Pat Naughtin asked in USMA 17873: >I am resending this message as I have just noted that Lord Kelvin's >suggestion of changing the spelling of mikron to mikrom includes a reference >to 'Langley, fourteen years ago', which implies a creation date for mikron >of about 1884. > >Who was Langley? I imagine that the dictionary writers would have tried to >trace Lord Kelvin's reference.
There was a scientist by the name of langley at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington who spent years making a thoroughly scientific study of the problem of flight. He got as far as getting an airplane airborne, but not in free flight because it was running along a guide wire. Two bicycle mechanics in Akron, Ohio, were interested in the problem. They had no university education, and worked in inches and binary fractions therof, but they had very sound instincts. They built a wind tunnel to test their model airplanes and determined the horsepower that they needed and what was the maximum weight they could accept. They could find no motor manufacturer who would attempt to meet their specifications, so they built the motor themselves. They realized that they needed three axis-control, which Langley did not. They took their airplane to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where there was a nice beach. They made they made the first free flight on December 17, 1903. The press was skeptical, but they had photographs to prove their claim. Joseph B.Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 TEL. 416-486-6071
