SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE VOL. 27 



were likely to be met with, since the aerodrome would, in no case which could 

 be anticipated, be in the water for so long a period as 24 hours, and no trouble 

 from this source need be anticipated. 



In the present case, however, the moisture of the atmosphere, which had 

 been heavily laden with fog for several weeks, had penetrated the varnish and 

 softened the glue, even though the submergence of 24 hours in water had shown 

 no effect, To construct new ribs for the wings would have required several 

 weeks, and the delays which had already been experienced had by this time 

 prolonged the stay down the river so greatly that even under the very best 

 conditions it seemed hardly possible to complete the tests before the coming 

 of the equinoxial storms, which would make it necessary to remove the boat 

 from the middle of the river and place it in a safe harbor. Something, there- 

 fore, had to be done, and that very quickly, so that an immediate test could be 

 made, or else the tests would have to be delayed until the following season, or 

 possibly postponed indefinitely on account of the lack of funds. 



Owing to the varnish with which the ribs were covered, it was impossible in 

 repairing them to carry out the first plan which suggested itself of binding the 

 ribs with a strip of cloth impregnated with glue and wound spirally from end 

 to end. As the wood was so very thin, it was impossible to bind the two parts 

 together with wire, and even thin bands of metal driven up on the tapered por- 

 tion of the rib were not likely to draw the two strips together without crush- 

 ing the wood. What was finally done was to scrape the edges of the two strips 

 where the joint had opened, thereby removing all the old glue, and after put- 

 ting fresh glue on all these edges the two strips were drawn together and bound 

 with surgeons' tape, which was found to adhere very firmly even to the var- 

 nished surface. 



After repairing the ribs in this manner and readjusting the guy-wires of 

 their framework so as to make the wing assume the correct form, which had 

 been slightly altered by the warping and twisting consequent on the opening up 

 of the ribs, everything was again in readiness for a test in free flight, numer- 

 ous lests of the engine having meanwhile been made both with the aerodrome 

 frame inside of the house-boat and also when mounted on the launching track 

 above. The weather, which had been unprecedentedly bad all summer, now be- 

 came even worse, and although short periods of calm lasting an hour or less 

 occasionally occurred, there were for several weeks no calm periods long enough 

 for completing the necessary preparations and making a test, although the time 

 required for assembling the aerodrome had been greatly shortened by building 

 the " wing boxes " ,, n the superstructure, and in other ways previously de- 

 scribed. On several occasions when an attempt was made to utilize what ap- 

 peared to he a relative calm, the aerodrome was assembled on the launching 

 apparatus and everything got in readiness except the actual fastening of the 



