122 RECENT AERONAUTICAL PROGRESS. 



Then we come to M. 81111108-01111)011^8 maii}^ more or less successful 

 trips in his navigable balloons, which, if not demonstrating any new 

 principles, has shown what perseverance and attention to detail can 

 ichieve. Though we have learned some useful practical lessons, and 

 have been given data of great value for future experimenting, unfor- 

 tunately the actual results attained cany us so little beyond what was 

 accomplished twenty years before by MM. Renard and Krebs that 

 one begins to think whether we have not nearly reached the end of the 

 tether as regards the propulsion of lialloons. 



The unfortunate calamities to M. Severo's and more recently to M. 

 de Bradsky's balloons, as well as the absolute failure of M. Roze and 

 others, only tend to confirm this growing opinion. The latest 

 accounts of M. Lebaudy's balloon seem to make out that it has accom- 

 plished more, but we must await the results of more prolonged trials 

 before we can come to an}" decision. Mr. Stanley Spencer's trip over 

 London in a navigable balloon, though it proved nothing as regards 

 the dirigibility or inherent speed of the machine, attracted some 

 interest in the matter. 



Besides these we have heard of various experiments with flying 

 machines proper. Herr Kress is said to have risen off the surface of 

 the water, but owing to some mismanagement the machine turned 

 downwards and fell in the water again. In Australia Mr. Hargrave 

 has constructed a large machine. In America Mr. Wilbur Wright 

 and his brother have been making wonderful progress with gliding 

 machines, and Professor Langley has been hard at work constructing 

 a large new machine. He informed me the other day that in a very 

 short time we might expect to hear something of this — something ))ig. 

 It might, he added, be a big smash! But he wisely intends trying it 

 over water. 



Then, too, like the invisible universe of dark stars that Sir Robert 

 Ball talks about as being possibly more extensive than that of those 

 seen, there are probably more inventions being worked at in private 

 than we ever hear of publicly, and many of them are doubtless of 

 great importance. It is only recently that the results have been pub- 

 lished of the valuable experiments with aerial-screw propellers which 

 Mr. W. G. Walker conducted for Mr. Alexander. 



Another sign of progress in the subject of aeronautics during the 

 last few years has been the establishment in England of two more 

 ])ul)lic bodies, the Aero Club and the Aeronautical Institute, the for- 

 m(>r having ))een esta})lished for the encouragement of ballooning (and 

 possibly flying) as a sport, while the latter aims at interesting the 

 working classics in the sul)j(M-t. 



I may here sei/.e the opportunity of explaining to our visitors and 

 others the objects of our society, and why it is that we make so much 

 of a studv which to them niav secMU somewhat chimerical and of no 



