4H 



BELL 



apparatus complete with motor weighed no less than 925 lbs. 

 while the supporting surfaces consisted of two superposed aero- 

 planes each measuring six by 40 feet ; so that the machine as a 

 whole had a flying-weight of nearly two lbs. per square foot 

 (1.9 lbs.). 



Thanks to the efforts of the Wright brothers the practicability 

 of aerial flight by man is no longer problematical. We can no 

 longer consider as impossible that which has already been 

 accomplished. America may well feel proud of the fact that 

 the problem has been first solved by citizens of the United States. 



A FEW NOTES OF PROGRESS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN 



AERODROME. 



For many years past, in fact from my boyhood, the subject 

 of aerial flight has had a great fascination for me. Before the 

 year 1896 I had made many thousands of still unpublished ex- 

 periments having a bearing upon the subject ; and I was there- 

 fore much interested in the researches of Professor Langley 

 relating to aerodynamics. We were thrown closely together in 

 Washington and although we rarely conversed upon aerody- 

 namics we knew that we had a subject of mutual interest and 

 showed the greatest personal confidence in one another. I did 

 not hesitate to show him my experiments, he did not hesitate to 

 show me his. .At least as early as 1894, Professor Langley 

 visited me in my Nova Scotia home and witnessed some of my 

 experiments ; and in May, 1896, he reciprocated by inviting me 

 to accompany him to Quantico, Virginia, and witness a trial of 

 his large sized model. The sight of Langley's steam aerodrome 

 circling in the sky convinced me that the age of the flying ma- 

 chine was at hand. Encouraged and stimulated by this remark- 

 able exhibition of success, I quietly continued my experi- 

 ments in my Nova Scotia laboratory in the hope that I too 

 might be able to contribute something of value to the world's 

 knowledge of this important subject. 



Warned by the experience of others, I have sought for a safe 

 method of approach — a method that should risk human life as 

 little as possible during the earlier stages of experiment. Ex- 

 periments with aerodromes must necessarily be fraught with 



