NO. 3 LANGLEY MEMOIR ON MECHANICAL FLIGHT 1 L'7 



Particular attention is called to the above facts, which clearly show that 

 while a certain degree of success in the initial tests was later hoped for, yet 

 from the beginning it had been felt 1'ather certain that several tests would have 

 to be made before final success would be achieved. 



To those experienced in scientific experiments this realization of the prob- 

 ability of several tests being necessary before success could reasonably be ex- 

 pected does not seem strange, for the record of past experience contains very 

 few examples of epoch-making inventions springing full fledged from the hand 

 of their maker and proving a success on the first test. 



The two experiments made in the fall of 1903, in which the aerodrome was 

 each time so damaged in the process of launching that its ability to fly was 

 never really tested, should therefore be considered merely as the first of a se- 

 ries which it had been expected would need to be made before success would lie 

 achieved. Further tests were made impossible at the time on account of the 

 lack of funds, the expense of such work being unusually heavy. 



While the lack of funds, therefore, was the real cause of the temporary sus- 

 pension of the work, yet an influence which does not often enter into scientific 

 work— the unjust criticism of a hostile press— was directly responsible for the 

 lack of funds. It seems very certain that had it not been for this criticism of 

 the press the funds would have been readily forthcoming for continuing the 

 work to the point of success. 



