About This Image

Samuel Pierpont Langley (8/22/1834-2/27/1906) (in light colored suit) during the ascent of French government balloons at Meudon at the time of the Aeronautical Congress in Paris, September 20, 1900. Smithsonian Institution U.S. National Museum stamp on verso. Negative number 33951-M-U and title and date in ink on verso.

Langley, was as an American aviation pioneer, astronomer and solar physicist who invented the bolometer in 1878, an instrument capable of detecting minute differences in temperature measuring radiant heat by means of a material having a temperature-dependent electrical resistance. In aviation he attempted to make a working piloted heavier-than-air aircraft. In this photograph it may be Langley's engineer and test pilot Charles M. Manley (1876-1927) walking on Langley's right.

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