THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR. 343 



In 1904 we find ourselves once more in France. The French 

 automobile industry is gaining enormous successes. The Gordon- 

 Bennett cup has been won. The world has seen that France pos- 

 sesses the best and fastest motor cars. The motors are light and 

 strong. Only 3I kgs. to the horse-power. A fifty H.P. motor 

 weighs only 175 kgs. Where material was not wanted it was 

 drilled away. What a reduction in weight when compared with 

 the battery and electric propulsion used twenty years ago by 

 Krebs and Renard. A gentleman of the South, evidently from 

 Spain or Brazil, passes over the square at Meudon. We see him 

 enter a large shed. The sliding doors open and a vellow cigar 

 shaped balloon becomes visible. A buzzing noise indicates that 

 a motor is working. A number of men pull the cigar out of the 

 shed. The person from Brazil steps into the cage or gondola 

 hanging below the balloon. Now the nose of the ship rises into 

 the air. A jerk of the hand and the coupling joins the motor to the 

 propellor shaft. Like an obedient horse the ship leaves the yard, 

 rises to a height of 200 metres and takes its course. 



The man in the gondola was Santos Dumont, the young mil- 

 lionaire, who spent his money for the advancement of technics. 

 Santos Dumont possesses a charmed life. With a pluck and 

 determination, which one cannot too much admire, he builds one 

 ship after another, to come to grief time after time, only to rise 

 and try afresh. He may not have advanced the science of building 

 dirigibles to a great extent ; but he has certainly stirred up interest 

 in ballooning and tried what is essential for dirigibles, motors of 

 high horse-power and small weight. 



In the Bois de Boulogne people are out for a walk. Pigeons 

 are flying over the heads of the gay. "If I could only fly like 

 that" is the ardent thought of an aristocrat as he has difficulty in 

 keeping his full-blooded horse under control. 



"Bon jour. Monsieur le Comte, are you enjoying your ride? 

 If I were not an aeronaut I should also go in for this pastime." 

 "I congratulate you, Monsieur Dumont. It is delightful for me, 

 although not for my horse, to be accompanied in this matter. I 

 just envied the birds; but now I envy you still more." 



"Well, I invite you for a trip on Sunday next, M. le Comte, you 

 need not come to Meudon, I shall pick you up here. Your weight 

 is 75 kgs. so I shall bring a sandbag of similar weight." The 

 Count then forces his unruly horse towards the balloon. Dumont 

 drops another yard or two. Both gentlemen shake hands and 

 separate. 



The papers are full of reports of this journey. Captain Renard, 

 who has advanced to a Colonelship, shakes his head and murmurs : 

 "The motor, the motor ! If I could only have had a motor like 

 that twenty years ago !" 



We find ourselves next in Germany. A cavalry General of the 

 ancient family of the Zeppelins has just retired from the army. 

 He was the first officer who in 1870 as a scout entered France, 

 where he did noble work for his country. The success of the 

 French balloonists during the war made him ponder about a 

 dirigible balloon. When his retirement came, the old General, 



