392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



body of knowledge, I think teachers will, as a whole, be quick to 

 respond to the demand and the opportunity — as a release from the 

 belittling effects of their present monotonous drudgery with triv- 

 ial ideas, if for no higher motive. 



In conclusion, the reader may w^sh to ask, " Was the experi- 

 ment, after all, a success ? " I answer, '* As a demonstration of 

 the possibility and value of introducing little children to real 

 learning, yes; as a realization of my ideals, no." I was conscious 

 that there was much that was superficial in the work ; and that, 

 in striving to avoid shadows and to grasp the real substance of 

 education, I often grasped but another and a finer sort of shadow. 

 May some other teacher, having greater fitness for the work, and 

 a longer opportunity for effort, reach the goal for which I started ! 

 The instruction such an one could give about primary education 

 is needed all over our beloved land. 



THE AVIATOR FLYING-MACHINE. 



Bt m. g. teouve. 



A SUCCINCT history was given by M. G. Dary, in a recent 

 number of UEleciricien, of the vain efforts that have been 

 made at different times to steer balloons in the atmosphere. Some 

 of the experiments were, indeed, of real merit ; but they did not 

 succeed practically, because the problem they were intended to 

 solve offers insurmountable obstacles. The steering of balloons 

 and the realization of great speed with them are practically 

 impossible, and the results obtained from experiments directed 

 to those objects have not been worth the immense outlays that 

 have been made upon them. Yet balloons styled directable will 

 probably render very appreciable services in military art and 

 under a few other special circumstances. The experiments of 

 M. Gaston Tissandier and Commandant Renard have not been 

 useless, and it will be of some advantage to continue them. But 

 while balloonists are right in seeking to increase the dimensions 

 of their globes in order to increase at once the proportion of ascen- 

 sional power and of motor and propulsive energy to resistance, 

 we, advocates of machines heavier than the air, looking especially 

 to great speed, would gradually diminish the function of the bal- 

 loon as a sustainer, reduce it, and bring into greater predominance 

 the propulsory organs, making them at once more powerful and 

 lighter. These are those which, with the motor and the generator, 

 represent the element heavier than the air. When the balloon 

 shall have been eliminated in this way, practical aerial navigation 

 will have been accomplished. 



