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ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 8 



from the surface. Let us make a model. We take in our hands an 

 8-inch globe to represent the earth and show on it all mountains and 

 all seas. The noblest mountain will project but one two-hundredths 

 of an inch, and the greatest sea be a depression of no more. In 

 handling such a globe, it would be difficult even to feel the rouglmess 

 of the mountains or to detect the dampness of the ocean. Still more 

 surprising is it, that if the Bristol airplane were actually flying through 

 the atmosphere at the ceiling of its record-breaking height, it would 

 only just be possible to squeeze under it a sheet of ordinary writing 

 paper! 

 This shows the scale of things in true proportion. We are confined 



PROGRESS of WORLD'S 



SPEED RECORD. 



iiiMiiiaiiiMirr 



XE 



' ' I M II I 



1910 



1915 1920 



Figure 1. 



I9J5 



to a very thin shell in which to move and have our being and this is 

 the first of nature's bounds to the limits of human flight. If ever we 

 are to hatch out from our shell, we must discover some lifting power 

 which does not require an atmosphere. 



It is easy to forget that our present attainments in human flight 

 have all grown from the endeavors of a single generation. Our 

 immediate predecessors in the air followed a much more leisurely 

 course. Prof. Julian Huxley 3 writes of bird evolution: 



One thing at least is certain and significant; whereas in the general stock of 

 mammals, progress was being made and new and specialized lines budded out 



J Bird watching and bird behavior. 



