THE PROGRESS OF AERONAUTICS. 191 



application of tlie ])alloon dates from an earlier period; but it had 

 long- ])een neglected. 1 was always struck with its importance; and in 

 189S, when the Leonid shower was expected, M. Hausky made an 

 ascension under my direction, and ()))tained intei-esting results. Last 

 year, at my request, these oljservations were repeated in Paris by Mile. 

 Khimpke and by Messrs. Tikhoff, the Count de la Vaulx, Mallet, and 

 de Fonvielle. Ascensions were also made at St. Petersburg, at Strass- 

 burg, and in England for the same purpose. The Leonid shower of 

 next November will have a quite special interest. I hope it will not 

 pass unobserved. 



I can not close this recapitulation without at least referring to work 

 in the direction of machines to l)e sustained and propelled exclusivel}^ 

 by forces which they produce. The most remarkaljle results obtained 

 in this direction are unquestionably those of Mr. Langley, corre- 

 spondent of the Institute of France and Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution at Washington. Independently of the line and profound 

 researches of this scientist upon the resistance of the air, ]VIr. Langley 

 has constructed an aeroplane which has progressed and has sustained 

 itself during a time notably longer than any of the apparatus previ- 

 ously constructed. Dr. Kichet has repeated and varied these line 

 experiments on the shore of- the Mediterranean. Time is wanting to 

 speak of other work upon aeroplanes, but it is impossible not to men- 

 tion the endeavors of M. Ader to construct a flying bird, or not to 

 recall the cruel accident which caused the death of a scientist of great 

 merit. I need not tell you that I refer to the unfortunate Lilienthal, 

 whose works on the properties of curved surfaces in aeronautics will 

 not allow the world to forget his name. 



While we are speaking of the dead, permit me to devote a word in 

 memory of the scientists and aeronauts whom we have lost: Eugene 

 Godard,the elder, an experienced aeronaut, the constructor of the bal- 

 loons of the siege at the railway stations of Orleans and of the East, 

 whom I personally have cause to remember with gratitude for the 

 excellent counsels he gave me at the moment of ni}^ departure from 

 Paris, December 2, 1870, with the balloon Volta; Hureau de Ville- 

 neuve, founder of the journal L'Aeronaute and one of the founders 

 of the Society for Aerial Navigation; Gaston Tissandier, too, patriotic 

 aeronaut of the army of the Loire, the witness to the terrible drama 

 of the Zenith; the author, with his brother Albert, of experiments upon 

 using electricity to steer balloons, and founder, also, with Albert, of the 

 interesting journal La Nature. And still I have to mention Coxwell, 

 the aeronaut of Mr. Glaisher, whose noble and green old age we salute 

 to da}'. 



Such, gentlemen, is the picture, necessarily very incomplete, of the 

 state of aeronautics at this moment. Is it not, however, sufficient to 

 show how remarkable has been the progress accomplished in the decen- 

 nial period it covers '( 



