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DANZIG REPORT  -  -   G.P.S STUDY GROUP Nr. 59

Editor: John H. Bloecher Jr., 1743 Little Creek Drive, Baltimore, Md. 21207

From Samuel Langley to the Fourth Air Issue
This familiar view of the Frauengasse, made at the turn of the Century, reflects the era when a man named Langley was actively pursuing a fool’s errand. But first, look at a current event that also looks back to that time. The United States Postal Service has raised its rates again. (Remember when you wrote “City” after the street address and licked a 1-1/2 cent stamp for local delivery?) Col. Halle always claimed that they were entitled to the increases; after all, they had to charge for storage. For some reason, the domestic rate increased 3 cents, but the overseas air rate appears to have increased by only one. According to James Gasque, philatelic editor of the Baltimore Sun, the new U.S. Airmailstamp will be 45 cents, as opposed to the older 44-cent rate. A 36-cent air card was also unveiled on May 14th, commemorating the DC—3 aircraft. The intriguing part of the story involves Samuel Langley, born in 1834 in Roxbury, Mass. These are pre-aviation times, of course, but Langley worked as an architect and civil engineer thru the Midwest before settling into the U. S. Naval Academy faculty to teach math, in 1866. As a member of the faculty, he reorganized the observatory. From there, he moved to the Allegheny Observatory in Pennsylvania and began his study of the solar spectrum. It was here that he made experiments in “lift” and “drag”, which proved invaluable to aircraft builders such as the Wright brothers. These experiments involved only flat

 

Danzig Report  Nr. 59 - April - May - June - 1988, Page 1.