeo hiss recognised, or, at least, set out with this principle, that bodies, asineate or inanimate, never move bot by the combination of the aetien of lice heavy body is ills the resistance of Use surrounding medium. Such is thee law whirls 1cm served Cf. Prim for his atartiog-point. But in order theat timers maybe motion, intelligence nenst direct the actions of the heavy body.
For locomotion, then, ire reqnire a lever acid a falerum, Let iso see how these are obtained in e0rial navigation. There are in phmyoies two oinsplo maetsinm—tlee lever and tlse inchned planes the lever, by useano of ms fulcrum conveniently placed, transmnita to nice extrensity force ivlsieh is exerted upon the other the inclined plane also transmits force, but diminiolem it. Behold, theen, in ticree words, flee whole system of if. Prim—thee lever, the fsslerscces, asmd tIcs inclined plane. lice fulcrum is everyis-leere in uatare—it is npomc the eartlc for man and terrestrial animals i it is in the water for fialses and, finally, it to
its thus air for birds m and the Creater, in Imia admirable fereaight, has given to each animal time form best adapted to tlce fulcrum whuicb must aid it in moving titus, to select our examples from ens eless of animate beings, a cock, is-hose foot rests npon the earth, ban the toes far apart s wists time dock, the toes arc united by a ncemhease whirls enables it to find a fulcrum in water t ased, finally, with Use bat, thieve is a large web, whirls, when spread out, supports it in the air. For ties balloon, it is scarcely necessary to tell our seeders chat its fcslcmm is in the air e aced we is-ill a-cplafn presently in what meaner lii. Polio cotabtiohes his lever cipon this fulcrum, so as to be able ts progress in lice atmosphere.
Nan’, wheat part does time inclined plane perform in nature? We have said that it transmits farce c we can conceive it at all incltoatiscss from horizonlat to vertical m and, according ta inelimcatian, the force whsiche it tim to Iraneinit intl act wtih different effect. A river runs upon an inclined plaue—it is rapid or slow, according to the inclination of its bed. If we wislc to ebtainu a powerful effect from it, ire conotruct a canal wields conveys it to a milh-wtmeat, and a u-hole manufactory is set lie matisus. Thus it is we are to usderofend that an inclined plane transmits force in lessening it : this same mass of water which would doshm iii a few secendo from a lsetght of lire or three yards, ivould take a considerable limos to reacts tics same level lower doivn, if it continued to run upen ties plane u-lcieh farmed tlse bed of flee river. Let us suppose a heavy body left to itself upoce an iuclsued plane in lIme first second of its fall it would ruin throegh a certain space; then thee motion would rsntinume iumereesiug t and usia rscte of nature is detned in mechanics thea s—The spores passed over are to each ether as the square of the periods emuplsyed iii passing ovar theom. It felloirs from tlcis, that as tong as a body is upon ass inclined plaice, its umotioo u-ill increase and it is only opon a hmorieontal plane hOist this motion ceo of mseccsnity be dimuinisteed or stepped.
If our rsodcrs lucre clearly comprehended wleat we hart sndeavoored to Rluatrals—Itse stat ore of flee los-er, tier fulcrum, and thee inclined plane—ohm- u-ill easily understand ivtmat we leave yet to say upon the adrial apparatus of It. Pet in.
All bsdise are heavy: they are enly called heavy sr light by comparison with a given mediuum, ‘thus, cork, ‘aisle-tm is Imsavy in relation mills air, will fall bnt bolug higtmt mu semparisen mnitlm -eater, it mill rise ho the surface The fulcrum is a farce contrary to tier actions of thee heavy body united in a fixed point upon time lever : hence it follows that thee fuicruiec of highut bodies is superior to the actions of the hecavy body, and thest for hmeavy bodies if is inferisr.
St. Petin has asuglet to giss to lila apperefus thus greatest possible power, while diminisising tIme rcaiotaumce lie lean to sicresms, Tisms resistance is time surrouuding medium—the sir, lie has given himself great power by eunptsying feur spherical balloons of immense voteme, Now, ice the sphere, capacity increases as this cube ef the radius, u-hue f lie scirface iucmerea,ses but as the square of flee radius. Thins, a balloon ivhichm shseucltt be ttcree tinses larger than another, would ossly presenc nhmss times greater surface, sa-Isllst it u-sold give a capacicy, or an aseensiosmal pen-er, tsu’etuty-sevsn tinces greater, hut. Pehicu Icas, shu’ays with the view of dimneishiag reousrance, placed hmis balloons ens bstuind thus slicer; and lue has armed the prow of his simip witlu a conical appendage, thmsf it may cleave this air snore easmty. His balleons, of u-leich each, says Ice, simouhmi leave the diameter of the Corn-Exchange of Paris—say 90 feet— are joined tegettuer by an iunuecsuss frauecms-ork, 182* yards tong by abeut 70* yards broad, npsn whichu the passengers n-ill be placed. In the middle af this vest machulue are fsuusd feor kinds of parachute, two above and two below the middle phone, which act mis