The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Langley, Samuel

Born Aug. 22, 1834, in Roxbury, Mass.; died Feb. 27, 1906, in Aiken, S.C. American astrophysicist.

Langley was appointed director of the Allegheny Observatory in 1867. Beginning in 1887 he was at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Langley studied the distribution of energy in the solar spectrum and reestablished the solar constant. He invented the bolometer in 1880–81 and used it to measure the intensity of solar radiation. On the basis of these measurements, Langley compiled an atlas in 1901 of the infrared part of the solar spectrum.

REFERENCE

Abbot, C. G. Samuel Pierpont Langley. Washington, D. C., 1934. (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 92, no. 8, publication 3281.)

References in periodicals archive

Samuel Langley's bolometer in the late 1800s could detect the heat from a cow from as far away as one-quarter mile.

Adding certainty to measurements adding certainty to measurements

(The Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park preserves this and other Wright landmarks.) Neither ever married, graduated from high school, or left the family home, but together they managed to solve the enigmas of lift, propulsion, and control that had eluded more famous and moneyed inventors like the Smithsonian's Samuel Langley and German Otto Lilienthal.

The Wright stuff: the origins of flight are revealed at Wright Brothers National Memorial

From Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Langley's use of a spring-operated catapults in 1903, to the Wright Brothers' weight and derrick-style catapult; followed by the experimental air-compressed catapult system used to make the first successful catapult launch; to hydraulic catapult systems, on to the current steam-driven catapult systems of today's aircraft carriers, the catapult has seen its share of technological advances.

Catapults launched U.S. naval aviation into the future

In 1903 a devoted American experimenter with flying machines, Samuel Langley, launched a machine called the Aerodrome off a barge where the Potomac and Anacostia rivers meet.

A century of powered flight

A novel that will appeal to an audience that includes fans of historical fiction, those interested in the history of flying, and others who just want a "deeply engrossing good read." This well-written story puts flesh and blood on the early pioneers of aviation, including Glenn Curtiss, Otto Lillienthal, Samuel Langley, and of course, Orville and Wilbur Wright.

Boyne, Walter J. Dawn over Kitty Hawk

After tracing the work of a number of pioneering experimenters including George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, and Samuel Langley, Crouch provides a short but informative analysis on how and why Wilbur and Orville Wright succeeded in giving humankind wings.

Wings: A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age

Early experimenters--Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley, Octave Chanute, and others--had established a solid base for understanding wing design and air-pressure principles essential to remaining aloft.

The Wright brothers

8, 1903, Samuel Langley watched helplessly as 17 years of hard work crashed into the Potomac River near Washington.

When man took to the skies: one hundred years ago this month, in Kitty Hawk, N.C., the Wright brothers gave the world powered flight

Samuel Langley had once been recognized as his country's greatest scientist.

Trial by flyer: from the start, the ground has never been very far away

'E veryone was sure Samuel Langley would be the first man to fly.

Books: Playing the flying game; First To Fly - The Unlikely Triumph of Wilbur and Orville Wright. By James Tobin (John Murray, pounds 25). Reviewed by Ross Reyburn

They were also keeping an eye on the activities of Samuel Langley. Commissioned by the U.S.

Slipping the surly bonds: the Wright brothers weren't the first to dream of powered flight. But, they were the first to put all the pieces together and achieve the dream