THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



flights, show that the aeroplane as at present equipped 

 may be depended upon to rise well toward the mile 

 limit. 



These are but a few of the interesting flights made 

 within a brief period after the Wright brothers' first 

 successful demonstrations. The number of the aviators 

 who so quickly entered the field, and the prominence 

 given by the press to such feats as those of Bleriot, Paul- 

 han, and Curtiss, have tended to distract attention from 

 the original inventors, and to produce some confusion 

 in the popular mind as to the exact share the various 

 aviators have taken in the conquest of the air. The 

 facts, however, are quite clear and unequivocal. At 

 the time when the Wright brothers made their first 

 successful flights, comparatively few people in the world 

 believed that anyone would ever be able to propel him- 

 self through the air with safety or certainty in a heavier- 

 than-air apparatus. 



The Wright brothers solved the problem after years of 

 patient effort, and solved it effectively and conclusively. 

 They profited of course by the efforts of predecessors, 

 but they were the inventors of the airship in a far fuller 

 sense than, for example, Fulton was the inventor of the 

 steamboat, or Stephenson of the locomotive, or Morse 

 of the telegraph. To their success, and to that alone, 

 must be ascribed the fact that many scores of men in 

 various parts of the world are now able to fly in aero- 

 planes. Slight modifications of type mark various of 

 these aeroplanes, but no radical departure in principle. 



In time, no doubt, flying-machines of quite different 

 types will be invented. Quite possibly the machines of 



[300] 



