468 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



shores, where the boat was made fast to moorings which had previously 

 been placed in readiness for it 



Although extreme delays had already occurred, yet they were not 

 so trying as the ones which began immediately after the work was thus 

 transferred to the lower Potomac. 



The object in constructing the quarter-size counterpart of the large 

 machine was to duplicate in it the balancing and relative proportions 

 of power, surface, etc., that had been arranged in the large one, so that 

 a test of it might be made which would determine whether the large 

 machine should be tried as arranged or the balancing and other ar- 

 rangements modified. The launching apparatus, which had proved 

 so eminently successful with the original steam-driven models in 1896, 

 was considered a thing so well tested that it had, as I have stated, been 

 duplicated on a suitable scale for use with the large aerodrome, and 

 it was felt that if this apparatus were exactly similar to the smaller 

 one it would be the one appliance least likely to mar the experiments. 



In order to test the quarter-size model it was necessary to remove 

 its launching track from the top of the small house boat and place it 

 upon the deck of the large boat, in order to have all the work go on 

 at one place, as it was impossible, on account of its unseaworthiness, 

 to moor the small house boat in the middle of the river. 



While this transfer of the launching apparatus from the small 

 boat to the large one was being made, the changed atmospheric con- 

 ditions incident to a large body of water over which thick fogs hung 

 a great portion of the time, from those of a well-protected shop on 

 the land, began to manifest themselves in such ways as the rusting of 

 the metal parts and fittings, and the consequent disarrangement of 

 the adjustment of the necessarily very accurate pieces of apparatus 

 connected with the ignition system of the engine. These difficulties 

 might have partly been anticipated, but there were others concerning 

 which the cause of the deterioration and disarrangement of certain 

 parts and adjustments was not immediately detected, and consequently 

 when short preliminary shop tests of the small machine were attempted 

 just prior to launching it, it was found that the apparatus did not 

 work properly, necessitating repairs and new constructions and con- 

 sequent delay. Although the large house boat with the entire outfit 

 had been moved down the river on July 14, 1903, it was not until the 

 eighth of August that the test of the quarter-size model was made, and 

 all of this delay was directly due to changed atmospheric conditions 

 incident to the change in locality. This test of the model in actual 

 flight was made on the eighth of August, 1903, when it worked most 

 satisfactorily, the launching apparatus, as always heretofore, perform- 

 ing perfectly, while the model, being launched directly into the face 

 of the wind, flew directly ahead on an even keel. The balancing 



