Finds An Unknown Air Law.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 17, 1912:
Discovery by M. Cousin Likely Greatly to Assist Aviation.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    PARIS, Nov. 16.— An important advance is considered to have been made in the science of aviation by Joseph Cousin, who for some time past has been recognized as an authority on the laws of flight, and now asserts that he has discovered a hitherto unknown law, which he calls that of "presentation."
    This, he declares, is an essential, although hitherto unsuspected, principle in the motion of any body in a fluid medium, such as a bird in the air or a fish in water, and it explains the problem of how birds remain motionless and stationary in a strong current of air and also fly at a very high speed with a small expenditure of energy.
    "Presentation," he says, consists of special adaptation both in the form of a flying body and the manner in which it is offered to the direction of the current. It acts by causing the fluid medium, to form a counter-pressure behind the body actually stronger than that opposed to it in front, thus enormously assisting the progress of the body. .
    "Once this principle of the formation of a counter pressure by guiding and directing the air-current shall be fully recognized and applied in the construction of aeroplanes," says M. Cousin, "the result will be almost perfect security and an immense increase in speed."