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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



d'Or Lake, carrying Lieut. Thomas E. 

 Selfridge, of the U. S. Army. 



This was the first machine of the Aerial 

 Experiment Association formed by Dr. 

 Bell in 1907 with summer headquarters 

 in Cape Breton, the object being "to get 

 into the air." Associated with him were 

 Lieut. Thomas E. Selfridge, who was 

 detailed by the U. S. Army to assist the 

 experiments ; two young Canadian engi- 

 neers, F. W. Baldwin and J. A. D. Mc- 

 Curdy, and Glenn H. Curtiss, who was 

 the motor expert of the association. 



They got into the air. It was with an 

 A. E. A. machine, the "Red Wing," that 

 F. W. Baldwin made the first public 

 flight in America over the ice at Lake 

 Keuka, N. Y., in 1908 — a flight of 318 

 feet, 1 1 inches ; twenty feet in the air ! 

 Then the "White Wing" flew a thousand 

 feet or so, and in the third machine, 

 "The June Bug," Glenn Curtiss won the 

 Scientific American trophy for flying the 

 first measured kilometer under test con- 

 ditions. And finally came the "Silver 

 Dart," which Cape Breton claims as par- 

 ticularly hers, because in it, on February 

 23, 1909, J. A. D. McCurdy, a Cape Bre- 

 toner born, over the ice of Baddeck Bay, 

 made the first flight in the British Em- 

 pire. 



Its aim accomplished, the Aerial Ex- 

 periment Association automatically dis- 

 solved in March, 1909. This work of 

 eighteen months, financed entirely by 

 Mrs. Bell, resulted in the development of 

 features which are fundamental in all 

 modern heavier-than-air flying-machines ; 

 and it was the apprenticeship of men who 

 were to go far in the art. 



Selfridge unfortunately met his death 

 in an accident to one of the Wright ma- 

 chines, at Fort Myer, in 1908 — the first 

 victim of modern aviation. Baldwin and 

 McCurdy continued to fly, and with their 

 Baddeck-built machines were the pioneers 

 of Canadian flight. 



A BADDECK- MADE BOAT WHICH HAS A 

 SPEED OF 70 MILES AN HOUR 



For the last ten years Graham Bell and 

 F. W. Baldwin have been associated in 

 the development of hi°;h-speed boats of 

 the submerged hvdroplane tvpe — hydro- 

 dromes thev call them, and abbreviate the 

 term to "HD." The "HD-4," which 

 makes 70 miles an hour is the latest con- 



tribution to the series. It embodies the 

 best features developed in their ten years 

 of joint experiment, and it is the fastest 

 boat in the Avorld (see pages 47-49). 



During the war the Beinn Bhreagh 

 laboratories, where the HD's have been 

 built, were converted into a boat-building 

 establishment, and did useful work in 

 building small craft for the Canadian and 

 British governments. It was the first 

 boat-building plant in Canada to employ 

 women workers. 



THE EIRST STATION EOR TRANSATLANTIC 

 WIRELESS 



As Cape Breton received the first direct 

 cable message from Europe to America, 

 so thirty-five years later the first public 

 wireless message between the hemispheres 

 was sent from the Table Head station 

 near Glace Bay. The message was from 

 the Governor-General of Canada to Ed- 

 ward VII. 



In permitting this purely British inter- 

 change for the historic message, Signor 

 Marconi evidenced his appreciation of 

 Canada's assistance in his experimental 

 work, after the opposition of the cable 

 people compelled him to abandon his 

 work in Newfoundland. 



The site for this first station in the 

 Americas was given by the Dominion 

 Coal Co., and the expense of erecting the 

 first four towers was largely covered by 

 an appropriation of the Canadian Gov- 

 ernment. 



THE FINEST SCENERY IN THE MARITIME 

 PROVINCES 



The finest scenery in the Maritime 

 provinces is to be found in northern 

 Cape Breton and through the lovely Bras 

 d'Or Lake region of the interior. 



Most striking of the island's physical 

 features is this inland sea, known in its 

 two sections as the Great and Little Bras 

 d'Or lakes. Widening out from its two 

 Atlantic entrances, it extends in its 450 

 square miles of area through the heart 

 of the island — nearly a thousand miles of 

 interior coast-line bordering all four 

 counties and forming in enchanting suc- 

 cession wide harbors, island-dotted bays, 

 and deep fjord-like channels. A ship 

 canal at historic St. Peters, across the 

 old Indian portage of Nicholas Deny's 



