20 
adlp:r. 
Twice, on the 7th of October, 1903, and again on the 8th 
of December of the same year, attempts were made to 
launch the large machine, and in both cases, according to 
the observation of numerous reliable engineers, members of 
the Board of Ordnance, and others, it was the launching 
that proved a failure, and the words of Mr. Langley, in 
closing this statement, seemed to be justified: “Failure in 
the aerodrome itself,” he declared, “or its engines there has 
been none; and it is believed that it is at the moment of 
success, and when the engineering problems have been 
solved, that a lack of means has prevented a continuance of 
the work.” 
There can be no doubt but that this failure to launch the 
big machine was a serious blow to Mr. Langley. Not sc 
much the failure itself, for he was a philosopher and a 
scientific man, who knew that success came only after re- 
peated defeat. Had it meant unsuccessful experiment in 
his laboratory or shop, it would have daunted him not in the 
least. It was necessary to make these experiments in the 
open air, before the eyes of the world, while his arrangements 
with the Board of Ordnance and Fortification rendered it 
imperative that the details of the construction should not 
be made public. The newspaper press of the country, mis- 
understanding his motives and angered possibly at the large 
expense connected with maintaining special correspondents 
at an inconvenient place on the Potomac river, united in a 
chorus of ridicule and attack, which in time made itself felt 
in the national legislature. At his years, for he was then 
nearly seventy, the attitude assumed by the public press 
broke his spirit at this the first, indeed the only, defeat in 
his career. 
The lack of means of which he speaks was only a lack of 
funds from the source from which he thought he was enti- 
tled to obtain it. One or more private individuals offered him 
the opportunity to continue. Several years before, he had 
been offered a considerable sum for this work if lie would 
but place it upon some commercial basis and take out patents 
