September, 1911 
rected by moving the post to the high side, as before, and 
up-and-down steering by pulling or pushing it slightly. The 
machine is steered to right or left by the feet, which rest 
upon a tiller, such as is used on a bob-sled. 
Besides being a faster machine, and one that is safer in 
case of a fall or head-on collision, a monoplane gives the 
psychological advantage of feeling that you are in some- 
thing, and not perched on a seat suspended in space merely. 
One of the greatest improvements made in the monoplane 
of late is the use of a gyroscope to steady these machines. 
The gyroscope consists of a small wheel, about a foot in 
diameter, that revolves in a 
vacuum in an aluminum case 
at the rate of 10,000 revo- 
lutions a minute. This wheel 
produces a constant resisting 
force of twice the weight of 
the machine itself, to keep 
the latter from upsetting. As 
a result, the aviatress does 
not have to concern herself 
with correcting side-tipping, 
the most bothersome and 
tiresome part of driving any 
aeroplane,especiallyin 
windy weather, but she can 
give her undivided attention 
to steering. 
As there is only the steer- 
ing in a vertical plane to 
look after, in addition to the 
turning to right or left, the 
flying of one of these ma- 
chines is practically no more 
dificult than the running of 
an automobile. 
Even without the improve- 
ment just mentioned, no ath- 
letic young woman who 
makes up her mind to fly 
will find much difficulty in 
learning. Miss Harriet 
Quimby, the dramatic editor 
of Leslie’s Weekly, learned 
in thirty-two brief lessons at 
Mineola recently, and on 
August 1st she obtained her 
pilot’s license without dif- 
ficulty, while Miss Blanche 
Scott flies a Baldwin biplane 
with equal facility, and fre- 
ee 
iii 
' i j Sf Z i 
Photo by E. Levick 
Miss Harriet Quimby, the first licensed “‘pilotess’’ in 
America 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Mrs. Bessica Raiche, America’s first aviatress, at the wheel of 
her Curtiss-type biplane 
325 
quently goes on a cross-country jaunt. These two young 
ladies are of quite different types, as can be seen from their 
photographs. ‘The former never drove an automobile or 
engaged much in outdoor sports, yet she learned to fly in 
less time than it takes most men pupils, whereas Miss Scott 
was the first woman to drive an automobile from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific accompanied by a woman companion, 
and she practically lives in the open. 
When American women awake to the fact that it is pos- 
sible to procure machines capable of carrying four or five 
people in nicely upholstered closed bodies, like those of 
automobiles, it will not be 
long before the wealthy ones 
will have their touring aero- 
planes, with licensed pilots 
to drive them, while their 
less well-to-do sisters will 
still continue to fly by them- 
selves, or at times with one 
or two companions. They 
will find it possible to make 
an extended cross-country 
pleasure trip of an afternoon 
without the dust, noise and 
jolting experienced in an 
automobile, and_ especially 
without those multifarious 
dangers of the road, such as 
grade crossings, sharp turns 
in wooded country, et cetera, 
with which almost every 
automobilist has to con- 
tend. 
The tonic effect of the 
pure air at heights of 1,000 
or 2,000 feet can now be en- 
joyed in a very few minutes 
without a tedious journey 
by rail to the mountains. 
To learn how it feels to 
fly, one has only to go to 
Mineola or Nassau Boule- 
vard and make a flight as 
a passenger in a _ Blériot 
monoplane, or a Wright 
or Curtiss biplane. Fifty 
dollars cannot be better in- 
vested by any woman who 
contemplates becoming an 
aviatress or purchasing an 
aeroplane. 
Miss Blanche Scott at the wheel of Capt. Baldwin’s racing biplane 
