4 Amazing Stories of Man's Path to Flight

Listen to FOUR  great episodes of the terrific 1940s science history program, Adventures in Research... all dealing with man's fascination
with flight, and earliest attempts to fly. These are some great stories, told in delightful 15 minute episodes the whole family can enjoy! Take advantage of this great resource, and PLEASE
tell some homeschooling friends to check this out!


Details & download links for all four programs are at:  http://www.homeschoolradioshows.com

THE WAY OF AN EAGLE
 First up, we go on a whirlwind exploration through time to listen in on a bit of the history of man's quest to fly like the birds. 
Along the way, we encounter 

• ancient myths and legends
• oddball experiments with egg shells and morning dew
• "negative magnetism"
• homebuilt wings
• and other crazy ideas . . . . 

before eventually scientists eventually began sharing information and make some true scientific progress toward solving the puzzle of flight.

A PIECE OF SILK

 Next, the fascinating and harrowing story of a man who in 1797 tested his new, untested invention -- a silken parachute!  

He tested his new, untested silken parachute by falling 8,000 feet to the ground below! 

This is the story of Andre Garnerin, the man who perfected the first parachute. 

A great program! 

The illustration (to the left)  is a contemporary drawing of Garnerin's parachute.


 

THE BIRTH OF THE BALLOON
  Our next episode of Adventures in Research  travels back to the French countryside in 1782 where brothers Joseph & Jacques Montgolfier lie on the grass studying the clouds that drift lazily by above their heads. 

Their subsequent experiments lead them to the discovery of the hot air balloon... and man's first ascent into the skies! Another fascinating story! 

The illustration (to the right) is a contemporary engraving of the Montgolfier brothers' balloon... note the tiny figures in the basket at the bottom!


 

 

FREE AS A BIRD
This final episode of Adventures in Research shows us how the study of birds led men further toward the actual goal of flight... from the wings of an Albatross to Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896), an engineer from Anklam, Germany, who was one of the first humans to glide through the air. He became a pioneer of unpowered human flight by building and flying the world's first hang gliders. 


Lilienthal built several different types of gliders, and made around 5000 flights between 1891-1896. Using his gliders, he flew as high as 984 feet, and would sometimes stay in the air for up to five hours... before he came to a tragic end. The above illustration is a 'magic lantern' slide from the turn of the century depicting Lilienthal's 1895 flight. The photo at the top of this page is Lilienthal ready to take off in one of his gliders.

That's it for this time! "Tune in" and enjoy! Best Wishes,
The Erskine Family

Okay, here are the free download links for this week:
The Way of the Eagle
A Piece of Silk
The Birth of the Balloon
Free As A Bird

cross posted @
http://homeschoolingnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/03/four-amazing-stories-of-mans-path-to.html

and on Helpful History Notebook

Kate in Code

No. 2635
KATE IN CODE

by John H. Lienhard

Click here for audio of Episode 2635

Today, code for Kate. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
The past gives up its secrets only by dribs and drabs. You've heard me talk about old Century Magazines. They give tantalizing hints about our forebears' thinking; but we must fill in the blanks.
Example: One Charles Barnard gives a mysterious title to his 1875 short story. It's just a line of horizontal bars: Long-short-long, short-long, long, short. I finally Googled Morse Code and, sure enough, they spell, Kate. The subtitle (written in words) says, An Electro-Mechanical Romance. Telegraphy was the great new technology of those times.

Telephones would serve the next generation of Americans. But, for now, our lives were intertwined by telegraph lines. Most Americans would instantly have seen Barnard's title for what it was. Many would've understood what it said.

The story that follows is also odd. It's a literary piece that reads a bit like an extended technical manual. Barnard begins with the words, "She's a beauty." But his She is a locomotive, and he rhapsodizes: "A thing of grace and power, she seemed instinct with life as she paused upon her breathless flight."

Then we meet Kate. She's a telegraph operator at the railroad station. She comes out each day to wave at the locomotive's engineer, John. He sees her, then turns back to his engine. And Barnard's words now seem positively R-rated:

The steam-gauge trembles at 120^o, and quickly rises to 125^o. The vast engine trembles and throbs as it leaps forward.

Eventually, Kate teaches John to signal his coming by sounding her name in Morse Code on the train whistle. Each day, for a while, she hears that Morse tattoo, runs out to meet the train, climbs aboard -- and rides into the station with him.

But they fear their secret will be found out. So Kate contrives a new means for John to announce his arrival. She invents a trigger device by which the coming train can close a loop in a wire that she's strung out on the ground. It in turn will ring a bell in her office. This involves considerable inventive verve. She has to build her own battery using a pickle jar. But her system works.

Then, one evening the bell rings at the wrong time. John is headed for a collision and he doesn't know it. Kate finds a lantern, intercepts the train, and saves it. She and John are heroes and their story ends with this final flourish: "The winter's stars shone upon them, and the calm cold night seemed a paradise below."

Barnard was a prolific writer, pretty much forgotten today. He liked technology and he wrote engagingly. He reflected a world where new technologies of speed, power, and communication held our hearts. The past opens up to us for a moment when Barnard writes, "How perfect everything! ... From balanced throttle to air brake ... thirty-five tons of chained-up energy ... perfect expression of the highest mechanic art."

Cross Posted @ http://homeschoolingnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/09/kate-in-code.html
SOURCE: http://uh.edu/engines/epi2635.htm