THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



as the machine is made larger, the size of the wings 

 must be increased in an alarmingly disproportionate 

 ratio. And the best that Professor Langley's man- 

 carrying flying-machine could do, after the inventor had 

 expended the limit of his ingenuity, was to dive into 

 the waters of Chesapeake Bay, instead of soaring through 

 the air as its prototype, the aerodrome, had done. 



THE IMPOSSIBLE ACCOMPLISHED 



The plunge of Langley's aerodrome downward into 

 the water instead of upward through space as had been 

 confidently expected, carried with it the hopes of a 

 great number of hitherto enthusiasts, who were now 

 inclined to believe that the practical conquest of the air 

 was almost as far beyond our reach as it had been be- 

 yond that of all preceding generations. Learned 

 scientists were able to prove to their own satisfaction, 

 by long columns of figures and elaborate mathematical 

 calculations, that the air is unconquerable. 



But even as they labored and promulgated these 

 conclusions, two unknown men in a little Ohio town, 

 discarding all accepted theoretical calculations, and 

 combining with their newly created tables of figures a 

 rare quality of practical application and unswerving 

 courage, had accomplished the impossible. Wilbur 

 and Orville Wright — two names that must always be 

 linked with those of Fulton and Stephenson, only 

 possibly on a higher plane as conquerors of a more 

 subtle element — were at that very time making flights 

 in all directions at will through the air in their practical 



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