AN AERONAUT'S LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 490, 24 April 1909, Page 14

AN AERONAUT'S LIFE.

ITS FASCINATIONS AND DANCERS.; j (From "New York Horald.") ; ■ In England to-day if the weather is right and you wish to go ballooning yon simply telephone to your club :— "Dulwich Balloon Club, are yon there?". "Yes, air." ' . -; ■■<■■ :■' "Well,. please have Number Sis ; ready at., threo o'clock, promptly," ' ' ' "Very well, sir. Anything olso, eirP" - "Oh. yos. We'll have tea, of courso, in tho balloon; havo tho thorraal bottles filled." And so, promptly at three, you vory coolly leave this sordid earth, with its fogs and noises and dirt and discord, and for a space you live and breatho in anothor world, a most wonderful world, interesting, oxhilarating, and inspiring—dangorouß, too I Yes. and not half so dangerous as autoing and many other sports. We havo no such balloon clubs in Amorica; but it can scarcely bo said that w© are bohind Europe in the matter.of aerial navigation. To prove" this to your own satisfaction go up to tho New York Aero Club some night and listen. You will leave there quite convinced that you aro a very ordinary sort of earth-plodder and a century more or loss behind the times.

A squarely-built, -ncll-drossed businessman —ho is a very successful broker downtown— j arrives and. gravely calls the club'B attention. to the (fact that Now York will soon aeeki a station and garage for tho use of the'lnternational Airship, Line. In fact, says he, glancing earnestly over his eye-glasses, the need is pressing, and he advises that steps towards that end be taken this night. Your sense of humour is ' speedily awakened and you snicker aloud. Whereupon several other substantial > looking business men, and Bomo professional men'of note, and some athletic-looking men with the lean, nervous faces of closo students, turn quickly, and glare at you; and you quickly subsido, aware that it was not a joke at all. Thep you begin to think. ; • J*, is high time you did; ■■Another man is talking. now, giving .an earnest appreciation of the countryls lead. in. things' aeronautic and concluding with an , apathetic' statement, given half apologetically, as'if it .were too tnto to be of much value, that in a very few years aerial flight will be a very coinmon'and ordinary'method of/travel. ■■•.•■"■' Strange words aro Bounding in your: ears now—"aviator," "aeronef-" :','aerp curves." helicopters and orthoptera," • "monoplanes and bi-planes"; other; winged expressions buzz about you-and your mind grows hazy. But you have been'lifted altogether oiit of your deptli 'of; ignorant ■ insignificance, and before the meeting is over you are quite ready to ~step : from. the window .of • this seventh story,'and /fly:gracefully. -home. '■ Orvlllo Wright's: First Flight; I ; ; , It is not' long agp that'•'■.flying' machinists were generally, regarded' as lunatics; indeed, it is less than; six months; ago 1 -that, the Aero Club of New York thought' it' a 'good idea to publish a. bulletin:of the Wn*ht Brothers nights, signing' thereto the : names of witnesses'to.prove to the sceptical public that these things actually occurred/ Then came Orville /Wright's , wonderful records at Washington, .'followed . : by his brother's achievements in Franoe--came so quickly, so unexpectedly that"; the public is still gasping, though admitting that the flying machine is a practicable achievement. : ,-. ; . ■-.. ■■

.1 have the story, of , Orville' Wright's first flight at Washington/from , an eye-witness j and I saw, also,'the. only official record of it—the back of a-long'envelope upon which are pencil marks in groups ot five, such as you would use in a card game, and underneath the- signature/;"O;K.—O.- Wright." "You see," said the,eyerwitness, "people generally, The newspapers, even the War Department, had so little faith in Wright's success-that, so much aa an official recorder was not'deemed necessary. .; , "There was gust a handful dof observers present/ in faot,iwhenf-Wright ascended—his machinist, a few eoldiers from Fort Meyer and myself. .'./; .// /.•;;:. ■;,.. "I took this envelope from my pocket and began to tabulate the revolutions made. It waa. a calm, clear-day, and Wright .was flying gracefully, easily, without/ a hitch. . "A; half-hour ..wen*, swiftly.'by.—then a quarterT-theaHen minutes—=•—., '":■■ ,■'-. "I realised that an event of- world-wide importance was'taking place above me, and I felt the peculiar elation—a sense, of importance, too—incident. to the beholder in such circumstances.. '.;••... ' ' •■

' The machinist was immovable, gazing upward wtn open mouth. The soldiers, too, I stood hko'statues.. They. knew. ,-..-•■ "Suddenly one man could stand the stram no longer. 'Whoop-peel' he yelled. Shut np,'- said the machinist, turning on. him . savagely. And then there waa silence, all of, us - looking up and •• turning our. heads^like.automatons'as the aeronaut swept around in his circles/ '.', ;. :.- '■'.. 'The 'pnone'rang and I stepped .back to answer it, still watehing the flight. . ■ ;' . A reporter, was ..at: the other- end, of the wire. What a going on?' he asked, in an unmtereatedway., .;'.':•/:■ "'Wright ia going on I , I yelled triumphantly, i ... , -.-.": t '"Mγ God I' he gasped, and dropped the Phone. j Intense excitement Mowed in the city and T the telephone began jingling ceaselessly. I made no attempt to answer it I was busily watching Wright, who was still m the air. . "Suddenly a quick auccesaion of 'honks' came from the rear, and an automobile - advance guard came spinning through the parade ground, bearing officials from the War Department, newspaper representatives and others. In a brief time the crowd filled the grounds. Every ono was at fever heat with excitement. Wright, who had just descended, was the coolest of them all./, , Why I expected it,' said he, simply." A few others "expected it," notably, those earnest men at the Aero Club and some silent workers here and there throughout the country who have been active for years alone the same.lines as the Wright brothers ant who deserve, moat of them, quite as' much credit—men like Captain Thomas Scott Baldjnn, Leo Stevens, Octavo Chanute, , A. M. iierring, Israel Ludlow, and A. V. Wilson. Wilson's work is most interesting; so: too is the man himself. i He is a gardener at Bar .Harbour. Me.—a good gardener, but only engaged at that trade as a means to another end.. He makes money enough each summer, to enable him to carry on his expenmenta-during the winter ■ ; and he has been doing this since ,1885, in a quiet way and asking no aid or odds of any one. 1 . .-; ■ '

• Previous to 1885, and since his Boyhood days, ho had been a parachutist—if one may use,that word—making about fourteen hundred .jumps irr all. ■■ ; • ~ ,;,-:■- "See, , , , said he, indicating bis nose, "howwide that bridge is ?" The bridge of his nose {saw was almost twice the normal width, lhat comes from having the nostrils opened so many times with hot irons. A Long Drop Before It Opens. _ "In. jumping, the .parachute doesn't open for from three hundred to five hundred : feet. You|re going pretty fast then and there's terrible roaring in your ears. You have to swallow hard to keep the air passages open. Sometimes you can't and when you land you are breathing only through your mouth. Then the physician gets busy and burns a hole through the upper nostrils^ "You'll notice my fingers, too—drawn, in, see, at the joints: That comes from falling. I havo a trick of landing on my hands and feet. It saves your bones. ' i "There's a great deal in knowing how to fall. The birds loarn that before they learn to flyi Ever notice a young robin, just out of tho nest—how he goes 'Peep!' when he first hits the ground! . That 'peep' means pain; as well- as surprise, ■ and after that he learns how not to hurt himself. Then' he learns to fly. ' : ' "After all, to my way of thinking, falling and flying are very closely allied. Flight, in fact, is the control of falling—that's all, but that's,a great, deal. We are just learn.ing fthe first.vprinciples' and' putting them into, practice.- ■ Wonderful things will be done in tho near futuro." ' Parachuting taught Wilson many more first principles; opened his eyeSj indeed, to the possibilities of aerial flight. One day, in dropping some handbills from his balloon, be noticed that a few of them glided easily and avstematioaUy , ; while the

lothora iluttorod aimloesly in tho air. Those tow had .boon accidentally wot about an inch I from tho bottom. Tho oiroumetanco taught him .eomothinp; about woiglit, ' ■ ■ v I ' Again, ho found-that by>running: forward .with a wido, light piano, inolinod at:'a'>bor.tain anglo, ho could auddonly rovorsoftliiß planoand soar againat'tho.wiml. ,:Th'at: gavo Mm another practicable prlnoiploi- .r : ~.-,; At liar Harbour lip began birds and dir ourronta,' In■"ii" qrude : way," porhaps, but in a most, praatlaali'intimate'way .V In faot, thoro is no' thoory,. in thja-man at all; Ho simply atudloa nature and.thon goes and ; dOOB lllcowUo, ■ ■;■'. i;-.':, : : -. '.., ■..,.... ; . .;, ... ■:'. ' -Ho stucliwl.birds.ianirilregon-flios, which havo four wings Instead of,'two.: nnd ho got mnny : liitorosting.-'resuita,--.: h: : C\ :V":. v ;..: ■:. Hofound tlmt ii Imwk ivhnh"lW loan aro tiod toßothnr ■ )ins ; ft -HfUllß ''■'powor-.vm 'its wings of pnunils (lio wondor thoy [ly wny with largo fowls), \Jlnt Urn Ramo hawk, whon Hβ liPok and liniid woro mado rigid wilh enllnta -liouiul by a hloyolo ta'poi could only (ly in. n ekftlglit lino nnd but a short distance, Tlmt tnught him tho nooossity of an oscillating motion in flight, and tho aonsitivo «ntflm«tlq ndjuetmont. n ninohino must liivvo in ordor w moot all nir conditions and bo propollod at will in ovory direction.-, "Its liko riding n bioyolo ovor unovon ground, said ho. "An exporioncod oycliat shifts liis hnndlo-bnrß snbconeoiously, automatically, or whatovor you .wiah- to call it. Thats nia insdinob of onuilibriiim appliod by practice'to ono form of locomotion. Well, it's the samo way with flying, You must learn to keep your equilibrium nnd havo a machine which will allow you to do so easily when , travelling through uneven air- currents.". . ,'•• .■■..'•' :■ • . _Continuing his oxporimonts with birds', Wilson figured out thoir lifting power over each square inch of wing surface, and then he plucked the feathora from their wings and substituted artificial flying planes made of silk and delicate rattan strips; like a Japanese fan. These artificial wings were, as far , as possible, exact reproductions in size and,weight of the natural ones, but the birds could not fly with thom so far or so well, Why? Wilson studied and found some more interesting.facts about equilibrium, oscillation, and sensitive adjustment. "1 Was Brought Up In the Air." To get his birds back Wilson employed an intelligent 'water spaniel iretriever. Ono day this faithful animal was brought back to the shop by an irate woman, who loudly Renounced the inventor for his cr.ueltv to birds. ■ .... .... . .-, ' "I looked 'up at her hat," said ■ Wilson. It was gayly decorated with aa entire wing, and, picking up somo'of my, pigeon feathers, I offered them to her. 'Next'time you have a hat made, , said I, 'you won't have to 101 l another \ bird. I don't kill mine. \ .-•.■'.

That seemed to make her all the madder, and she said .she would report me ot once_to the Society for. :the Prevention'of Cruelty to Animals, v ' ~ ; ■~. "I. was going to. ask her which was the more.important—ladies' /hats or flying machines. Then I remembered a saying of a mend of mine:—,'ln aU my life,' said he, J. Vβ met but one woman who had reasoning powers, and she refused to use them.' " ri! the air currents Wilson watched a field of waving'grain from the top or a pine tree. .Hβ,' made rough maps and, comparing tbesewith river currents, ha found much similarity. Then ho eet brush' piles burning in a large open field and studied tho vaganes of smoke from each.' ":■■' , In winter he.stretched a'cord'over the eutfaeo of;ii lake and'hjing long streamers to it. That gave me.a living picture, you might say, said he, "of a.wide cross .section of air current.- T kept,records of it'for an entire winter. Some days!.l loaded the streamers with bird shot, a different amount of shot to each streamer,-/and .this' made ,'a'n!,'excblleiit eenes_ of .weight experiments. Weight' is a very, important thing in flying," added Wilson, "a main, fundamental principle to both overcome and utilise. , ', . Before attempting himself to fly Wilson constructed a number of small models and used, these for test purposes. ■ "I wasn't afrajd," he said. "Don't think that. I was brought up in the air. you might say. And after fourteen years of parachute jumping you can judge' for yourr self that falling would have few. terrors. ' Yes," he smiled. "I eigned my own death certificate once. That's getting pretty near to it. If you don't mind the interruption-— r 'I happened at a Dutch picnic in Peoria, 111.,' a number of years ago. I was billed'to go up and jump a mile. ; There was a. bigcrowd present, farmers mostly, from, the whole central part of the State, it seemed;'

They came in in prairie schooners, some, of them a distance of ■ sixty miles, "I_ was having a good deal of trouble with theballooE—the gas was .wrong—when a tramp balloonist came : along and offered his services. Ho seemed to know a good deal about ballooning, so I gladly engaged him. I-. was ■'; worrying about the balloon' just before it was time to go up. 'I don't see how I'm going to manage that balloon annd parachute both, , said I. - . ) " "'.Well,:let me,jump,' ho said. He Signed-the Death Certificate. "I wouldn't listen to it at first, but he urged me so hard, said it would make his name and give him a start and all that" that I finally consented, 'after giving tho parachute a good overhauling and thorough examination. ' :, . ■ c _ "When w were up only a thousand feet , made , ]um P ut loose, and down he ehot, while the crazy crowd was yelling below. "I don't know .what happened to him. He couldn't open thetcog ■wmehow or other,' and I guess he kept his mouth open too long using bad language and choked. Anyway, he never got the parachute open at all/and he dropped like a cannon ballj smashing : every bono in his body when he hit the gronnd, head first. : . : "The crowd went wild, they tell me. Funny thing abont people, how they think they have their money's worth when a man gets killed.. . ' . ■ •"...-,. "Well, I landed in a pecan grove so\ne distance from tho city, and: when I got, back lVwas dark, and tho excitement had ' eubsided. The prairie schooners were travelling , homeward. • *'l'P le J irst man I found was the cKainnan of the Committee of Arrangements. He had 'matte the contract with me, and knew me well by .sight. Well sir, as soon as he got one good look at me he gave a yell, hurled a beer glass at me, ; and started running for his'home as fast as his fat legs would carry "You see, the tramp's head was smashod past recognition, and they thought, of course, that it was I who had fallen. ~ ■ "I had hard work getting near any one after that, and finally I sat down and read the paper, sit was the Teoria Herald, , and there on the first page was an elaborate account of my death. I began to feel creepy myself. ; r

Lato that night the coroner came to the hotel, shoved a death certificate at mo, and I signed it. Then I read: it over and found it was made out in my own. same. "After that I gave up. 'Seems like you're bound to have me ■ dead, , ■ said ■ I to the coroner, 'bo we'll let it go at that.' But I went'right out and telegraphed my wifetold her not to'believe the papers, that I was not dead, though just at present I couldn't prove it to her; asked her to believe me and remember my past record for truthfulness. • . . '.. . , "Then came the sad part. I had to take the tramps body to bis home in Galesburg, a little house with a widowed mothor and three Bisters—had to'tell, them the news and bury him. - : • . :'v "No, I'm not afraid of falling," Baid Wilson, iearnestly. "None of us is;.but we all would like to stay here a bit'longer and help the good work along. The great thing now is to educate the public,' to make then understand what flying is and .what it means, and how practicable it is. ■ Then, perhaps they will help us." ■', -'",:■. , : ■ In the Air 1 Hourand 20 Minutes, So Wilson perfected his , models "first and then built his flying machines. Briefly, their principle is that of the variable fulcrum: The operator rides them just as a;bicyclist guides his wheel at the handle bars, shifting weight here and there and turning'his planes, now up and now down, now. to orio side or another as his instinct or equilibrium or his sense of direction prompts him. Wilson has been Hying'successfully for'soveralyearß, and claims to have stayed in the air aa hour and twenty to

havo covorod throo milos in two minutes. Hβ has witnesses of thoso tests, but ho asks no. ono to bolievo thom. Ho has full patents pbvoring his discoveries; and ho is still gomgahoad and making more- inhis cool, deliberate, independent way...': :. ■ ', • .';■ ;■■ ■■■■■.■■«' Ho. has not. as yet suif erod.:. a-Bin'gjo; (iccidpnt, nor did ho havo any. to speak:'of in his parachute days. Captain; Baldwin has'a similar record. There have been accidents; howovor. Israel Ludlow is still partly paralyzed from his aeroplane fall in Florida; Oγvillo Wright is just getting over hie injuries, and Lioutenant Bolfridgo, it.will bo.romombored, was killed by the same fall. A numbor of:others, havo. been , hurti. hero and abroad, "and thoro will bo many'moro," 'said Wilson;.: , . "Free' ballooning ia comparatively Bafo, but tho airshipandaoroplano are, other mutters. This, tho bxporiinontal stago, ie especially dangerous."' . A particularly interesting branch of Wilson's work is that devoted to tho designing of aerial; darte and torpedoes. They havo wings liko a bird's and a.keol like a boat's, nnd somo of thom havo dangerous looking bodies. :,. -..<