410 



BELL 



by announcing that: "The mechanical sustention of heavy 

 bodies in the air, combined with very great speeds, is not only 

 possible, but within reach of mechanical means we actually 

 possess." 



He also attempted to reduce his principles to practice, by the 

 construction of a large model of an aerodrome driven through 

 the air by a steam engine under the action of its own propellers. 

 I was myself a witness of the memorable experiments made by 

 Professor Langley on the 6th of May, 1896, with this large 

 sized model, which had a spread of wing of about 14 feet. No 

 one who witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of a steam engine 

 flying with wings in the air, like a great soaring bird, could 

 doubt for one moment the practicability of mechanical flight. 

 I was fortunate in securing a photograph of this machine in 

 full flight in the air, so that an automatic record of the achieve- 

 ment exists. (See Plate X). The experiment realized the utmost 

 hopes and wishes of Professor Langley at that time : "I have 

 brought to a close," he says, "the portion of the work which 

 seemed to be specially mine — the demonstration of the practica- 

 bility of mechanical flight ; and for the next stage, which is the 

 commercial and practical development of the idea, it is prob- 

 able that the world may look to others. The world, indeed, 

 will be supine if it does not realize that a new possibility has 

 come to it, and that the great universal highway over-head is 

 now soon to be opened." 



But the world was not satisfied with this position. It looked 

 to Professor Langley himself to carry on the experiments to the 

 point of actually transporting a human being through the air 

 on an aerodrome like his model ; and so, with the aid of an ap- 

 propriation from the War Department of the United States, Pro- 

 fessor Langley actually constructed a full sized aerodrome, and 

 found a man brave enough to risk his life in the apparatus — 

 Mr. Manly, of Washington, D. C. 



Great public interest was aroused ; but Professor Langley did 

 not feel justified in giving information to the public, and there- 

 fore to foreign nations, concerning experiments undertaken in 

 the interests of the War Department. His own dislike to pre- 

 mature publicity cooperated with his conscientious scruples, to 



