Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834–1906) was an American astronomer, physicist, and aviation pioneer. He conducted groundbreaking research in astronomy, particularly in solar radiation and its atmospheric effects. Langley’s instruments for solar observation advanced astrophysics. In aviation, Langley is renowned for his experiments with heavier-than-air flying machines. Although his early attempts at manned flight were unsuccessful, his Aerodrome No. 5 achieved unmanned flights in 1896, a significant milestone. Despite setbacks, Langley’s work laid the groundwork for future aviation progress. His contributions to aeronautics influenced subsequent pioneers, notably the Wright brothers, whose successful powered flight in 1903 built upon Langley’s research. Langley’s legacy endures in both astronomy and aviation, marking him as a key figure in scientific exploration and technological advancement.

Samuel Pierpont Langley Quotes

01. “As the thought of man is widened with the process of the suns,” let us hope that we shall one day know more.
― Samuel Pierpont Langley

02. “The fields glitter with snow-crystals in the winter noon, and the eye is dazzled with a reflection of the splendor which the sun pours so fully into every nook that by it alone we appear to see everything.”
― Samuel Pierpont Langley

03. “The sun, as we shall learn later, is a star, and not a particularly large star. It is, as has been said, ‘only a private in the host of heaven,’ but it is one of that host; it is one of those glittering points to which we have been brought near.”
― Samuel Pierpont Langley

04. “The surface of the sun may be compared to an elaborate engraving, filled with the closest and most delicate lines and hatchings, but an engraving which during ninety-nine hundredths of the time can only be seen across such a quivering mass of heated air as makes everything confused and liable to be mistaken, causing what is definite to look like a vaguely seen mottling.”
― Samuel Pierpont Langley

05. “If Mars were as near as the moon, we should see with the naked eye clouds passing over its face; and that we never do see these on the moon, even with the telescope, is itself a proof that none exist there. Now, this absence of clouds, or indeed of any evidence of moisture, is confirmed by every one of the nearer views like those we are here getting.”
― Samuel Pierpont Langley

06. “But may there not be other planets on which intelligent life exists, and where this heat, which passes us by, serves other beings than ourselves? There may be; but if we could suppose all the other planets of the solar system to be inhabited, it would help the matter very little; for the whole together intercept so little of the great sum, that all of it which Nature bestows on man is still as nothing to what she bestows on some end — if end there be — which is to us as yet inscrutable.”
― Samuel Pierpont Langley

07. “Nature, we are told, always accomplishes her purpose with the least possible expenditure of energy.”
― Samuel Pierpont Langley

08. “Thus, since it is this power in the atmosphere of storing the heat which makes us live, no less than the sun’s rays themselves, we see how the temperature of a planet may depend on considerations quite beside its distance from the sun; and when we discuss the possibility of life in other worlds, we shall do well to remember that Saturn may be possibly a warm world, and Mercury conceivably a cold one.”
― Samuel Pierpont Langley