CHAPTER XVII

AERONAUTICS

To fly in the air has been the dream of all peoples in all ages. "Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then would I fly away and be at rest!" sang the Psalmist. It would seem from the recent inventions in the science of aeronautics that this dream is to become in the near future a practical experience of our every-day lives.

A balloon is an apparatus with an envelope filled with gas, the specific gravity of which is less than that of the atmosphere near the surface of the earth. It is practically at the mercy of air-currents. The science of balloon aeronautics dates definitely from 1783, when the Montgolfier brothers at Angonay in France constructed their first balloons. These Frenchmen and their successors developed the spherical balloons to a state of efficiency which has scarcely been improved upon to this day. The balloon in time came to be adopted throughout Europe for military uses, mainly for the purpose of spying out the enemy's position and defenses.

A dirigible balloon usually has an elongated envelope and is equipped with a motor and a rudder by which it can be steered at will against a moderate wind. Balloon aeronautics became popular in 1898, when Santos-Dumont, a wealthy young Brazilian, performed a series of spectacular feats with his dirigible balloon. Immediately ballooning became the sporting fad in France and the craze spread rapidly over the Continent and to England. Numerous airships of the dirigible type made their appearance and many balloon factories were established.

In Germany every community has its aero club. In the United States there are about 300,000 club members scattered throughout the land who individually or collectively own over 200 balloons. All of the great nations own one or more aerial warships of the dirigible type, as well as numerous spherical balloons.

An aeroplane, as commonly known, is a machine which is sustained in the air by one, two, or three sets of rigid surfaces or planes. Unlike the balloon, it is heavier than air, and it must therefore maintain its position in the air by some form of mechanical propulsion. It must, in other words, fly like a bird.

The first aeroplane was invented by Henson, an Englishman, who in 1843 flew his machine, using a two-horse-power steam engine. In 1888 and in 1900 two other practically successful models appeared, one made by a French and the other by an English inventor. Langley, an American, who began experimenting in 1885, managed to fly over the Potomac in 1896. The Wright brothers made their initial flights under motor power in 1903.

During the years since 1903 innumerable types of aeroplanes have been developed, all based upon the lines laid down by Langley, Henson, Maxim, and other pioneers. Among the most successful experimenters have been Farman, Delagrange, Bleriot, Curtiss, and the Voisins.

The flapping-wing machine is called an orthopter (_orthos_, straight, + _ptera_, wing) and is supposed to copy bird flight. Screw-flyers, called helicopters, lift themselves from the ground by the thrust of varying numbers of rapidly moving propellers, revolving horizontally.

Some startling feats have been performed in the field of aeronautics. On August 7, 1910, John B. Moisant, an American, flew in a Bleriot monoplane across the English Channel, a distance of about twenty-five miles, in thirty-two minutes. He carried one passenger. On September 12, 1910, Claude Grahame-White, an Englishman, flew in a Farman biplane thirty-three miles in thirty-four minutes, near Boston, winning a prize of ten thousand dollars.

Every day new ideas take shape and are developed in some form that promotes the pleasure, comfort, or safety of mankind. There seems to be literally no limit to man's inventive power. His brain teems with thoughts and his hands labor incessantly to force his thoughts into material forms. He mounts higher and higher on the scale of civilization, casting away old ideas, inefficient methods, and worn-out machines, and substituting the new and wonderful things which he has achieved.

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Classic Fables. For First and Second Grades. Selected and edited by Edna Henry Lee Turpin. 127 pages, 12mo, cloth 30 cents

Grimm's Fairy Tales. For Second and Third Grades. Selected and edited by Edna Henry Lee Turpin. 207 pages, 12mo, cloth 40 cents

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Stories from Greek History. For Fourth and Fifth Grades. By Louise Diman. 239 pages, 12mo, cloth 40 cents

Heroes of History. For Fifth and Sixth Grades. By Ida Prentice Whitcomb. 448 pages, 12mo, cloth 60 cents

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