214 THE L ANGLE Y AERODROME. 



intcllig-iblo account of the manner in which it perforins its automatic 

 function. Sufficient it is to snj that it does perform it. 



The width of the wings from tip to tip is between 12 and 13 feet, and 

 the length of the whole al>out 16 feet. The weight is nearly thirty 

 pounds, of which about one-fourth is contained in the machinery. The 

 engine and boilers are constructed with an almost single eye to economy 

 of weight, not of force, and are ver}^ wasteful of steam, of which they 

 spend their own weight in five minutes. This steam might all be recon- 

 densed and the water re-used b}^ proper condensing apparatus, but this 

 can not be easil}' introduced in so small a scale of construction. With 

 it the time of flight might be hours instead of minutes, but without it 

 the flight (of the present aerodrome) is limited to about five minutes, 

 though in that time, as will be seen presenth^, it can go some miles; but 

 owing to the danger of its leaving the surface of the water for that of 

 the land, and wrecking itself on shore, the time of flight is limited 

 designedly to less than two minutes. 



I have spared the reader an account of num))erless delays, from con- 

 tinuous accidents and from failures in attempted flights, which pre- 

 vented a single entirely satisfactory one during nearly three years 

 after a machine with power to ^y had been attained. It is true that 

 the aerodrome maintained itself in the air at man}" times, l)ut some 

 disaster had so often intervened to prevent a complete flight that the 

 most persistent hope must at some time have yielded. On the 6th of 

 May of last yeai" I had journeyed, perhaps for the twentieth time, to 

 the distant river station and recommenced the weary routine of another 

 launch, with very moderate expectation indeed; and when on that, to 

 me, memorable afternoon the signal was given and the aerodrome 

 sprang into the air' I watched it from the shore with hardly a hope 

 that the long series of accidents had come to a close. And yet it had, 

 and for the first time the aerodrome swept continuoush' through the 

 air like a living thing, and as second after second passed on the face 

 of the stop watch until a minute had gone by and it still flew on, and 

 as I heard the cheering of the few spectators, I felt that something had 

 been accomplished at last, for never in any part of the world or in any 

 period had any machine of man's construction sustained itself in the 

 air before for even half of this brief time. Still the aerodrome went 

 on in a rising course until, at the end of a minute and a half (for which 

 time only it was provided with fuel and water), it had accomplished a 

 little over half a mile, and now it settled rather than fell into the river 

 with a gentle descent. It was immediately taken out and flown again 

 with equal success, nor was there anything to indicate that it might 

 not have flown indefinitely except for the limit put upon it. 



' The illustration from an instantaneous photograph by Mr. Bell, shows the niaehine 

 after INIr. Reed, who was in charge of the launch (and to whom a great deal of the 

 construction of the aerodrome is due), has released it, ami wlieii it is in tlie first 

 mstant of its aerial journey. (PI. III.) 



