THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



411 



Aerodrome No. 5 on Launching-ways. 



gasoline engine for which he had con- 

 tracted; no European builder thought 

 it possible to supply a twelve-horse 

 power engine weighing as little as 200 

 pounds. Mr. Manly at the end of the 

 year 1901 had succeeded in construct- 

 ing an engine of fifty-horse power, 

 weighing about 200 pounds. 



After long-continued experiments in 

 adjusting the engine, the aerodrome 

 was made ready for trial. The house- 

 boat and launching gear caused innu- 

 merable difficulties but on October 7, 

 1903, at 12.20 p.m. the aerodrome, with 



Mr. Manly in control, was launched. 

 The trial ended disastrously, owing to 

 an accident by which a guy-post caught 

 in the launching gear. Mr. Manly nar- 

 rowly escaped drowning through en- 

 tanglement in the wrecked machine. 

 He showed great courage in again re- 

 peating the experiment under unfavor- 

 able conditions on December 8, when 

 1 again the launching gear was at fault, 

 j and the aerodrome had no opportunity 

 I to demonstrate its power of flight. 

 Owing mainly to ridicule in the news- 

 I papers and the fear of its effect on 



Flight of large Aerodrome, October 7, 1903. 



