AERONAUTICS. 65 



designed to fly. The aeroplanes are sent aloft kite fashion, the 

 anchor restraining the drift. Steam is then raised and the pro- 

 peller started ; if it is driven hard enough the machine rises over 

 and picks up the anchor; if the power is insufficient no risks have 

 been run and there are no damages to repair. 



There is no special gear for causing the machine to ascend or 

 descend ; it is simply a matter of more or less steam. The turning 

 to the right or left is done by pulling slightly on one or other of 

 two strings attached to the forward corners of some of the lower 

 aeroplanes. The weight is kept from < spinning round by some 

 small vertical surface to the rear of and in a line with the thrust 

 of the propeller, so that it is immaterial whether the weight is 

 deflected by the small vertical surface and pulls the aeroplanes 

 after it, or the aeroplanes are made to shoot to one side by the 

 strings and pull the weight after them. There will probably be 

 an advantage in the motor working in air of less velocity than 

 the higher current when going to windward. 



It is not generally understood that when the motor has succeeded 

 in thrusting sufficiently hard to run over and lift the anchor, the 

 aeroplanes exert a steady lift on the motor, and that whether the 

 wind blow high or low, or change its direction, the whole apparatus 

 maintains a uniform velocity through the air as long as the engine 

 maintains a uniform speed. Of course the machine will drift 

 with the air currents, but this set has to be allowed for and a 

 course shaped accordingly. The set of the air current would be 

 unknown if the earth were invisible; in like manner that the 

 set of an ocean current is not ascertainable when out of sight of 

 land without the aid of astronomy. 



If there is no wind at all, there is no means of getting this form 

 of flying machine aloft except by making a more or less extended 

 run along the ground. This run may be then made round a 

 circular track. In the event of the motor stopping, the machine 

 does not fall vertically as a parachute, but slides down gradually 

 in any desired direction. These remarks refer to the screw-driven 

 aeroplane machine, if soaring propellers are substituted for some 

 or all of the aeroplanes, a new power is introduced that completely 

 modifies all preconceived conditions. 



E— June 1, 1898. 



