Heavier than Air
TECHNOLOGY that defies gravity has always been an obsession, as these excerpts from the archives of Scientific American show.
AUGUST 1878: Aviation pioneer Alphonse Pénaud designs a flying machine that resembles a butterfly.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
OCTOBER 1920: “It is quite possible that the future historian will set down the present year as marking a new era in the history of aviation—the era of metal construction.”
DECEMBER 2005: The new Airbus A380 Navigator “achieves significant weight savings by using lightweight but strong carbon-fiber and other advanced resin epoxy composite materials.”
Hellfire from the Sky
THE TERROR of explosive projectiles falling from above has remained a persistent meme in our pages.
MARCH 1849: Venice “is to be bombarded by balloons” in the first use of aerial attack.
JANUARY 1899: A book review mentions a fictional character who “invents an airship from which missiles can be thrown that end a war at once.”
JUNE 1950: An article on civil defense against the “destructive potential of the hydrogen bomb” describes a less vulnerable urban design: a “strip city” laid out in a long, thin ribbon.
JULY 2010: An article on autonomous robots for battle describes a design for a “high-altitude airship” that “carries a radar the length of a football field and remains aloft for up to a month.”
Love
READERS do not necessarily associate infatuation with the name of Scientific American. Yet the sociology of attachment has always had its place here and in our sister publication, Scientific American Mind.
MAY 1846: Emigrants to Oregon are urged to “take wives with them. There is no supply of the article in that heathen land.”
MARCH 1995: Noted primatologist Frans de Waal points out that “no degree of moralizing can make sex disappear from every realm of human life.”
SEPTEMBER 2012:Scientific American Mind explains how “dating in a digital world” can be a “fruitful mission.”
Brains in a Box
COMPUTING has always been a banner item in the magazine.
MAY 1851: Nystrom's calculating machine, a glorified slide rule, is described with hyperbole: “This machine is the most important one ever brought before the public.”
1900s: Offices begin to fill with machines that tabulate, sort, count and calculate with punched cards.
APRIL 1955: John G. Kemeny asks, “What could a machine do as well or better than a man, now or in the future?”
OCTOBER 1956: Speculation on a futuristic computer inspired by biological systems: “Like a botanical plant, the machine would have the ability to extract its own raw materials from the air, water and soil.”
JUNE 2012: Henry Markram describes a full simulation of the human brain, to the level of individual molecules. The arrival date: 2020 or thereabouts.
