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THERE are three distinct types of heavier-than- air machines, which are widely separated in all their characteristics, so that there is scarcely a single feature in common. Two of them, the aeroplane, and the orthopter, have prototypes in nature, and are distinguished by their respective similarities to the soaring birds, and those with flapping wings.
Cousin Benedict was occupied in studying with a magnifying glass an articulate which he had at last found on board a simple orthopter, whose head disappeared under the prothorax; an insect with flat elytrums, with round abdomen, with rather long wings, which belonged to the family of the roaches, and to the species of American cockroaches.
I circled a small bush at my side, and found that the sound came from one of the branches near the top; so with my glasses I began a systematic search." This was as far as I ever got, for a flock of parrakeets exploded close at hand and blew the lesser sound out of mind. If I had stopped to guess I would probably have considered the author a longicorn beetle or some fiddling orthopter.
THE ORTHOPTER. The term orthopter, or ornithopter, meaning bird wing, is applied to such flying machines as depend on wing motion to support them in the air. Unquestionably, a support can be obtained by beating on the air but to do so it is necessary to adopt the principle employed by nature to secure an upward propulsion.
This principle, however, affords a safer means of navigating than the orthopter type, because the blades of such an instrument can be forced through the air with infinitely greater speed than beating wings, and it devolves on the inventor to devise some form of apparatus which will permit the change of pull from a vertical to a horizontal direction while in flight.
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