Part 26

In England one hundred years ago a few of these "steamers" were run as stage coaches. They were noisy, clumsy "steamers" and always likely to explode. They were not popular, and a law was passed that a man must always walk ahead of them carrying a red flag. They were only allowed to go only four miles an hour. Of course this meant they could not be used at all.

[Sidenote: =Watts could not imagine good roads=]

Oliver Evans of Philadelphia built the first steam automobile in the United States in 1804, to carry a steam flatboat he had made down to the river. Evans and other inventors after him for nearly one hundred years worked on self-driven carriages, but could interest no one in their plans. Watts, the great English inventor of the steam engine, stopped a friend who had all but invented an automobile. It was useless, he said; roads would not allow such rapid travel. Watts could discover steam power, but it never occurred to him that good roads could be easily built. The use of rubber tires in 1887 stopped the jolting that had been such a difficulty.

In 1892 Charles Duryea built the first gasoline automobile in America. He tried to get money to continue his work. He told a business man, "You and I will live to see more automobiles than horses on the street." The man thought him crazy, and refused to help him. Now horses are becoming rare in large cities.

=206. America, the Land of Automobiles.= In 1891 the first electric vehicle in this country was made. The first gasoline car was sold March 24, 1898. Now, twenty years later, this country is manufacturing nearly half a million cars annually. Other countries are backward by comparison. Four-fifths of all the automobiles in the world are owned in the United States.

[Sidenote: =Motor trucks in the war=]

Motor trucks can carry many tons, and are now very largely used for hauling, especially in cities. At the end of the war our government had seventy thousand trucks in use overseas.

One time when the German army threatened Paris it was only the unbroken stream of motor trucks moving along a great French road carrying men and supplies to the front that saved the city. In memory of its service the French call this road the "Sacred Way."

WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT, THE MEN WHO GAVE HUMANITY WINGS

=207. Early Attempts to Fly.= To sail through the air as birds do is an ambition that has dazzled men since ancient times. The Greek myths tell us of Phaeton who drove the horses of the sun, and of Icarus who flew too near the sun with his wings of feathers and wax.

[Sidenote: =Studying birds=]

To learn how to fly men studied the wings of huge birds living millions of years ago, made careful mathematical reckonings about them, and then made themselves wings of feathers or skin. But with these wings they could only glide to earth from high towers or cliffs. One useful thing they learned from this study. They found that the wing of a bird is bent as you bend a long piece of paper if you hold it by opposite corners and start to twist it. This is called the principle of the screw, and is now used in making the propeller blades of airplanes.

=208. The First Airplanes.= Early airplanes, airplane models and "gliders" were made in the queerest, most outlandish shapes imaginable. They had from one to five or more planes, arranged at almost every possible angle. Some looked like a row of box kites, some like dragons, and some like a collection of old fashioned windmill wheels all fastened together.

It was only a little while ago that men were working with these strange models, for it was only about ten years before the World War that a successful airplane flight was first made.

The invention of the balloon came late in the history of flying. Two sons of a French paper manufacturer probably made the first balloon. They filled a large bag with hot air from a bonfire, and found that it rose and sailed away.

Early balloons were carried through the air by wind currents, and could not be guided. Their passengers were often blown out to sea and drowned.

[Sidenote: =Zeppelins=]

A German, Count Zeppelin, invented a balloon called a dirigible, because it could be directed through the air. The Germans named these large cigar-shaped balloons "zeppelins," after their inventor.

Dirigibles are now built more than two blocks long, about the length of the largest battleships. They can lift heavy loads, but are very expensive and very easily broken, and require huge sheds or houses to shelter them.

[Sidenote: =First successful flight=]

An airship properly means a dirigible, while an airplane is a heavier-than-air machine. The first successful flight of any length in an airplane that could be directed was made by Wilbur Wright in 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was also the first time an airplane had been driven by a gasoline engine.

[Sidenote: =Did bicycle repairing=]

=209. The Wright Brothers.= Wilbur Wright was one of two brothers who had long been working on the problem of a flying machine. He was born in 1867, and his brother Orville in 1871. Their father was a bishop whose excellent library took the place of a university education for his boys. Wilbur and Orville studied especially works on physics, mathematics, and engineering. They earned their living by making and repairing bicycles. But they spent much time experimenting with different kinds of gliders. They also studied the action of the atmosphere. Aërostatics, or the science of the air, is a very difficult and important part of flying.

[Sidenote: =Flights by airplane models=]

Before Wilbur Wright's success in 1903 progress of various kinds had been made. Fairly long flights with gliders had been made in different countries. Two Americans, Langley and Hiram Maxim, had worked out models driven by steam. Langley's had flown half a mile over the Potomac, and Maxim's, though not allowed to fly freely, was strong enough to carry a man.

The Wright brothers were wise in employing a gasoline motor. A steam engine, with its large boilers, was of course much heavier. They had a rudder in the tail of their machine, but they also invented a new method of steering. By "warping" or bending the planes, a monoplane, with its one set of wings could keep its balance as well as a biplane, which has two.

After Wilbur Wright's first flight in 1903 several Frenchmen made successful flights. But in 1908 Wilbur Wright went to France and broke the records of all the French flyers by the unparalleled feat of remaining in the air for more than two hours.

[Sidenote: =Air records=]

Now the airplane can do all kinds of fantastic tricks. Aviators "loop the loop" dozens of times, and move in any direction through the air at will. They can rise in the air thirty-six thousand feet, and can fly at the rate of three miles a minute. In 1907 Orville Wright made the first record flight of an hour. All this has been accomplished in scarcely more than a dozen years since then. Flying developed especially rapidly during the World War. Airplanes were used to spy out the enemy's defenses, to direct gunfire, to drop bombs, to shoot down soldiers, and to hunt submarines. The daring and brilliant fighting of airmen in the World War makes a story more breathless than that of any novel. Incidents like landing with burning planes or with planes partly stripped of their canvas were not uncommon for these fighters of the air.

[Sidenote: =Bombing machines=]

One type of airplane was used for fighting and another heavier type for bombing. Air bombing is now so accurate that in the future it may be useless to build super-dreadnaughts and large battleships.

=210. Peace Time Uses of the Airplane.= During times of peace airplanes are useful in exploring and for carrying passengers and light freight. Airplanes scarcely more expensive than the earlier automobiles can now be bought.

[Sidenote: =Airplanes carry the mail=]

Airplanes in this country are chiefly used for carrying mail. "The mail must fly" is the slogan of the mailmen of the air, and in storm or fog--even in the face of a tornado--it has gone.

In May, 1919, a hydroplane belonging to the United States navy made the first trip across the ocean. A hydroplane is an airplane having a boat-like body so that it is able to alight on or rise from the water.

[Sidenote: =Transatlantic flights=]

In July a British dirigible flew across with its crew. A few weeks earlier a British plane flew from continent to continent in less than sixteen hours. It took Columbus seventy days to make his crossing.

JOHN P. HOLLAND, WHO TAUGHT MEN HOW TO SAIL UNDER THE SEA

[Sidenote: =Bushnell and Fulton and the undersea boat=]

=211. The Submarine.= During the War of the Revolution an American named Bushnell worked on the problem of making a boat that would sail under the surface of the sea. He was the first to work on this problem and is called the Father of the Submarine. Some years later Robert Fulton (page 257) became interested in the submarine. In 1801 he built one for the French government. But Fulton turned his efforts to making steamboats and did not continue his plans for a successful diving boat.

[Sidenote: =John P. Holland, 1842=]

=212. John P. Holland.= John P. Holland was born in Ireland in 1842. He was a studious boy and became a teacher. The stories of Bushnell and of Fulton interested him and he studied carefully what they had done.

He came to America and settled in New Jersey. There he got a position as teacher in a parochial school. He continued his study of the undersea boat making many experiments and tests.

Holland's first submarine became stuck in the mud. But he did not give up. His next boat he called the "Fenian Ram." It frightened people when it suddenly raised its head out of the water and as quickly disappeared.

In 1895, after a number of severe tests, Holland succeeded in interesting the United States Government in his plans. He built for it a submarine which he named the "Plunger."

Holland now formed a company to build his boats. In 1898 he produced the famous Holland submarine. This boat settled any doubt about what submarines could do. It was only fifty feet long, but it could dive under water and rise again at the will of the inventor. From that time the Holland company built many submarines for all the great nations of the world.

[Sidenote: =The periscope=]

From the top of the submarine there extends upward a long slender tube called a periscope. When the boat is under water the end of this tube extends above the surface. By means of a certain arrangement of lenses and mirrors in this tube, the observer in the submarine can see everything on the surface of the water. In this way the boat can be guided in any direction.

Holland died in 1914.

[Sidenote: =Value in war=]

=213. The Submarine in War and Peace.= The submarine is much used in war time. The war diver is provided with one and sometimes two tubes through which torpedoes or bombs may be fired at enemy ships while the submarine is hidden under water. It is very hard to detect a submarine when it is under the water. The only sign of its approach is a slight ripple on the surface. But if we look straight down at the water from high up in the air, then the outlines of the boat can easily be seen. In war time airplanes are used in spying out the submarine.

[Sidenote: =Use of the submarine in peace=]

In times of peace, too, the submarine is of great value. It is not exposed to great storms on the sea, since it can escape the waves by submerging. These boats can cross the ocean and are large enough to carry cargoes of valuable goods. In July, 1916, the world was startled by the arrival of the merchant submarine, "Deutschland," at Baltimore. Loaded with articles of trade, mainly chemicals, she left Bremen, dodged the British and French blockade, and in fifteen days reached America.

One cause of America's entering the World War was Germany's attempt to starve England by a submarine blockade.

[Sidenote: =Fighting the submarine=]

=214. Other Inventions in the War.= The "depth bomb" was an out and out new invention. 11 could be "dropped" over the spot where a submarine was seen. Very often it blew the submarine to pieces.

The "tank" was a "moving iron fort" drawn by a tractor. It could tear wire entanglements to pieces and cross enemy trenches. The "depth bomb" and "tank" were used mainly by the Allies.

The wide use of "poison gas" was first introduced by the Germans. Guns able to shoot many miles were invented. One of them carried seventy miles or more.

SUGGESTIONS INTENDED TO HELP THE PUPIL

=The Leading Facts.= _1._ Edison learned telegraphy, and made his own instruments. _2._ Edison saved the day in Wall Street, and made his reputation, as well as plenty of money. _3._ He made many telegraph and telephone inventions. _4._ He built great laboratories in New Jersey, where many men worked helping him. _5._ Edison invented the phonograph, and worked to improve the electric light. _6._ An argument about horseracing led to the invention of moving pictures. _7._ Edison improved the moving picture camera. _8._ C. Francis Jenkins invented the first complete moving picture machine. _9._ During the World War remarkable moving pictures were taken on all fronts. _10._ Moving pictures are often used in schools and elsewhere for educational purposes. _11._ The typewriter was really the work of many different inventors. _12._ Typing machines for the blind first invented. _13._ Christopher Sholes' typewriter was the first practical one invented. _14._ The dictaphone is really a development of Edison's phonograph. _15._ It consists of two machines, and is used in business offices to save time. _16._ Steam automobiles were the first kind invented. _17._ For one hundred years many inventors worked trying to build automobiles. _18._ The first gasoline automobile in this country was built by Charles Duryea. _19._ The United States is far in the lead in the number of automobiles manufactured and used. _20._ Men have for ages tried to discover a way to fly. _21._ They filled balloons with gas or heated air which carried them far up. _22._ Dirigible balloons were invented by Zeppelin. _23._ Wilbur and Orville Wright built a successful heavier-than-air machine. _24._ The gasoline engine made their success possible. _25._ Airplanes can now go three miles a minute. _26._ All the great progress in flying has come since Wright's first successful flight in 1903. _27._ In the war airplanes were used for observing the enemy, for fighting, and for bombing. _28._ In this country airplanes are now used chiefly for carrying mail. _29._ A hydroplane has a boat-like body. _30._ In 1919 three successful flights were made across the Atlantic. _31._ John P. Holland was the first to succeed in building a submarine. _32._ The submarine is guided by means of the periscope, and is valuable in peace and war. _33._ Depth bombs and tanks were new inventions. _34._ The Germans introduced poison gas.

=Study Questions.= _1._ What books could Edison read at twelve? _2._ Tell of his thousand newspapers. _3._ What were the cause and the effect of his first lessons in telegraphy? _4._ What was his first great invention? _5._ What did he find in Wall Street, New York? _6._ How much did Edison think of asking for his invention? _7._ How much was offered him? _8._ Tell the story of the work in Edison's shop at Newark, New Jersey, _9._ Why did he want a great library at Menlo Park? _10._ How does sound travel? _11._ What was the trouble with Edison's first phonograph? _12._ Name some of the uses of the phonograph. _13._ Make a list of Edison's great inventions. _14._ Tell how the first moving pictures came to be made? _15._ How did the machine Edison invented differ from a real moving picture machine? _16._ Who invented the first complete moving picture machine? _17._ How important is the moving picture business? _18._ Tell some incidents of the war which you saw in moving pictures. _19._ Does your school use a moving picture machine in its classroom work? _20._ How are lessons studied when moving pictures are used? _21._ Where can schools get their films? _22._ Name two other uses for moving pictures. _23._ What earlier invention resembled the typewriter? _24._ Name one simple thing the lack of which kept men from inventing a typewriter sooner. _25._ Describe Sholes' first typewriter. _26._ From what invention did the dictaphone come? _27._ How is dictating done by means of the dictaphone? _28._ What difficulty held back the progress of the automobile? _29._ Name two ways in which this has been overcome. _30._ How old is the automobile business? _31._ How does the United States compare with other countries in number of automobiles used? _32._ How did auto trucks keep the Germans from capturing Paris? _33._ What is a Zeppelin or dirigible? _34._ Tell about the studies of the Wright brothers. _35._ What progress had others made before the Wright brothers succeeded? _36._ What was unusual about Wilbur Wright's flight in 1903? _37._ What is a monoplane? a biplane? a hydroplane? an airship? _38._ Name some peace-time and war-time uses of airplanes. _39._ Tell the story of Holland's inventions. _40._ What are the uses of the submarine? _41._ Name the first submarine to cross the Atlantic.

=Suggested Readings.= THOMAS A. EDISON: Mowry, _American Inventions and Inventors_, 85-89; Dickson, _Life and Inventions of Edison_, 4-153, 280-388.

CHRISTOPHER L. SHOLES: Hubert, _Inventors_, 161-163.

THE AUTOMOBILE: Doubleday, _Stories of Inventors_, 69-84; Forman, _Stories of Useful Inventions_, 161-163.

WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT: Wade, _The Light Bringers_, 112-141; Delacombe, _The Boys' Book of Airships_; Simonds, _All about Airships_; Holland, _Historic Inventions_, 273-295.

JOHN P. HOLLAND: Corbin, _The Romance of Submarine Engineering_; Bishop, _The Story of the Submarine_; Williams, _Romance of Modern Inventions_, 143-165.

HEROINES OF NATIONAL PROGRESS

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY, TWO PIONEERS IN THE CAUSE OF WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE

[Sidenote: =Women play an important part in early progress=]

=215. The Women of Our Nation.= Women have had a large part in the progress of our nation. In colonial days women often had to defend their homes against Indians. They endured the hardships of the first settlements as bravely as did the men. They had larger rights and greater freedom than in England at that time, because their help was so plainly necessary in this new country.

By 1850 nearly one-fourth of the nation's manufacturing was done by women, but otherwise until that time women's lives were spent almost entirely in their homes. Though no colleges were open to women until 1833, many mothers knew enough of books to prepare their sons for college at home.

[Sidenote: =Women's service in war=]

During the Revolution women formed a society called "Daughters of Liberty," to spin and sew for their soldiers. They gave their treasured pewter spoons and dishes to be melted up for bullets. As women have always done, they cared for the sick and wounded after battles.

In the great Civil War, women were needed still more to nurse the wounded, for even then there was no Red Cross or large body of women who were nurses by profession to call upon. Women took the place of the men called to war in many ways, and especially in teaching schools. On both sides women worked in the fields, and sometimes acted as spies, or served, disguised, in the ranks. Southern women also entered the factories in large numbers. They had to meet even greater hardship than women in the North, and were often face to face with starvation.

On the frontier women had always worked in the fields when necessary, and often helped to build the houses they lived in. The fearless pioneering spirit and fine, sturdy character of these women won them the highest respect. This was one reason why western states were the first to grant women the right to vote.

[Sidenote: =Women's equality with men=]

Long before the Civil War great leaders in the cause of woman's advancement had appeared. These leaders saw that in many ways women had proved their equality with men. This encouraged them to appeal for wider opportunities for women, who then had almost no legal rights. The leaders now demanded the privileges enjoyed only by men. We should all know the stories of these women of wise and fearless vision.

[Sidenote: =Born, 1815=]

=216. Elizabeth Cady Stanton.= Elizabeth Cady was born in New York, in 1815. Her girlhood was a happy one, spent with her brother and sisters. She was a healthy, rosy-cheeked girl, full of life and fun, who believed girls were the equals of boys and had just as much intellect.

[Sidenote: =Studies hard=]

When Elizabeth was eleven years old her brother died. Her father grieved deeply over the loss of his only son, and Elizabeth determined to try to be to her father all that her brother might have been. She therefore applied herself diligently to study and self-improvement.

[Sidenote: =Finds woman's position unequal=]

Her father was a lawyer. He had been a member of Congress. Many hours out of school Elizabeth spent in his office, listening while his clients stated their cases. She gradually became indignant at what she found to be the unequal position of women in almost every walk of life. She determined to devote her life to securing for women the same rights and privileges that men had.

[Sidenote: =Marries Henry B. Stanton=]

While studying she did not neglect the arts of housekeeping. She regarded these as occupations of the highest dignity and importance. When twenty-five years old she married Henry B. Stanton, a lawyer and journalist who since his student days had talked and written against slavery. But she did not forget her old resolve to struggle for the rights of women, even when occupied with the duties of home and children.

[Sidenote: =Calls woman's rights convention=]

=217. The First Woman's Rights Convention.= In 1848 Mrs. Stanton called a woman's rights convention--the first ever held. Its purpose was "to discuss the social, civil, and religious conditions and rights of women."

[Sidenote: ="Declaration of Sentiments"=]

[Sidenote: =Women demand the right to vote=]

Mrs. Stanton read to the convention a set of twelve resolutions, the now famous "Declaration of Sentiments." It demanded for women equality with men and "all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States," including the right to vote. This was the first public demand for woman's suffrage. The resolutions were passed. A storm of ridicule followed the convention, but Mrs. Stanton's position remained unchanged.

[Sidenote: =Susan B. Anthony, 1820=]

=218. Susan B. Anthony.= A few years after this historic convention, Mrs. Stanton met Susan B. Anthony. Miss Anthony was the daughter of Friends, or Quakers as they are often called. She was born at South Adams, Massachusetts, in 1820. Her father maintained a school at Battenville, New York, and here Susan received her early education.

[Sidenote: =Teaches school=]

[Sidenote: =Won to the cause of woman's rights=]