Chapter III: Part 3

Langley's machine shown in fig. 46 was a working model, not intended
to carry passengers. In configuration the body-portion closely
resembled a mackerel. The backbone was a light but very rigid tube of
aluminium steel, 15 ft. in length, and a little more than 2 in. in
diameter. The engines were located in the portion of the framework
corresponding to the head of the fish; they weighed 60 oz. and
developed one horse-power. There were four boilers made of thin
hammered copper and weighing a little more than 7 lb. each; these
occupied the middle portion of the fish. The fuel used was refined
gasoline, and the extreme end of the tail of the fish was utilized for
a storage tank with a capacity of one quart. There were twin screw
propellers, which could be adjusted to different angles in practice,
to provide for steering, and made 1700 revolutions a minute. The
wings, or aeroplanes, four in number, consisted of light frames of
tubular aluminium steel covered with china silk. The pair in front
were 42 in. wide and 40 ft. from tip to tip. They could be adjusted at
different angles. The machine required to be dropped from a height, or
a preliminary forward impetus had to be given to it, before it could
be started. Fixity of all the parts was secured by a tubular mast
extending upwards and downwards through about the middle of the craft,
and from its extremities ran stays of aluminium wire to the tips of
the aeroplanes and the end of the tubular backbone. By this trussing
arrangement the whole structure was rendered exceedingly stiff.

In the larger aerodrome (fig. 47) the aeroplanes were concavo-convex,
narrow, greatly elongated and square at their free extremities, the
two propellers, which were comparatively very large, being placed
amidships, so to speak. At the first trial of this machine, on the 7th
of October 1903, just as it left the launching track it was jerked
violently down at the front (being caught, as subsequently appeared,
by the falling ways), and under the full power of its engine was
pulled into the water, carrying with it its engineer. When the
aerodrome rose to the surface, it was found that while the front
sustaining surfaces had been broken by their impact with the water,
yet the rear ones were comparatively uninjured. At the second and last
attempt, on the 8th of December 1903, another disaster, again due to
the launching ways, occurred as the machine was leaving the track.
This time the back part of the machine, in some way still unexplained,
was caught by a portion of the launching car, which caused the rear
sustaining surface to break, leaving the rear entirely without support
and it came down almost vertically into the water. Darkness had come
before the engineer, who had been in extreme danger, could aid in the
recovery of the aerodrome. The boat and machine had drifted apart, and
one of the tugs in its zeal to render assistance had fastened a rope
to the frame of the machine in the reverse position from what it
should have been attached, and had broken the frame entirely in two.
Owing to lack of funds further trials were abandoned (see _Annual
Report of the Smithsonian Institution_, 1904, p. 122).

Sir Hiram S. Maxim, like Langley, employed a staff of highly skilled
workmen. His machine (fig. 48) consisted of a platform, on which stood
a large water-tube boiler, a number of concavo-convex aeroplanes
arranged in tiers like shelves, each making a slight upward angle with
the horizon, two very large vertical screws placed aft and propelled
by steam engines, tanks for the storage of water, naphtha, &c. The
boiler was especially noteworthy. The water was contained in about
2000 bent copper tubes, only 3/8 in. in external diameter, heated by
over 7000 gas jets arranged in rows. The fuel was naphtha or gasoline.
Steam could be got up in the short space of half a minute. The
steam-generating appliances, which weighed only 1000 lb. in all, were
placed in the front of the machine. The motive power was provided by a
pair of two-cylinder, compound engines, poised about 8 ft. from the
ground, and about 6 ft. apart. Each of them was independently
governed, and furnished together 363 horse-power in actual effect, an
amount which, considering that their total weight was only 600 lb.,
gave the extraordinary efficiency of over 1 horse-power for every 2
lb. weight. The high and the low pressure cylinders were 5 and 8 in.
in diameter respectively, and the stroke was 12 in. When going at full
speed these engines conferred 425 revolutions per minute on the two
gigantic propellers that drove the machine along. These were in
appearance like two-bladed marine propellers except that they were
square instead of rounded at the ends, and were broad and thin. They
were built from overlapping strips of American pine, planed smooth and
covered with glued canvas. They weighed 135 lb. each, the length of
each blade being close upon 9 ft. and the width at the ends 5-1/2 ft.
The pitch was 16 ft. They were carefully stayed by steel wires to
their shafts, or the first revolution would have snapped them off
short. The material of which the framework was built was thin steel
tubing, exceedingly light. All the wires and ties were of the best
steel, capable of standing a strain of 100 tons to the square inch.
The body of the machine was oblong in shape, with the fore-part cut
away like a water-chute boat, and a long counter at the stern over
which the propellers revolved. It had canvas stretched all over it.
High overhead, like a gigantic awning, was the slightly concavo-convex
main aeroplane, tilted towards the front at an imperceptible angle,
and stretched taut. Its area was 1400 sq. ft., increased by side wings
to 2700 sq. ft. There were also side aeroplanes arranged in tiers, and
large aeroplanes in front, which were pivoted and served for vertical
steering. The machine was strengthened in every direction by vertical
and other supports and securely wired together at all points. It was
furnished with four strong flanged wheels and ran along a light
broad-gauge (9 ft.) railway track, 1800 ft. long, in the hope that
when the speed reached a certain point it would leave the rails, but
it was prevented from rising more than an inch or so by four arms, or
outriggers, furnished with wheels, which projected from its sides and
ran under an inverted wooden upper or safety track outside the railway
track proper.

At a trial carried out in 1894 at Bexley, Kent, only the main
aeroplane, the fore and aft rudders, and the top and bottom side
planes were in position. After everything had been got in readiness,
careful observers were stationed along the track, and the machine was
connected to a dynamometer. The engines were then started and the pump
set so as to deliver over 5000 lb. of water per hour into the boiler.
The gas was then carefully turned on until the pressure amounted to
310 lb. per sq. in., and the dynamometer showed a thrust of more than
2100 lb. A small safety-valve placed in the steam pipe had been
adjusted so as to blow off slightly at 310 lb. and with a strong blast
at 320 lb. The signal being given to let go, the machine darted
forward at a terrific pace, and the safety-valve ceased to blow. More
gas was instantly turned on, and before the machine had advanced 300
ft., the steam had mounted to 320 lb. per sq. in., and the
safety-valve was blowing off a steady blast. When the machine had
travelled only a few hundred feet, all four of the small outrigger
wheels were fully engaged, which showed that the machine was lifting
at least 8000 lb. The speed rapidly increased until when the machine
had run about 900 ft. one of the rear axletrees, which were of 2 in.
steel tubing, doubled up and set the rear end of the machine
completely free. When the machine had travelled about 1000 ft., the
left-hand forward wheel became disengaged from the safety track, and
shortly after this the right-hand wheel broke the upper track--3 in.
by 9 in. Georgia pine--and a plank became entangled in the framework
of the machine. Steam had already been shut off, and the machine
coming to rest fell directly to the ground, all four of its wheels
sinking deeply into the turf without leaving other marks. Before
making this run the wheels which were to engage the upper track were
painted, and the paint left by them on the upper track indicated the
exact point where the machine lifted. The area of the aeroplanes was
very nearly 4000 sq. ft. and the total lifting effect was fully 10,000
lb. The planes therefore lifted 2.5 lb. per sq. ft., and 5 lb. for
each pound thrust. Nearly half of the power of the engines was lost in
the screw slip. This showed that the diameter of the screws was not
great enough; it should have been at least 22 ft.

In 1897 M.C. Ader, who had already tested, with indifferent results, two full-sized flying machines, built a third apparatus with funds furnished by the French government. This reproduced the structure of a bird with almost servile imitation, save that traction was obtained by two screw-propellers. The steam engine weighed about 7 lb. per horse-power, but the equilibrium of the apparatus was defective.

Largely with the view of studying the problem of maintaining equilibrium, several experimenters, including Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher and Octave Chanute, cultivated gliding flight by means of aeroplanes capable of sustaining a man. They depended mainly on the utilization of natural air currents, trusting for stability and balance to movements in their own bodies, or in portions of their machines which they could control. They threw themselves from natural or artificial elevations, or, facing the wind, they ran or were dragged forwards against it until they got under way and the wind caught hold of their aeroplanes. To Lilienthal in Germany belongs the double credit of demonstrating the superiority of arched over flat surfaces, and of reducing gliding flight to regular practice. He made over 2000 glides safely, using gravity as his motive power, with concave, batlike wings, in some cases with superposed surfaces (fig. 49). It was with a machine of the latter type that he was upset by a sudden gust of wind and killed in 1896. Pilcher in England improved somewhat on Lilienthal's apparatus, but used the same general method of restoring the balance, when endangered, by shifting the weight of the operator's body. He too made several hundred glides in safety, but finally was thrown over by a gust of wind and killed in 1899. Chanute in America confined his endeavours to the production of automatic stability, and made the surfaces movable instead of the man. He used several different forms of apparatus, including one with five superposed pairs of wings and a tail (fig. 50) and another with two continuous aeroplanes, one above the other (fig. 51). He made over 1000 glides without accident.

Similar experiments were meanwhile conducted by Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, in whose hands the glider developed into a successful flying machine. These investigators began their work in 1900, and at an early stage introduced two characteristic features--a horizontal rudder in front for steering in the vertical plane, and the flexing or bending of the ends of the main supporting aeroplanes as a means of maintaining the structure in proper balance. Their machines to begin with were merely gliders, the operator lying upon them in a horizontal, position, but in 1903 a petrol motor was added, and a flight lasting 59 seconds was performed. In 1905 they made forty-five flights, in the longest of which they remained in the air for half an hour and covered a distance of 24-1/2 m. The utmost secrecy, however, was maintained concerning their experiments, and in consequence their achievements were regarded at the time with doubt and suspicion, and it was hardly realized that their success would reach the point later achieved.

Thanks, however, to the efforts of automobile engineers, great improvements were now being effected in the petrol engine, and, although the certainty and trustworthiness of its action still left something to be desired, it provided the designers of flying machines with what they had long been looking for--a motor very powerful in proportion to its weight. Largely in consequence of this progress, and partly no doubt owing to the stimulus given by the activity of builders of dirigible balloons, the construction of motor-driven aeroplanes began to attract a number of workers, especially in France. In 1906 A. Santos Dumont, after a number of successful experiments with dirigible cigar-shaped gas balloons, completed an aeroplane flying machine. It consisted of the following parts:--(a) A system of aeroplanes arranged like the capital letter T at a certain upward angle to the horizon and bearing a general resemblance to box kites; (b) a pair of very light propellers driven at a high speed; and (c) an exceedingly light and powerful petrol engine. The driver occupied a position in the centre of the arrangement, which is shown in fig. 52. The machine was furnished with two wheels and vertical supports which depended from the anterior parts of the aeroplanes and supported it when it touched the ground on either side. With this apparatus he traversed on the 12th of November 1906 a distance of 220 metres in 21 seconds.

About a year later Henry Farman made several short flights on a machine of the biplane type, consisting of two main supporting surfaces one above the other, with a box-shaped vertical rudder behind and two small balancing aeroplanes in front. The engine was an eight-cylinder Antoinette petrol motor, developing 49 horse-power at 1100 revolutions a minute, and driving directly a single metal screw propeller. On the 27th of October 1906 he flew a distance of nearly half a mile at Issy-les-Molineaux, and on the 13th of January 1908 he made a circular flight of one kilometre, thereby winning the Deutsch-Archdeacon prize of L2000. In March he remained in the air for 3-1/2 minutes, covering a distance of 1-1/4 m.; but in the following month a rival, Leon Delagrange, using a machine of the same type and constructed by the same makers, Messrs Voisin, surpassed this performance by flying nearly 2-1/2 m. in 6-1/2 minutes. In July Farman remained in the air for over 20 minutes; on the 6th of September Delagrange increased the time to nearly 30 minutes, and on the 29th of the same month Farman again came in front with a flight lasting 42 minutes and extending over nearly 24-1/2 m.

But the best results were obtained by the Wright brothers--Orville Wright in America and Wilbur Wright in France. On the 9th of September 1908 the former, at Fort Myer, Virginia, made three notable flights; in the first he remained in the air 57-1/2 minutes and in the second 1 hour 3 minutes, while in the third he took with him a passenger and covered nearly 4 m. in 6 minutes. Three days later he made a flight of 45 m. in 1 hour 14-1/3 minutes, but on the 17th he had an accident, explained as being due to one of his propellers coming into contact with a stay, by which his machine was wrecked, he himself seriously injured, and Lieutenant Selfridge, who was with him, killed. Four days afterwards Wilbur Wright at Le Mans in France beat all previous records with a flight lasting 1 hour 31 minutes 25-4/5 seconds, in which he covered about 56 m.; and subsequently, on the 11th of October, he made a flight of 1 hour 9 minutes accompanied by a passenger. On the 31st of December he succeeded in remaining in the air for 2 hours 20 minutes 23 seconds.

Wilbur Wright's machine (fig. 53), that used by his brother being essentially the same, consisted of two slightly arched supporting surfaces, each 12-1/2 metres long, arranged parallel one above the other at a distance of 1-4/5 metres apart. As they were each about 2 metres wide their total area was about 50 sq. metres. About 3 metres in front of them was arranged a pair of smaller horizontal aeroplanes, shaped like a long narrow ellipse, which formed the rudder that effected changes of elevation, the driver being able by means of a lever to incline them up or down according as he desired to ascend or descend. The rudder for lateral steering was placed about 2-1/2 metres behind the main surfaces and was formed of two vertical pivoted aeroplanes. The lever by which they were turned was connected with the device by which the ends of the main aeroplanes could be flexed simultaneously though in opposite directions; i.e. if the ends of the aeroplanes on one side were bent downwards, those on the other were bent upwards. By the aid of this arrangement the natural cant of the machine when making a turn could be checked, if it became excessive. The four-cylinder petrol engine was placed on the lower aeroplane a little to the right of the central line, being counterbalanced by the driver (and passenger if one was carried), who sat a little to the left of the same line. Making about 1200 revolutions a minute, it developed about 24 horse-power, and was connected by chain gearing to two wooden propellers, 2-1/2 metres in diameter and 3-1/2 metres apart, the speed of which was about 450 revolutions a minute. The whole machine, with aeronaut, weighed about 1100 lb., the weight of the motor being reputed to be 200 lb.

FIG. 1.--PAULHAN FLYING ON FARMAN BIPLANE.

Photo, Topical Press.

FIG. 2.--WRIGHT BIPLANE.

Photo, Topical Press.]

FIG. 3.--BLERIOT MONOPLANE.

Photo, Topical Press.

FIG. 4.--A.V. ROE'S TRIPLANE.

Photo, Topical Press.]

A, B, Main supporting surfaces.

C, D, Aeroplanes of horizontal rudder with fixed semilunar fin E.

F, Vertical rudder.

G, Motor.

H, Screws.]

A feature of the year 1909 was the success obtained with monoplanes having only a single supporting surface, and it was on a machine of this type that the Frenchman Bleriot on July 25th flew across the English Channel from Calais to Dover in 31 minutes. Hubert Latham all but performed the same feat on an Antoinette monoplane. The year saw considerable increases in the periods for which aviators were able to remain in the air, and Roger Sommer's flight of nearly 2-1/2 hours on August 7th was surpassed by Henry Farman on November 3rd, when he covered a distance estimated at 137-1/4 m. in 4 hr. 17 min. 53 sec. In both these cases biplanes were employed. Successful aviation meetings were held, among other places, at Reims, Juvisy, Doncaster and Blackpool; and at Blackpool a daring flight was made in a wind of 40 m. an hour by Latham. This aviator also proved the possibility of flying at considerable altitudes by attaining on December 1st a height of over 1500 ft., but this record was far surpassed in the following January by L. Paulhan, who on a biplane rose to a height of 1383 yds. at Los Angeles. In the course of the year three aviators were killed--Lefevbre and Ferber in September and Fernandez in December; and four men perished in September by the destruction of the French airship "Republique," the gas-bag of which was ripped open by a broken propeller. In January 1910 Delagrange was killed by the fracture of one of the wings of a monoplane on which he was flying. On April 27th-28th, 1910, Paulhan successfully flew from London to Manchester, with only one stop, within 24 hours, for the _Daily Mail's_ L10,000 prize.

The progress made by all these experiments at aviation had naturally created widespread interest, both as a matter of sport and also as indicating a new departure in the possibilities of machines of war. And in 1909 the British government appointed a scientific committee, with Lord Rayleigh as chairman, as a consultative body for furthering the development of the science in England.

The table below gives some details, approximately correct, of the principal experiments made with flying machines up to 1908.

+-------+------------------+------+---------+---------+--------+-------+---------+----------+-------+-----------+
| | | Tip | | | Pounds | Speed | Maximum | | Horse-| Pounds |
| Year. | Experimenter. | to | Surface.| Weight. | per | per | Flight. | Motor. | power.| sustained |
| | | Tip. | | | sq. ft.| hour. | | | | per h.p. |
+-------+------------------+------+---------+---------+--------+-------+---------+----------+-------+-----------+
| | | Ft. | Sq. ft. | lb. | | Mls. | Ft. | | | |
| 1879 | Tatin | 6.2 | 7.5 | 3.85 | 0.51 | 18 | 100? |Compressed| 0.03 | 110? |
| | | | | | | | | air | | |
| 1885 \| | | | | | | | | | |
| 1889 /| Hargrave (No. 16)| 5.5 | 26.0 | 5.00 | 0.19 | 10 | 343 | " | 0.06 | 79 |
| 1893 | Phillips | 22.0 | 136.0 | 402.00 | 3.00 | 28 | 500? | Steam | 5.6 | 72? |
| 1894 | Maxim* | 50.0 | 4000.0 | 8000.00 | 2.5 | 36 | 300? | " |363.00 | 28 |
| 1896 | Langley | 12.0 | 70.0 | 30.00 | 0.43 | 24 | 4,000 | " | 1.00 | 30 |
| 1897 | Tatin and Richet | 21.0 | 86.0 | 72.00 | 0.83 | 40 | 460 | " | 1.33 | 55 |
| 1897 | Ader* | 49.0 | 270.0 | 1100.00 | 4.00 | 50? | 100? | " | 40.00 | 27 |
| 1895 | Lilienthal* | 23.0 | 151.0 | 220.00 | 1.46 | 23 | 1,200 | Gravity | 2.00 | 110 |
| 1896 | Pilcher* | 23.0 | 170.0 | 200.00 | 1.17 | 25 | 900 | " | 2.00 | 100 |
| 1896 | Chanute* | 16.0 | 135.0 | 178.00 | 1.31 | 22 | 360 | " | 2.00 | 89 |
| 1906 | S. Dumont* | 39 | 560 | 550 | 0.98 | 22.26 | 2,900 | Petrol | 50 | 23 |
| 1908 | W. Wright* | 41 | 650 | 1100 | 1.7 | 37 |295,000 | Petrol | 24 | 46 |
+-------+------------------+------+---------+---------+--------+-------+---------+----------+-------+-----------+
* The apparatus marked thus * carried a man or men.

REFERENCES.--Some of the books mentioned under AERONAUTICS contain
details of flying machines; see H.W.L. Moedebeck, _A Pocketbook of
Aeronautics_, trans. by W. Mansergh Varley (London, 1907); Sir Hiram
S. Maxim, _Artificial and Natural Flight_ (London, 1908); F.W.
Lanchester, _Aerodynamics_ and _Aerodonetics_ (London, 1907 and 1908);
C.C. Turner, _Aerial Navigation of To-day_ (London, 1909); also two
papers on "Aerial Navigation" read by Colonel G.O. Fullerton before
the Royal United Service Institution in 1892 and 1906; papers read by
Major B.F.S. Baden-Powell and E.S. Bruce before the Society of Arts,
London, in April 1907 and December 1908 respectively; Cantor Lectures
by F.W. Lanchester (Society of Arts, 1909); and the _Proceedings_ of
the Aeronautical Society (founded 1865), &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] According to Dr Crisp, the swallow, martin, snipe and many birds
of passage have no air in their bones.--_Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond_. part
xxv., 1857, p. 13.

[2] By the term aeroplane is meant a thin, light, expanded structure
inclined at a slight upward angle to the horizon intended to float or
rest upon the air, and calculated to afford a certain amount of
support to any body attached to it.

[3] "On the Various Modes of Flight in relation to Aeronautics," by
J. Bell Pettigrew, _Proc. Roy. Inst_., 1867; "On the Mechanical
Appliances by which Flight is attained in the Animal Kingdom," by the
same author, _Trans. Linn. Soc_., 1867.

[4] _Revue des cours scientifiques de la France et de l'Etranger_,
1869.

[5] The sphygmograph, as its name indicates, is a recording
instrument. It consists of a smoked cylinder revolving by means of
clock-work at a known speed, and a style or pen which inscribes its
surface by scratching or brushing away the lampblack. The movements
to be registered are transferred to the style or pen by one or more
levers, and the pen in turn transfers them to the cylinder, where
they appear as legible tracings. In registering the movements of the
wings the tips and margins of the pinions were, by an ingenious
modification, employed as the styles or pens. By this arrangement the
different parts of the wings were made actually to record their own
movements. As will be seen from this account, the figure-of-8 or wave
theory of stationary and progressive flight has been made the subject
of a rigorous _experimentum crucis_.

[6] This continuity of the down into the up stroke and the converse
is greatly facilitated by the elastic ligaments at the root and in
the substance of the wing. These assist in elevating, and, when
necessary, in flexing and elevating it. They counteract in some
measure what may be regarded as the dead weight of the wing, and are
especially useful in giving it continuous play.

[7] "The importance of the twisted configuration or screw-like form
cannot be over-estimated. That this shape is intimately associated
with flight is apparent from the fact that the rowing feathers of the
wing of the bird are every one of them distinctly spiral in their
nature; in fact, one entire rowing feather is
equivalent--morphologically and physiologically--to one entire insect
wing. In the wing of the martin, where the bones of the pinion are
short, and in some respects rudimentary, the primary and secondary
feathers are greatly developed, and banked up in such a manner that
the wing as a whole presents the same curves as those displayed by
the insect's wing, or by the wing of the eagle, where the bones,
muscles and feathers have attained a maximum development. The
conformation of the wing is such that it presents a waved appearance
in every direction--the waves running longitudinally, transversely
and obliquely. The greater portion of the wing may consequently be
removed without essentially altering either its form or its
functions. This is proved by making sections in various directions,
and by finding that in some instances as much as two-thirds of the
wing may be lopped off without materially impairing the power of
flight."--_Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin._ vol. xxvi. pp. 325, 326.

[8] "On the Various Modes of Flight in relation to Aeronautics,"
_Proc. Roy. Inst._, 1867; "On the Mechanical Appliances by which
Flight is attained in the Animal Kingdom," _Trans. Linn. Soc._, 1867,
26.

[9] "On the Physiology of Wings; being an analysis of the movements
by which flight is produced in the Insect, Bat and Bird," _Trans.
Roy. Soc. Edin._ vol. 26.

[10] The other forces which assist in elevating the wings are--(a)
the elevator muscles of the wings, (b) the elastic properties of the
wings, and (c) the reaction of the compressed air on the under
surfaces of the wings.

[11] The wings of the albatross, when fully extended, measure across
the back some 14 ft. They are exceedingly narrow, being sometimes
under a foot in width.

[12] _On the Flight of Birds, of Bats and of Insects, in reference to
the subject of Aerial Locomotion,_ by L. de Lucy (Paris).

[13] E.J. Marey, _Revue des cours scientifiques de la France et de
l'etranger_ (1869).

[14] "The Aero-bi-plane, or First Steps to Flight," _Ninth Annual
Report of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain_, 1874.

[15] "Resistance to Falling Planes on a Path of Translation," _Ninth
Annual Report of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain_, 1874.

[16] The _Aeronaut_ for January 1872 and February 1875.

[17] Cayley's screws, as explained, were made of feathers, and
consequently elastic. As, however, no allusion is made in his
writings to the superior advantages possessed by elastic over rigid
screws, it is to be presumed that feathers were employed simply for
convenience and lightness. Pettigrew, there is reason to believe, was
the first to advocate the employment of elastic screws for aerial
purposes.

[18] Stringfellow constructed a second model, which is described and
figured further on (fig. 44).

[19] "On Aerial Locomotion," _Aeronautical Society's Report_ for
1867.

FLINCK, GOVERT (1615-1660), Dutch painter, born at Cleves in 1615, was apprenticed by his father to a silk mercer, but having secretly acquired a passion for drawing, was sent to Leuwarden, where he boarded in the house of Lambert Jacobszon, a Mennonite, better known as an itinerant preacher than as a painter. Here Flinck was joined by Jacob Backer, and the companionship of a youth determined like himself to be an artist only confirmed his passion for painting. Amongst the neighbours of Jacobszon at Leuwarden were the sons and relations of Rombert Ulenburg, whose daughter Saske married Rembrandt in 1634. Other members of the same family lived at Amsterdam, cultivating the arts either professionally or as amateurs. The pupils of Lambert probably gained some knowledge of Rembrandt by intercourse with the Ulenburgs. Certainly J. von Sandrart, who visited Holland in 1637, found Flinck acknowledged as one of Rembrandt's best pupils, and living habitually in the house of the dealer Hendrik Ulenburg at Amsterdam. For many years Flinck laboured on the lines of Rembrandt, following that master's style in all the works which he executed between 1636 and 1648; then he fell into peculiar mannerisms by imitating the swelling forms and grand action of Rubens's creations. Finally he sailed with unfortunate complacency into the Dead Sea of official and diplomatic painting. Flinck's relations with Cleves became in time very important. He was introduced to the court of the Great Elector, Frederick William of Brandenburg, who married in 1646 Louisa of Orange. He obtained the patronage of John Maurice of Orange, who was made stadtholder of Cleves in 1649. In 1652 a citizen of Amsterdam, Flinck married in 1656 an heiress, daughter of Ver Hoeven, a director of the Dutch East India Company. He was already well known even then in the patrician circles over which the burgomasters De Graef and the Echevin Six presided; he was on terms of intimacy with the poet Vondel and the treasurer Uitenbogaard. In his house, adorned with antique casts, costumes, and a noble collection of prints, he often received the stadtholder John Maurice, whose portrait is still preserved in the work of the learned Barleius.

The earliest of Flinck's authentic pieces is a likeness of a lady, dated 1636, in the gallery of Brunswick. His first subject picture is the "Blessing of Jacob," in the Amsterdam museum (1638). Both are thoroughly Rembrandtesque in effect as well as in vigour of touch and warmth of flesh tints. The four "civic guards" of 1642, and "the twelve musketeers" with their president in an arm-chair (1648), in the town-hall at Amsterdam, are fine specimens of composed portrait groups. But the best of Flinck's productions in this style is the peace of Munster in the museum of Amsterdam, a canvas with 19 life-size figures full of animation in the faces, "radiant with Rembrandtesque colour," and admirably distributed. Flinck here painted his own likeness to the left in a doorway. The mannered period of Flinck is amply illustrated in the "Marcus Curius eating Turnips before the Samnite Envoys," and "Solomon receiving Wisdom," in the palace on the Dam at Amsterdam. Here it is that Flinck shows most defects, being faulty in arrangement, gaudy in tint, flat and shallow in execution, and partial to whitened flesh that looks as if it had been smeared with violet powder and rouge. The chronology of Flinck's works, so far as they are seen in public galleries, comprises, in addition to the foregoing, the "Grey Beard" of 1639 at Dresden, the "Girl" of 1641 at the Louvre, a portrait group of a male and female (1646) at Rotterdam, a lady (1651) at Berlin. In November 1659 the burgomaster of Amsterdam contracted with Flinck for 12 canvases to represent four heroic figures of David and Samson and Marcus Curius and Horatius Cocles, and scenes from the wars of the Batavians and Romans. Flinck was unable to finish more than the sketches. In the same year he received a flattering acknowledgment from the town council of Cleves on the completion of a picture of Solomon which was a counterpart of the composition at Amsterdam. This and other pictures and portraits, such as the likenesses of Frederick William of Brandenburg and John Maurice of Nassau, and the allegory of "Louisa of Orange attended by Victory and Fame" and other figures at the cradle of the first-born son of the elector, have disappeared. Of several pictures which were painted for the Great Elector, none are preserved except the "Expulsion of Hagar" in the Berlin museum. Flinck died at Amsterdam on the 22nd of February 1660.

FLINDERS, MATTHEW (1774-1814), English navigator, explorer, and man of science, was born at Donington, near Boston, in Lincolnshire, on the 16th of March 1774. Matthew was at first designed to follow his father's profession of surgeon, but his enthusiasm in favour of a life of adventure impelled him to enter the royal navy, which he did on the 23rd of October 1789. After a voyage to the Friendly Islands and West Indies, and after serving in the "Bellerophon" during Lord Howe's "glorious first of June" (1794) off Ushant, Flinders went out in 1795 as midshipman in the "Reliance" to New South Wales. For the next few years he devoted himself to the task of accurately laying down the outline and bearings of the Australian coast, and he did his work so thoroughly that he left comparatively little for his successors to do. With his friend George Bass, the surgeon of the "Reliance," in the year of his arrival he explored George's river; and, after a voyage to Norfolk Island, again in March 1796 the two friends in the same boat, the "Tom Thumb," only 8 ft. long, and with only a boy to help them, explored a stretch of coast to the south of Port Jackson. After a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, when he was promoted to a lieutenancy, Flinders was engaged during February 1798 in a survey of the Furneaux Islands, lying to the north of Tasmania. His delight was great when, in September of the same year, he was commissioned along with Bass, who had already explored the sea between Tasmania and the south coast to some extent and inferred that it was a strait, to proceed in the sloop "Norfolk" (25 tons) to prove conclusively that Van Diemen's Land was an island by circumnavigating it. In the same sloop, in the summer of next year, Flinders made an exploration to the north of Port Jackson, the object being mainly to survey Glasshouse Bay (Moreton Bay) and Hervey's Bay. Returning to England he was appointed to the command of an expedition for the thorough exploration of the coasts of Terra Australis, as the southern continent was still called, though Flinders is said to have been the first to suggest for it the name Australia. On the 18th of July 1801 the sloop "Investigator" (334 tons), in which the expedition sailed, left Spithead, Flinders being furnished with instructions and with a passport from the French government to all their officials in the Eastern seas. Among the scientific staff was Robert Brown, one of the most eminent English botanists; and among the midshipmen was Flinders's relative, John Franklin, of Arctic fame. Cape Leeuwin, on the south-west coast of Australia, was reached on November 6, and King George's sound on the 9th of December. Flinders sailed round the Great Bight, examining the islands and indentations on the east side, noting the nature of the country, the people, products, &c., and paying special attention to the subject of the variation of the compass. Spenser and St Vincent Gulfs were discovered and explored. On the 8th of April 1802, shortly after leaving Kangaroo Islands, at the mouth of St Vincent Gulf, Flinders fell in with the French exploring ship, "Le Geographe," under Captain Nicolas Baudin, in the bay now known as Encounter Bay. In the narrative of the French expedition published in 1807 (when Flinders was a prisoner in the Mauritius) by M. Peron, the naturalist to the expedition, much of the land west of the point of meeting was claimed as having been discovered by Baudin, and French names were extensively substituted for the English ones given by Flinders. It was only in 1814, when Flinders published his own narrative, that the real state of the case was fully exposed. Flinders continued his examination of the coast along Bass's Strait, carefully surveying Port Phillip. Port Jackson was reached on the 9th of May 1802.

After staying at Port Jackson for about a couple of months, Flinders set out again on the 22nd of July to complete his circumnavigation of Australia. The Great Barrier Reef was examined with the greatest care in several places. The north-east entrance of the Gulf of Carpentaria was reached early in November; and the next three months were spent in an examination of the shores of the gulf, and of the islands that skirt them. An inspection of the "Investigator" showed that she was in so leaky a condition that only with the greatest precaution could the voyage be completed in her. Flinders completed the survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and after touching at the island of Timor, the "Investigator" sailed round the west and south of Australia, and Port Jackson was reached on the 9th of June 1803. Much suffering was endured by nearly all the members of the expedition: a considerable proportion of the men succumbed to disease, and their leader was so reduced by scurvy that his health was greatly impaired.

Flinders determined to proceed home in H.M.S. "Porpoise" as a passenger, submit the results of his work to the Admiralty, and obtain, if possible, another vessel to complete his exploration of the Australian coast. The "Porpoise" left Port Jackson on the 10th of August, accompanied by the H.E.I.C.'s ship "Bridgewater" (750 tons) and the "Cato" (450 tons) of London. On the night of the 17th the "Porpoise" and "Cato" suddenly struck on a coral reef and were rapidly reduced to wrecks. The officers and men encamped on a small sandbank near, 3 or 4 ft. above high-water, a considerable quantity of provisions, with many of the papers and charts, having been saved from the wrecks. The reef was in about 22 deg. 11' S. and 155 deg. E., and about 800 m. from Port Jackson. Flinders returned to Port Jackson in a six-oared cutter in order to obtain a vessel to rescue the party. The reef was again reached on the 8th of October, and all the officers and men having been satisfactorily disposed of, Flinders on the 11th left for Jones Strait in an unsound schooner of 29 tons, the "Cumberland," with ten companions, and a valuable collection of papers, charts, geological specimens, &c. On the 15th of December he put in at Mauritius, when he discovered that France and England were at war. The passport he possessed from the French government was for the "Investigator"; still, though he was now on board another ship, his mission was essentially the same, and the work he was on was simply a continuation of that commenced in the unfortunate vessel. Nevertheless, on her arrival at Port Louis the "Cumberland" was seized by order of the governor-general de Caen. Flinders's papers were taken possession of, and he found himself virtually a prisoner. We need not dwell on the sad details of this unjustifiable captivity, which lasted to June 1810. But there can be no doubt that the hardships and inactivity Flinders was compelled to endure for upwards of six years told seriously on his health, and brought his life to a premature end. He reached England in October 1810, after an absence of upwards of nine years. The official red-tapeism of the day barred all promotion to the unfortunate explorer, who set himself to prepare an account of his explorations, though unfortunately an important part of his record had been retained by de Caen. The results of his labours were published in two large quarto volumes, entitled _A Voyage to Terra Australis_, with a folio volume of maps. The very day (July 19, 1814) on which his work was published Flinders died, at the early age of forty. The great work is a model of its kind, containing as it does not only a narrative of his own and of previous voyages, but masterly statements of the scientific results, especially with regard to magnetism, meteorology, hydrography and navigation. Flinders paid great attention to the errors of the compass, especially to those caused by the presence of iron in ships. He is understood to have been the first to discover the source of such errors (which had scarcely been noticed before), and after investigating the laws of the variations, he suggested counter-attractions, an invention for which Professor Barlow got much credit many years afterwards. Numerous experiments on ships' magnetism were conducted at Portsmouth by Flinders, by order of the admiralty, in 1812. Besides the _Voyage_, Flinders wrote _Observations on the Coast of Van Diemen's Land_, _Bass's Strait_, &c., and two papers in the _Phil. Trans._--one on the "Magnetic Needle" (1805), and the other, "Observations on the Marine Barometer" (1806). (J. S. K.)

FLINSBERG, a village and watering-place of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia, on the Queis, at the foot of the Iserkamm, 1450 ft. above the sea, 5 m. W. of Friedeberg, the terminus station of the railway from Greiffenberg. Pop. (1900) 1957. It contains an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, and has some manufactures of wooden wares. Flinsberg is celebrated for its chalybeate waters, specific in cases of feminine disorders, and used both for bathing and drinking. It is also a climatic health resort of some reputation, and the visitors number about 8500 annually.

See Adam, _Bad Flinsberg als klimatischer Kurort_ (Gorlitz, 1891).

FLINT, AUSTIN (1812-1886), American physician, was born at Petersham, Massachusetts, on the 20th of October 1812, and graduated at the medical department of Harvard University in 1833. From 1847 to 1852 he was professor of the theory and practice of medicine in Buffalo Medical College, of which he was one of the founders, and from 1852 to 1856 he filled the same chair in the university of Louisville. From 1861 to 1886 he was professor of the principles and practice of medicine and clinical medicine in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York. He wrote many text-books on medical subjects, among these being _Diseases of the Heart_ (1859-1870); _Principles and Practice of Medicine_ (1866); _Clinical Medicine_ (1879); and _Physical Exploration of the Lungs by means of Auscultation and Percussion_ (1882). He died in New York on the 13th of March 1886.

His son, AUSTIN FLINT, junr., who was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, on the 28th of March 1836, after studying at Harvard and at the university of Louisville, graduated at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1857. He then became professor of physiology at the university of Buffalo (1858) and subsequently at other centres, his last connexion being with the Cornell University Medical College (1898-1906). He was better known as a teacher and writer on physiology than as a practitioner, and his _Text-book of Human Physiology_ (1876) was for many years a standard book in American medical colleges. He also published an extensive _Physiology of Man_ (5 vols., 1866-1874), _Chemical Examination of the Urine in Disease_ (1870), _Effects of Severe and Protracted Muscular Exercise_ (1871), _Source of Muscular Power_ (1878), and _Handbook of Physiology_ (1905). In 1896 he became a consulting physician to the New York State Hospital for the Insane.

FLINT, ROBERT (1838- ), Scottish divine and philosopher, was born near Dumfries and educated at the university of Glasgow. After a few years of pastoral service, first in Aberdeen and then at Kilconquhar, Fife, he was appointed professor of moral philosophy and political economy at St Andrews in 1864. From 1876 to 1903 he was professor of divinity at Edinburgh. He contributed a number of articles to the 9th edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. His chief works are _Christ's Kingdom upon Earth_ (Sermons, 1865); _Philosophy of History in Europe_ (1874; partly rewritten with reference to France and Switzerland, 1894); _Theism_ and _Anti-theistic Theories_ (2 vols., being the Baird Lectures for 1876-1877; often reprinted); _Socialism_ (1894); _Sermons and Addresses_ (1899); _Agnosticism_ (1903).

FLINT, TIMOTHY (1780-1840), American clergyman and writer, was born in Reading, Massachusetts, on the 11th of July 1780. He graduated at Harvard in 1800, and in 1802 settled as a Congregational minister in Lunenburg, Mass., where he pursued scientific studies with interest; and his labours in his chemical laboratory seemed so strange to the people of that retired region, that some persons supposed and asserted that he was engaged in counterfeiting. This, together with political differences, led to disagreeable complications, which resulted in his resigning his charge (1814) and becoming a missionary (1815) in the valley of the Mississippi. He was also for a short period a teacher and a farmer. His observations on the manners and character of the settlers of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were recorded in a picturesque work called _Recollections of the Last Ten Years passed in the Valley of the Mississippi_ (1826; reprinted in England and translated into French), the first account of the western states which brought to light the real life and character of the people. The success which this work met with, together with the failing health of the writer, led him to relinquish his more active labours for literary pursuits, and, besides editing the _Western Review_ in Cincinnati from 1825 to 1828 and _Knickerbocker's Magazine_ (New York) in 1833, he published a number of books, including _Francis Berrian, or the Mexican Patriot_ (1826), his best novel; _A Condensed Geography and History of the Western States, or the Mississippi Valley_ (2 vols., 1828); _Arthur Clenning_ (1828), a novel; and _Indian Wars in the West_ (1833). His style is vivid, plain and forcible, and his matter interesting; and his works on the western states are of great value. He died in Salem, Mass., on the 16th of August 1840.

FLINT, a city and the county-seat of Genesee county, Michigan, U.S.A., on Flint river, 68 m. (by rail) N.W. of Detroit. Pop. (1890) 9803; (1900) 13,103, of whom 2165 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 38,550. It is served by the Grand Trunk and the Pere Marquette railways, and by an electric line, the Detroit United railway, connecting with Detroit. The city has a fine court-house (1904), a federal building (1908), a city hall (1908) and a public library. The Michigan school for the deaf, established in 1854, and the Oak Grove hospital (private) for the treatment of mental and nervous diseases, are here. Flint has important manufacturing interests, its chief manufactures being automobiles, wagons, carriages--Flint is called "the vehicle city,"--flour, woollen goods, iron goods, cigars, beer, and bricks and tiles; and its grain trade is of considerable importance. In 1904 the total value of the city's factory product was $6,177,170, an increase of 31.1% over that of 1900. The settlement of the place, then called the Grand Traverse of the Flint, began in 1820, but Flint's growth was very slow until 1831, when it was platted as a village; it was chartered as a city in 1855.

FLINT, or FLINTSHIRE (_sir Gallestr_), a county of North Wales, the smallest in the country, bounded N. by the Irish Sea and the Dee estuary, N.E. by the Dee, E. by Cheshire, and S.W. by Denbighshire. Area, 257 sq. m. Included in Flint is the detached hundred of Maelor, lying 8 m. S.E. of the main part of the county, and shut in by Cheshire on the N. and N.E., by Shropshire on the S., and by Denbighshire on the W. and N.W. The Clwyd valley is common to Flint and Denbigh. Those of the Alyn and Wepre (from Ewloe Castle to the Dee) are fine. The Dee, entering the county near Overton, divides Maelor from Denbigh on the W., passes Chester and bounds most of the county on the N. The Clwyd enters Flint near Bodfary, and joining the Elwy near Rhuddlan, reaches the Irish Sea near Rhyl. The Alyn enters the county under Moel Fammau, passes Cilcen and Mold (_y Wyddgrug_), runs underground near Hesb-Alyn (Alyn's drying-up), bends south to Caergwrle, re-enters Denbighshire and joins the Dee. Llyn Helyg (willow-pool), near Whitford, is the chief lake.

Both for their influence upon the physical features and for their
economic value the carboniferous rocks of Flintshire are the most
important. From Prestatyn on the coast a band of carboniferous
limestone passes close by Holywell and through Caerwen; it forms the
Halkin Mountain east of Halkin, whence it continues past Mold to
beyond the county boundary. The upper portion of this series is cherty
in the north--the chert is quarried for use in the potteries of
Staffordshire--but traced southward it passes into sandstones and
grits; above these beds come the Holywell shales, possibly the
equivalent of the Pendleside series of Lancashire and Derbyshire,
while upon them lies the Gwespyr sandstone, which has been thought to
correspond to the Gannister coal measures of Lancashire, but may be a
representative of the Millstone Grit. Farther to the east, the coal
measures, with valuable coals, some oil shale, and with fireclays and
marls which are used for brick and tile-making, extend from Talacre
through Flint, Northop, Hawarden and Broughton to Hope. The
carboniferous rocks appear again through the intervention of a fault,
in the neighbourhood of St Asaph. Silurian strata, mostly of Wenlock
age, lie below the carboniferous limestone on the western border of
the county. Triassic red beds of the Bunter fill the Clwyd valley and
appear again on the coal measures S.E. of Chester. Lead and zinc ores
have been worked in the lower carboniferous rocks in the north of the
county, and caves in the same formation, at Caer Gwyn and Ffynnon
Beuno, have yielded the remains of Pleistocene mammals along with
palaeolithic implements. Much glacial drift obscures the older rocks
on the east and north and in the vale of Clwyd. Short stretches of
blown sand occur on the coast near Rhyl and Talacre.

The London & North-Western railway follows the coast-line. Other railways which cross the county are the Great Western, and the Wrexham, Mold & Connah's Quay, acquired by the Great Central company. For pasture the vale of Clwyd is well known. Oats, turnips and swedes are the chief crops. Stock and dairy farming prospers, native cattle being crossed with Herefords and Downs, native sheep with Leicesters and Southdowns, while in the thick mining population a ready market is found for meat, cheese, butter, &c. The population (81,700 in 1901) nearly doubled in the 19th century, and Flintshire to-day is one of the most densely populated counties in North Wales. The area of the ancient county is 164,744 acres, and that of the administrative county 163,025 acres. The collieries begin at Llanasa, run through Whitford, Holywell, Flint, Halkin (Halcyn), Northop, Buckley, Mold and Hawarden (Penarlag). At Halkin, Mold, Holywell, Prestatyn and Talacre lead is raised, and is sometimes sent to Bagillt, Flint or Chester to be smelted. Zinc, formerly only worked at Dyserth, has increased in output, and copper mines also exist, as at Talargoch, together with smelting works, oil, vitriol, potash and alkali manufactories. Potteries around Buckley send their produce chiefly to Connah's Quay, whence a railway crosses the Dee to the Birkenhead (Cheshire) district. Iron seams are now thin, but limestone quarries yield building stone, lime for burning and small stone for chemical works. Fisheries are unproductive and textile manufactures small.

The county returns one member to parliament. The parliamentary borough district (returning one member), consists of Caergwrle, Caerwys, Flint, Holywell, Mold, Overton, St Asaph and Rhuddlan. In addition, there is a small part of the Chester parliamentary borough. There is one municipal borough, Flint (pop. 4625). The other urban districts are: Buckley (5780), Connah's Quay (3369), Holywell (2652), Mold (4263), Prestatyn (1261) and Rhyl (8473). Flint is in the North Wales and Chester circuit, assizes being held at Mold. The Flint borough has a separate commission of the peace, but no separate court of quarter sessions. The ancient county, which is in the dioceses of Chester, Lichfield and St Asaph, contains forty-six entire ecclesiastical parishes and districts, with parts of eleven others.