472 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



were two representatives of the Board of Ordnance, 2 noticed that the 

 machine was jerked violently down at the front (being caught, as 

 it subsequently appeared, by the falling ways), 3 and under the full 

 power of its engine was pulled into the water, carrying with it its 

 engineer. When the aerodrome rose to the surface it was found that, 

 while the front sustaining surfaces had been broken by their impact 

 with the water, yet the rear ones were comparatively uninjured. As 

 soon as a full examination of the launching mechanism had been made, 

 it was found that the front portion of the machine had caught on the 

 launching car, and that the guy post, to which were fastened the guy 

 wires which are the main strength of the front surfaces, had been bent 

 to a fatal extent. 



The machine, then, had never been free in the air, but had been 

 pulled down as stated. 



The disaster just briefly described had indefinitely postponed the 

 test, but this was not all. As has been said before, the weather had 

 become very cold, and the so-called equinoctial storms being near, it 

 was decided to remove the house boat at the earliest time possible, but 

 before it could be done a storm came up and swept away all the 

 launches, boats, rafts, etc., and in doing so completely demolished the 

 greater part of them, so that when the house boat was finally removed 

 to Washington, on the fifteenth of October, these appurtenances had 

 to be replaced. It is necessary to remember that these long series of 

 delays worked other than mere scientific difficulties, for a more im- 

 portant and more vital one was the exhaustion of the financial means 

 for the work. 



Immediately upon getting the boat to Washington the labor of con- 

 structing new sustaining surfaces was begun, and they were completed 

 about the close of November. It was proposed to make a second 

 attempt near the city, though in the meantime the ice had formed in 

 the river. However, on the eighth of December, 1903, the atmosphere 

 became very quiet shortly before noon and an immediate attempt was 

 made at Arsenal Point, quite near Washington, though the site was 

 unfavorable. Shortly after arriving at the selected point everything 



■ ■ Major Macomb, of the Board of Ordnance, states in his report to the 

 board, that " the trial was unsuccessful because the front guy post caught in 

 its support on the launching car and was not released in time to give free flight, 

 as was intended, but, on the contrary, caused the front of the machine to be 

 dragged downward, bending the guy post and making the machine plunge into 

 the water about 50 yards in front of the house boat." 



3 This instantaneous photograph, taken from the boat itself and hitherto 

 unpublished, shows the aerodrome in motion before it had actually cleared the 

 house boat. On the left is seen a portion of a beam, being a part of the falling 

 ways in which the front wing was caught, while the front wing itself is seen 

 twisted, showing that the accident was in progress before the aerodrome was 

 f-ce to fly. 



