28 Facts About Samuel Langley

Samuel Pierpont Langley was an American aviation pioneer, astronomer and physicist who invented the bolometer.

Samuel Langley was the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and a professor of astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was the director of the Allegheny Observatory.

Samuel Langley attended Boston Latin School and graduated from English High School of Boston, after which he became an assistant in the Harvard College Observatory.

Samuel Langley then moved to a job at the United States Naval Academy, ostensibly as a professor of mathematics.

In 1888 Samuel Langley was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

Samuel Langley arrived in Pittsburgh in 1867 to become the first director of the Allegheny Observatory, after the institution had fallen into hard times and been given to the Western University of Pennsylvania.

Samuel Langley raised money for the department in large part by distributing standard time to cities and railroads.

Samuel Langley used the money from the railroads to finance the observatory.

Once funding was secure, Samuel Langley devoted his time at the Observatory initially in researching the sun.

In 1898, Samuel Langley received the Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the Societe astronomique de France.

Samuel Langley's models flew, but his two attempts at piloted flight were not successful.

Samuel Langley began experimenting with rubber-band powered models and gliders in 1887.

Samuel Langley understood that aircraft need thrust to overcome drag from forward speed, observed higher aspect ratio flat plates had higher lift and lower drag, and stated in 1902 "A plane of fixed size and weight would need less propulsive power the faster it flew", the counter-intuitive effect of induced drag.

Samuel Langley met the writer Rudyard Kipling around this time, who described one of Langley's experiments in his autobiography:.

Samuel Langley took it coolly enough and said to me that, though he would never live till then, I should see the aeroplane established.

In 1898, based on the success of his models, Samuel Langley received a War Department grant of $50,000 and $20,000 from the Smithsonian to develop a piloted airplane, which he called an "Aerodrome".

When Samuel Langley received word from his friend Octave Chanute of the Wright brothers' success with their 1902 glider, he attempted to meet the Wrights, but they politely evaded his request.

The engine, mostly the technical work of men other than Samuel Langley, was probably the project's main contribution to aviation.

In contrast to the Wright brothers' design of a controllable airplane that could fly with assistance from a strong headwind and land on solid ground, Samuel Langley sought safety by practicing in calm air over the Potomac River.

Samuel Langley gave up the project after two crashes on take-off on October 7 and December 8,1903.

Unlike the Wright brothers with their invention of three-axis control, Samuel Langley had no effective way of controlling an airplane too big to be maneuvered by the weight of the pilot's body.

In 1880 Samuel Langley invented the bolometer, an instrument initially used for measuring far infrared radiation.

Samuel Langley published an 1881 paper on it, "The Bolometer and Radiant Energy".

Samuel Langley made one of the first attempts to measure the surface temperature of the Moon, and his measurement of interference of the infrared radiation by carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere was used by Svante Arrhenius in 1896 to make the first calculation of how climate would change from a future doubling of carbon dioxide levels.

The United States Naval Observatory's increasing dominance in this field threatened these regional observatories' livelihoods and Samuel Langley became a leader in efforts to preserve the viability of their commercial programs.

Samuel Langley held himself responsible for the loss of funds after the June 1905 discovery that Smithsonian accountant William Karr was embezzling from the Institution.

Samuel Langley was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.

In 1963, Samuel Langley was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio.