CIRCLING EIFFEL TOWER IN AIR SHIP. 589 



proportion to the carriers on sea and land, and by inclinations of its 

 surface it need not fear a gale much more than docs a ship. 



In conclusion it seems that the Santos- Dumont J' may be correctly 

 rated as the last evolution from Madame de Montgolfier's crinoline 

 skirt. It is the culmination of balloons lighter than air. It is the 

 first to make a trip in a breeze and come back to a point indicated 

 beforehand. In a word, it is steerable. Of course there remains 

 room for improvement, but hardty for further evolution. In aero- 

 nautics all evolution from now on must begin from the bird and end 

 in the aeroplane. And perhaps that will involve 1 a new principle of 

 mechanics. The genius who discovers it will be a colossus, beside 

 whom the clever and daring craftsman who applied an automobile 

 motor to an inflated spindle will be but the merest pigmy. The aero- 

 plane, though, has not left the ground yet. But the Santos-Dumont V 

 has. The neighbors have already made complaint. They protest 

 against the early morning flights, when the popping of the motor a 

 few yards over their roofs breaks in on their slumber. There you 

 liave a foretaste of the future. 



SANTOS-DUMONT WINS THE DEUTSCH PRIZE. 



Now that the efforts of Santos-Dumont have been crowned with suc- 

 cess, it may be of interest to retrace the steps by which the intrepid 

 young aeronaut has been able to accomplish his present great triumph, 

 which is, of course, only the first step in the work which he expects to 

 carry out. Santos-Dumont is a Brazilian by birth, and was born in 

 1873. His father, who was of French descent, had a vast coffee 

 plantation which employed as many as 6,000 men in the tields and 

 establishments. It was upon the 40 miles of railroad which passed 

 around the plantation that Santos-Dumont learned to conduct the 

 small locomotives, and thus obtained his first knowledge of mechanics. 

 He came to Paris while still quite young, and had already turned his 

 attention to aeronautics. He at once commenced to work, and 

 employed his large fortune and his talent in this direction. The 

 result is that within three years he has constructed three spherical 

 balloons and six air ships. He began by making the record for 

 tht^ smallest spherical balloon, the "Bresil," which gauged only 140 

 cubic yards and had a diameter of 18 feet. It was made of fine 

 Japan silk with cotton cordage and an extremely light wicker basket, 

 and the whole weighed but 50 pounds. When it rose from the 

 Jardin d'Acclimatation on the 4th of July, 1898, it seemed like an 

 immense air bubble. After ascending out of sight, Santos-Dumont 

 reappeared with the envelope packed in the basket. With this and 



"Reprinted by permission from the Scientific American, November 16, 1901. 



