A SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LANGLEY GOLD MEDAL AWARDED TO CHARLES MATTHEWS MANLY

A SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LANGLEY GOLD MEDAL AWARDED TO CHARLES MATTHEWS MANLY, struck in Paris, awarded in 1929. 75mm diameter, 20-karat gold, 9.6 troy oz. The obverse with a relief of a female figure seated on the Earth holding a torch in her left hand and a scroll in her right hand, and embossed 'PER ORBEM', designed by Jules-Clément Chaplain; the reverse adapted from the Smithsonian Institution seal designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, inscribed in the center 'LANGLEY MEDAL / AERODROMICS / CHARLES / MATTHEWS MANLY / MCMXXIX'. The edge is unevenly stamped '[?]OR'. Housed in a leather-covered case with green silk lining and a green velvet-covered insert/stand. Also with a bronze copy of the medal awarded to Manly, stamped 'BRONZE', 75mm diameter, housed in a red silk and velvet lined leather-covered case. Ungraded. Footnotes: Provenance By descent through the Manly family, then to the present owner. Note The Langley Medal was established in 1908 by the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents at the suggestion of Alexander Graham Bell. The medal is awarded for 'meritorious investigations in connection with the science of aerodromics and its application to aviation.' Other noted recipients include Orville and Wilbur Wright, Charles Lindbergh, and the crew of Apollo 11. The medal is named for Samuel P. Langley (1834-1906), an aviation pioneer who devoted his career to the development of the new science of astrophysics and the study of mechanized flight. Langley was the third Secretary of the Smithsonian, from 1887 to 1906, and founded the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. His Aerodrome experimental aircraft made two manned flight attempts in 1903, both piloted by Langley's chief assistant Charles Matthews Manly. Charles M. Manly (1876-1927) was a mechanical engineer who contributed significantly to the development of the first purpose-designed aircraft engine. The revolutionary Manly-Balzer engine, originally built for Langley's Aerodrome, was far more successful than the aircraft itself and influenced aeronautics for decades to come. In 1898, racing to be the first to achieve heavier-than-air manned flight, Langley wrote to Professor Robert Thurston of Cornell University looking for a 'young man who is morally trustworthy ('a good fellow') with some gumption and a professional training.' Thurston recommended Manly, a senior about to graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering, and Manly was hired to assist Langley with his work. That year, Langley also contracted with Stephen M. Balzer to construct an engine that would power his flying machines. The initial engine, intended for an automobile, didn't meet the necessary requirements; Manly then completely redesigned it, making major improvements for its use in an aircraft. By 1903, the innovative five-cylinder, water-cooled radial engine could produce 52 horsepower with a groundbreaking power-to-weight ratio. The engine was installed on the Aerodrome, and Langley arranged for a test flight in October. With Manly aboard as the pilot, they attempted to launch the aircraft from a catapult mounted on a houseboat in the Potomac River. The engine itself performed exceptionally well, but instead of taking flight, the Aerodrome immediately plunged into the water. They tried again on December 8, 1903; the aircraft crashed into the river again, and Manly nearly drowned in the wreckage and icy water. Langley was forced to accept that the Aerodrome wouldn't make the world's first sustained, powered, and controlled heavier-than-air flight. It was just nine days later that the Wright Brothers accomplished it near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Despite the fact that it was designed for an airplane that ultimately couldn't fly, Manly's engine was a remarkable feat of engineering. In fact, the Manly-Balzer engine was 'so well designed and built that it was a model for the majority of airplane engines produced throughout the world until the end of World War II.' Manly continued to contribute to the field of aviation until his death in 1927. The Smithsonian posthumously awarded the Langley Medal to Manly on December 12, 1929, in recognition of his pioneering work in the development of the airplane engine. It was presented to his son C.W. Manly in 1930. The award was made on recommendation of a board headed by Charles L. Lawrance, president of the Wright Aeronautic Corporation, who said in an address at the International Civil Aeronautics Conference in 1928: 'I wish particularly to call your attention to this engine; for if the Wright brothers were geniuses in the science of aerodynamics as well as in the engineering judgment and good sense which characterized the conduct of their successive experiments, and if Glenn Curtiss was the practical type of engine designer most likely to succeed, Charles Matthews Manly was certainly the outstanding genius of early power plant design. When we consider that the most popular type of airplane engine of today is almost identical in its general detail and arrangement with the one evolved by Charles Manly in 1902, we are lost in admiration for a man who, with no data at his disposal, no examples of similar art on which to roughly base his design and no workmen capable of making the more difficult parts of his engine, nevertheless, through the processes of a logical mind, the intelligent application of the science of mathematics and the use of his surprising mechanical skill, succeeded in constructing an engine developing 52.4 horsepower for a weight of 125 pounds, or a weight of 2.4 pound per horsepower, which stood up under severe tests, once even going through a full power non-stop run of ten hours.' For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing