Show I A FLYI > G MACHttE SOME nnASjNS IVHV IT is m rossn LE TO MAKE aXE Wcmuit admit tnt a bird is an incomparable model of a fljlng machine No machine that we may hop to des for tlie same weight of machine ue and directing brain is half so eflcctive And yet this machine thus perfected through infinite ages by a rulhless pro cess of natual selection reaches Its limit I of weight atabout fifty pounds I said weight of machine fuel anil directing brain Here I anotbei prodigious advantage of the natural over tlie artificial machine The directing engineer In the former thu bnin is perhaps an ounce In thelatter lll is 150 noTg jO of the flying animal Is fifty pounds The smallest possible v eight of a flj Ing machine wIt the necessary fuel and even without Cue ald engineer eel wihout freight or passengers could not be less than 300 or 40 jiounds Now to complete the argument put these t Wl three indloputablu ficts together FIr t There is a low limit of weight certainly not much liejond 50 poundsboj ond which I is Impossible for an animal to fly Nature has reached Ita limits and with her utmost ut-most effort his failed I to paxs It Second 11sSf ond rot animal machine is far moreellecthe than any we may hope to make therefore the limit 1 tth VCre Fl of the weight of a successful flying machine cannot bo more than fifty pounds ThiN tlc tl-c ht DC any Ichlnn con trcL for lljIng including feul and en Cimer cimiotbcless thin 300 or O I > und IN it not demonstrated that a true flying machine self raising elf sustaining selfpropelling Is ht > I JloiiUiy calli impossible 1upular Science I |