THE AVIATOR FLYING-MACHINE. 399 



ment, so as to utilize their reaction. Tlie vibrating tube resumes 

 its original shape, and the wings rise. Promptly, the barrel, car- 

 ried on by its cog-work, brings a cartridge under the hammer, 

 which falls ; a second explosion is produced, and the phenomena 

 already described are repeated in their order. During the third, 

 fourth, and so on to the twelfth explosion, the bird flies over a 

 horizontal distance of seventy-five or eighty metres, sustaining 

 itself against gravity and steadily rising. Instead of the bird 

 falling straight down at the end of its course, the wings, kept up 

 by the drawing together of the branches of the tube and the silken 

 aeroplane (C, Fig. 1), the surface of which is proportioned to the 

 weight of the imitation animal, act as a parachute, and the 

 apparatus descends obliquely and slowly. The aeroplane, which 

 is represented by dotted lines, connects the head of the bird with 

 the helm, and with the wings and the tail. The use of the aero- 

 plane will always be of advantage, whatever the power of the 

 motor ; for its surface, constantly proportionate to the total 

 weight, will serve to prevent any accident in case of the sudden 

 arrest of the motor machine. We repeat that, in the apparatus of 

 large dimensions, a reservoir of compressed hydrogen is substi- 

 tuted for the cartridges of the small model ; while the use of alu- 

 minum is suggested by its lightness and the probability of its being 

 obtainable at a reasonable price. We also remark that the exten- 

 sive cooling surface of the vibrating tube and its direct contact 

 with the air, which will be closer as the velocity is greater, will 

 keep it at a moderate temperature ; yet there will be little danger 

 of its getting heated, for the simplicity of the mechanism, and 

 the removal of all transmission by rotation or sliding, will prevent 

 the necessity of using lubricants or refrigerants. In short, the 

 combined advantages of the generator-motor-propeller constitute 

 it the lightest aviator that it is possible to construct. It pos- 

 sesses, we dare say, all the warrantees of ascensional power and 

 return. 



We shall be glad if we have succeeded in this summary in con- 

 veying to our readers the faith we have in the possibility and the 

 near realization of practical navigation of the air ; if the subject 

 has any further interest for them, they will find a general serious 

 and profound discussion of it in a book by M, Barral, and also full 

 descriptions of a number of sustaining machines which we have 

 devised, including the one we have just presented to them. Con- 

 structed during the siege of 1870, it is the first machine heavier 

 than the air susceptible of construction on a large scale and capa- 

 ble of traveling by its own force. The crowning experiment in 

 the navigation of the air now depends only on capital and second- 

 ary studies ; and, again, in centering our efforts on the discovery 

 of a strong and light motor, we believe we were the first (in 1870) 



