100 YEARS AGO
Boomerangs may be studied for their anthropological interest as examples of primitive art, or for the manner in which they illustrate dynamical principles. But there is extraordinary fascination in making and throwing them, and in watching the remarkable and always graceful curves described in their flight; accordingly my chief object in the following paper has been to diminish the practical difficulties of the subject by giving some of the results of ten years' experimental acquaintance with it... It is rather difficult to give sufficient spin to keep the motion stable through a long flight, and I have found it advantageous to wind round the wood about 60 grammes weight of copper wire in three equal portions, of which one is near the middle and one near each end. This materially increases the moment of inertia about the centre of gravity without interfering seriously with other details. I have thrown a loaded boomerang of this type 167 metres, and my range with a spherical ball of half the weight is only 63 metres.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution