biography
| name: |
Langley, Samuel (Pierpont)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1834–1906)
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| biography:
| Inventor and aeronautical pioneer, born in Roxbury (now part of Boston), Massachusetts, USA. Although he had no formal higher education, he served for 20 years as director of the Allegheny Observatory (1867–87). While director, he created a system of regulating railroad time that became standard. In 1878 he invented a bolometer, an electrical thermometer, which he used to conduct experiments on solar and lunar radiation. During 1887–1906 he served as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He built several models of heavier-than-air mechanically propelled flying machines, and in 1896 he achieved the first free flights. His subsequent attempt to build and fly a man-carrying machine failed. |
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