FLIGHT AND ITS IMITATION. 
399 
a surface of fifty-four square feet, weighing 11 lbs., was found to 
support 1261bs. in its waft. These trials proved in a most 
decided manner that perfect stability and guidance were attain- 
able. 
“For instance, it was proved that a man placing himself on a 
machine of proper dimensions for his weight, at the top of a 
mountain, say one mile above the level of the plain below, might 
in calm weather, with steadiness and security, proceed through the 
air to any place he might choose to steer, about eight miles in a 
horizontal direction. Of course the line of flight would be in 
a continuous descent of 1 in 8, gravity being the only cause of 
the motion of the machine.” 
So that the propulsion of such a surface is not a preposterous 
idea. Mountain tops, however, are ideal in the majority of 
localities, so that, in order to find a substitute for that rarity, it 
was gravely proposed by a gentleman who called himself a civil 
engineer, that the line of flight being first determined upon, 
high towers should be erected at suitable distances, from the 
top of which a machine of considerable dimensions, with pas- 
sengers, might be started, and so steered to the foot of another 
high tower, to the top of which the machine could be hauled, 
while the passengers walked up the stairs, and were launched 
to the foot of the next high tower ! 
To avoid high towers and mountains must of necessity become 
the aim of the plane-propeller, and there is just this difficulty, 
Can he by any auxiliary power leave the ground by rising in the 
line of least resistance ? 
Well, this has never yet been accomplished. No speed that 
has yet been attained on the level road, or even down an incline, 
has hitherto proved sufficient to enable a surface advanced at 
any angle against the air to leave the ground and complete its 
flight in the air. Of course there is a velocity relative to 
weight and surface which will affect this achievement, and as 
an experiment it will no doubt be effected, but when done it 
will only class with balloon propulsion. It has been shown 
that, as a fact, the balloon can be propelled, and when the attain- 
ment of a speed of six or eight miles an hour in a moving body 
of air of varied velocity, whose direction may or may not be 
in favour of the desired course, will conduce to the object 
sought, then the knowledge may prove useful, and the expenses 
connected therewith may count for nothing in view of its im- 
portance. 
That which I have advanced respecting the plane relates 
only to the stiffened plane surface propelled at a fixed inclina- 
tion against the air. The conditions would, I believe, be quite 
altered if the plane surface could be made to assist itself during 
its preliminary run ; and I think that I am justified in my 
