THE LANGLEY AERODROME 



47i 



the city, was incurred, and this was a part of the continuous drain on 

 the pecuniary resources, which proved ultimately more fatal than any 

 mishap to the apparatus itself. 



Following the 3d of September, and after procuring new batteries, 

 short preliminary tests inside the boat were made in order to make 

 sure that there would be no difficulty in the running of the engine 

 the next time a fair opportunity arrived for making a test of the 



machine in free flight. 



Something of the same troubles which had 



Fig. 1. Instantaneous Photograph of the Launch of October 7, 1903. 



been met with in the disarrangement of the adjustments of the small 

 engine was experienced in the large one, although they occurred in 

 such a different way that they were not detected until they had caused 

 damage in the tests, and these disarrangements were responsible for 

 broken propellers, twisted shafts, crushed bearings, distorted frame- 

 work, etc., which were not finally overcome until the first of October. 

 After again getting everything in apparent readiness, there then 

 ensued a period of waiting on the weather until the seventh of October 

 (1903), when it became sufficiently quiet for a test, which I was now 

 beginning to fear could not be made before the following season. In 

 this, the first test, the engineer took his seat, the engine started with 

 ease and was working without vibration at its full power of over 

 fifty horse, and the word being given to launch the machine, the 

 car was released and the aerodrome sped along the track. Just as the 

 machine left the track, those who were watching it, among whom 



