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Henson's “Aerial Steam Carriage,” 1843
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
Extract
It is just one hundred years ago, towards the end of March, 1843, that the invention or design of the first power-driven aeroplane, Henson's so-called “Aerial Steam Carriage,” was made public to the world at large. The centenary marks an important step in the history of heavier-than-air flight, and in view of the development arrived at in the aeroplane of to-day—its great size, immense power, long range, and astonishing speed—the event assumes, in retrospect, a greater interest and significance than has been hitherto accorded to it. It is fitting, therefore—the more so in that the ‘inventor’ was an Englishman—that this notable occasion should not be allowed to pass unnoticed in the pages of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Journal. There is, moreover, the additional reason that the Society can claim an indirect connection with Henson's project, in as much as John Stringfellow, who was closely associated with Henson in their joint struggles to produce a model flying-machine, was one of the Society's most active and enthusiastic members in its early years.
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- Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1943
References
Notes
1 John Stringfellow (1799-1883) was elected a member of the Society in 1868.
2 Davy (M. J. B.) Henson and Stringfellow (1840-1868), H.M. Stationery Office, 1931.
3 Copies of the original Specification are very rare—probably not more than 3 or 4 are extant, one being in the Society's Library. The full text is printed by Davy as Appendix A.
4 The Journals of the House of Commons record under date March 24, 1843 (Vol. 54, p. 148), that the Aerial Transit Company Bill “to authorise the transfer to more than 12 persons of a certain Patent granted to W. S. Henson, relating to Locomotive Apparatus and Machinery, and for the establishment of a Company for carrying out the objects of the said Patent,” was presented by Mr. [J. A.] Roebҫck and read a first time. See also Hansard's Debates, Third Series, Vol. 67, 1843.
5 An interesting example of the application of the dihedral angle to the wings of a flying machine is shown—perhaps for the first time—in a sketch (dated 1808) in Cayley's Aeronautical Note-book (Newcomen Society, 1933, p. 53).
6 It may be noted that in 1808 Cayley invented a “suspension” or bicycle wheel specifically for use with “aerial navigation cars.” (Op. cit., p. 58.)
7 The Cayley Papers are in the custody of the present writer.
8 Henson is not known to have taken any subsequent part in matters aeronautical. He died at Newark, New Jersey, in March, 1888.
9 Cayley, who regarded the question of power as “the sine qua turn in the case,” had first invented a hot-air engine in 1807, and he was occupied with it, on and off, up to about 1850.
10 See D.N.B., Vol. 10, 1887, p. 55.
11 See note as to the term aerodynamics on page 125.
12 Both Bossut (1730-1814) and Borda (1735-1799) were noted French mathematicians, the latter more particularly for his researches in hydrodynamics.
13 In denning the word “aerodynamics”—not commonly used in Chapman's day—the Oxford Diary gives two quotations, dated 1837 and 1868, the latter referring to the importance of enquiries in “aerodynamics” concerning “ the resistance offered to a body moving in the air, or—which is the same—pressure exerted by air in motion on a body at rest.”
14 See Mechanics’ Mag., Vol. 38, 1943, p. 258, etc. Also “The Times,” March 30, 1843.
15 It should not be forgotten that in 1848 Stringfellow—whose name must ever be. ossociated with Henson—constructed a mode] of his own design which, for the first time in aeronautical history, demonstrated that a heavier-than-air flying machine of small size could support itself in the air when propelled by steam power. After a lapse of 20 years he renewed his activities at the First Aeronautical Exhibition organised by this Society at the Crystal Palace in 1868.