50 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



as the quill of the eagle; but much time was consumed in various 

 constructions and tests before such a result was finally obtained. 



" During this time a model of the large machine, one-fourth of its 

 linear dimensions, was constructed, and a second contract was made 

 for an engine for it. The delay with the large engine was repeated 

 with the small one, and in the spring of 1900 it was found that both 

 contract engines were failures for the purpose for which they were 

 intended, as neither one developed half of the power required for the 

 allotted weight. 



" I accordingly again searched all over this country, and, finally, 

 accompanied by an engineer (Mr, Manly), whose services I had 

 engaged, went to Europe, and there personally visited large builders 

 of engines for automobiles, and attempted to get them to undertake 

 the construction of such an engine as was required. This search, how- 

 ever, was fruitless, as all of the foreign builders, as well as those of 

 this country, believed it impossible to construct an engine of the neces- 

 sary power and as light as I required (less than 10 pounds to the 

 horsepower without fuel or water). I was therefore forced to return 

 to this country and to consent most reluctantly, even at this late date, 

 to have the work of constructing suitable engines undertaken in the 

 shops of the Smithsonian Institution, since, as I have explained, the 

 aerodrome frame and wings were already constructed. This work 

 upon the engines began here in August, 1900, in the immediate care 

 of Mr. Manly. These engines were to be of nearly double the power 

 first estimated and of little more weight, but this increased power and 

 the strain caused by it demanded a renewal of the frame as first built, 

 in a stronger and consequently in a heavier form, and the following 

 sixteen months were spent in such a reconstruction simultaneously 

 with the work on the engines. 



" The flying weight of the machine complete, with that of the 

 aeronaut, was 830 pounds; its sustaining surface, 1,040 square feet. 

 It therefore was provided with slightly greater sustaining surface 

 and materially greater relative horsepower than the model subse- 

 quently described which flew successfully. The brake horsepower 

 of the engine was 52; the engine itself, without cooling water, or 

 fuel, weighed approximately i kilogram to the horsepower. The en- 

 tire power plant, including cooling water, carburetor, battery, etc., 

 weighed materially less than 5 pounds to the horsepower. Engines 

 for both the large machine and the quarter-size model were completed 

 before the close of 1901, and they were immediately put in their 



