THE PROGRESS OF AERONAUTICS.^ 



[Address of M. Janssen, president of the International Aeronautic Congress at the 

 opening of the eongress, September ].">, 1900, at tlie Observatory of Meudon, near 

 Paris. ] 



Gentlemen: First of all I must thank 3-011 for the great honor that 

 3^011 have just done nie in calling me for the second time to preside at 

 this congress. I feel it keenly and shall use my best endeavors to 

 justify 3'our choice. 



1 shall certainly be the interpreter of your sentiments in thanking 

 the members of the committee on organization for the zeal and talent 

 put forth ))y them in the arrangements for this congress, which unites 

 in its bosom not onh" meml)ers of every nation and embraces the most 

 diverse branches of aeronautics, but includes also elements of the civil 

 and military order. I will affirm that, thanks to the elevation of 

 intellect and of sentiments which has been shown on all hands, every- 

 thing has been successfully and perfectly coordinated. This congress 

 will cei'tainly contri])ute to join in one spirit of progress and of con- 

 fraternity two elements so important and so necessar}' to the greatness 

 of nations. 



I address the thanks of the committee on organization to our foreign 

 colleagues who have responded with such warmth and amiability to 

 our invitation. They have made us most happ}' and most proud, and 

 we can assure them that no efi'ort shall be spared to render their visit 

 fruitful and agreeable. It is to be hoped that our foreign colleagues 

 will, upon the occasion of this congress, knit ties of friendship that 

 will not be loosed at its dissolution; for one of the fruits, perhaps the 

 most important of the fruits, of reunions of this kind is the establish- 

 ment of personal relations between men, no doubt already acquainted 

 with one another's works and appreciative of them, Init who never- 

 theless have never had an opportunity to see one another and to talk 

 over the subjects of their studies. 



The mind of a Avritor is not entirely expressed in his works. Often 

 the best fruit of his meditations and labors is something of which he is 

 not himself aware and which he can not record. A lively and friendly 

 talk with a fellow-student who has followed the same career will bring 

 these treasures up from their depths, and out of this spring new ideas, 

 new points of view; nay, new subjects for study, enlarging and clear- 

 ing the intellectual horizon. 



'Translated from Annuaire du bureaii des longitudes pour 1901. Printed also in 



Revue Scientifique, September 29, 1900. 



18/ 



