CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



ent Office specifications. Then a host of imitators 

 set to work devising air craft of many patterns. Some 

 of these are to casual observation very different from 

 the Wright machine; in particular the monoplanes, 

 of which M. Bleriot's is the best known. But in 

 their principles of operation all aeroplanes yet de- 

 vised are indentical. No machine has yet carried a 

 passenger in safety that did not depend for its stabil- 

 ity upon warped wings or their equivalent, combined 

 with the use of vertical and horizontal rudders. De- 

 tails aside, all aeroplanes thus far invented are Wright 

 aeroplanes. 



It is worth while to emphasize this point, because 

 attempts are constantly made to becloud the issue. 

 It has been urged that the Wrights were not abso- 

 lutely the first users of any one of the devices that 

 they combined to make their aeroplane. They did 

 not invent the canvas planes or the vertical or hori- 

 zontal rudders or the warping wings or the motor. 

 Very true; but they used them first in successful 

 combination, producing for the first time in history 

 a flying machine heavier than air that would fly and 

 carry a passenger, and go where directed and land 

 in safety. Their title as inventors of the aeroplane 

 is far clearer than the titles of the accredited invent- 

 ors of the steamship, the steam locomotive, or the 

 telegraph. 



So the 17th of December, 1903, must stand out as 

 one of the memorable dates in the history of civiliza- 

 tion. And there is every reason to believe that in the 

 remote stretches of the future the names of Wilbur 

 and Orville Wright will be remembered when the 



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