Abstract
THIS book is a reissue of a series of twenty-seven articles which appeared in The Railroad and Engineering Journal (now re-designated as The American Engineer) of New York City. It gives a very complete account of the many experiments that have been performed by various experimenters with details of the machines used, and clear reasons why so many of them have failed. After a short statement of general principles the author describes the machines in which wings and parachutes were used; then those in which screws were used to lift and to propel. The author believes that the true function of aerial screws is to propel and not to lift (page 72); but Lord Kelvin, in the discussion on aerial navigation at the British Association in Oxford, last August, stated his belief in screws working round a vertical axis for the latter purpose. The greater part of the book is devoted to a description and discussion of aeroplanes. The whole subject of aerial navigation resolves itself into ten problems or conditions:
Progress in Flying Machines.
By O. Chanute. (London: Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., 1894.)
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Our Book Shelf. Nature 50, 569 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/050569a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/050569a0