1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



37 



was necessarily very slow. Let me digress 

 again just a little. 



I do not know exactly how many years 

 ago it was, perhaps something like thirty, 

 that I saw in the Scientific American that 

 they had in France what was called at that 

 time a velocipede. As soon as I saw the 

 description I sent an order for one, and I 

 think I had about the first machine in the 

 semblance of a bicycle that was ever in 

 Ohio— perhaps one of the first brought into 

 the United States. The machine cost over 

 $100 ; and as it was a heavy affair, the 

 express on it cost quite an item more. When 

 it came to hand, after days and weeks of 

 anxious waiting, neither myself nor any- 

 body else could ride it at all. The whole 

 town jeered at me, and the story of the 

 "fool and his money" was hurled in my 

 teeth so many times I almost dread to hear 

 it even yet. Men of good fair understand- 

 ing pointed their fingers at me, and said 

 that anybody of good common sense ought 

 to know that that thing would not stand up 

 with a man on it, for that would be an 

 utter impossibility. I worked at it, the 

 crowd in my way, for several hours in the 

 morning. Finally I rented the largest hall 

 in the town, went in with one trusty boy 

 who had faith, for a companion, and locked 

 the door. After quite a little practice on 

 the smooth floor of the hall I succeeded in 

 riding from one end to the other ; but I 

 could not turn the corners. When, after 

 still more practice, I did turn one corner 

 without falling, how my spirits arose ! A 

 little later I went in a wabbly way clear 

 around the room. Then my companion did 

 the same thing, and, oh how we did rejoice 

 and gather faith ! A little later on, with 

 a flushed but happy face, I went out into 

 the street and rode around the public square. 

 You can guess the rest of it. Well, these 

 boys wanted just the same kind of privacy 

 to try their flying-machine that I needed for 

 my velocipede ; but as it measures about 

 forty feet from the tip of one wing to the 

 tip of the other, instead of a large hall they 

 wanted a large level field in some out-of-the- 

 way place. I found them in a pasture lot of 

 87 acres, a little over half a mile long and 

 nearly as broad. The few people who occa- 

 sionally got a glimpse of the experiments, 

 evidently considered it only another Darius 

 Green, but I recognized at once they were 

 really scientific explorers who were serving 

 the world in much the same way that Colum- 

 bus did when he discovered America, and 

 just the same way that Edison, Marconi, 

 and a host of others have done all along 

 through the ages. 



In running an automobile or a bicycle you 

 have to manage the steering only to the 

 right and left ; but an air-ship has to be 

 steered up and down also. When I first saw 

 the apparatus it persisted in going up and 

 down like the waves of the sea. Sometimes 

 it would dig its nose in the dirt, almost in 

 spite of the engineer. After repeated exper- 

 iments it was finally cured of its foolish 

 tricks, and was made to go like a steady 



old horse. This work, mind you, was all 

 new. Nobody living could give them any 

 advice. It was like exploring a new and 

 unknown domain. Shall I tell you how they 

 cured it of bobbing up and down ? Simply 

 by loading its nose or front steering-appa- 

 ratus with cast iron. In my ignorance I 

 thought the engine was not large enough; 

 but when fifty pounds of iron was fastened 

 to its "nose " (as I will persist in calling it), 

 it came down to a tolerably straight line and 

 carried the burden with ease. There was a 

 reason for this that I can not explain here. 

 Other experiments had to be made in turn- 

 ing from right to left ; and, to make the 

 matter short, it was my privilege, on the 

 20th day of September, 1904, to see the first 

 successful trip of an airship, without a bal- 

 loon to sustain it, that the world has ever 

 made, that is, to turn the corners and come 

 back to the starting-point. During all of 

 these experiments they have kept so near 

 the soft marshy ground that a fall would be 

 no serious accident, either to the machine or 

 its occupant. In fact, so carefully have 

 they managed, that, during these years of 

 experimenting, nothing has happened to do 

 any serious damage to the machine nor to 

 give the boys more than what might be 

 called a severe scratch. I think great praise 

 is due them along this very line. They have 

 been prudent and cautious, I told you there 

 was not another machine equal to such a 

 task as I have mentioned, on the face of the 

 earth ; and, furthermore, just now as I dic- 

 tate there is probably not another man be- 

 sides these two who has learned the trick of 

 controlling it. In making this last trip of 

 rounding the circle, the machine was kept 

 near the ground, except in making the turns. 

 If you will watch a large bird when it swings 

 around in a circle you will see its wings are 

 tipped up at an incline. This machine must 

 follow the same rule ; and to clear the tip of 

 the inside wing it was found necessary to 

 rise to a height of perhaps 20 or 25 feet. 

 When the engine is shut off, the apparatus 

 glides to the ground very quietly, and alights 

 on something much like a pair of light sled- 

 runners, sliding over the grassy surface per- 

 haps a rod or more. Whenever it is neces- 

 sary to slow up the speed before alighting, 

 you turn the nose up hill. It will then climb 

 right up on the air until the momentum is 

 exhausted, when, by skillful management, 

 it can be dropped as lightly as a feather. 



Since the above was written they have 

 twice succeeded in making four complete 

 circles without alighting, each circle passing 

 the starting-point. These circles are nearly 

 a mile in circumference each ; and the last 

 flight made, Dec. 1, could have been pro- 

 longed indefinitely had it not been that the 

 rudder was in such position it cramped the 

 hand of the operator so he was obliged to 

 alight. The longest flight took only five 

 minutes and four seconds by the watch. 

 Over one hundred flights have been made 

 during the past summer. Some of them 

 reached perhaps 50 or 60 feet above ground. 

 On both these long trips seventy pounds in- 



