For years the hope has been entertained that the windmill would eventually become a common means of generating electricity, but this hope has not yet been realized, though isolated installations of this character are in successful use.
CHAPTER III
THE ATMOSPHERE AS A HIGHWAY
Within the last few years the atmosphere has assumed a new and tremendous importance in human affairs as a medium that affords facilities for travel and transportation far superior, in many respects, to those offered by the land or the water. The aerial highways are now open for business and pleasure. This is a fact that the majority of people find it difficult to realize. The navigation of the air on a general scale has so long been looked upon as a dream of the future that we cannot readily adjust our minds to the reality.
The story of the slow steps by which this momentous fact has been brought to pass is far too long to be told here. What we purpose to do in the present chapter is to sketch the multifarious uses to which man is now applying the aeronautical knowledge and skill that he has acquired. At the same time we shall anticipate, to some extent, the developments of the near future; for the lines of progress are so clearly marked out that it is possible to do this without giving too much rein to the imagination.
In a subsequent chapter, dealing with Aeronautical Meteorology, we shall touch briefly upon the mechanical principles that underlie aerial navigation, by way of preface to a more detailed description of the conditions of wind and weather encountered by aircraft, and of the services that the meteorologist is rendering to the aeronaut.
The history of aeronautics may be divided into two periods, with the year 1914 as the dividing line between them. Before the great war the many brilliant minds that were trying to solve the problems of aerial navigation received comparatively little help or encouragement from humanity at large. The airship and the aeroplane were both accomplished facts, but most people looked upon them as ticklish contrivances of very little practical value. From the year 1909 onward aviation occupied an immense share of public attention; liberal prizes for aerial feats were offered; new records for speed, altitude, and endurance were made from day to day; but to the public, and perhaps to most of the aviators themselves, all this meant merely that a new and thrilling sport had been created, rather than a new art of boundless utility. Very few business men felt inclined to invest money in the development of aircraft, and the governments of the leading nations, with a single exception, were incredibly blind to the importance of building air fleets for use in war. The exception was Germany, which not only gave strong support to Count Zeppelin in the building of his dirigibles, but developed military aviation to such an extent that she entered the war with about 800 aeroplanes and a thousand trained pilots.
With the outbreak of the war the budding art burst into vigorous bloom. Unlimited funds were now available for experimenting and building. Thousands of flyers invaded the air, and the battle zone was a testing ground on a vast scale, where one improvement was hardly introduced before it was replaced by another. Some of the best engineering talent of the world was diverted from many and various fields to the one task of supplying the demands of the military aeronauts for more speed, more power, more reliable motors, better materials and appliances. Thus the war not only perfected aeronautics—especially aviation—as an art, but practically created it as an industry. At the close of hostilities the world found itself in possession of a vast fleet of aircraft, a multitude of aircraft factories, and a great army of trained aeronauts. For a time people asked—and perhaps some still ask—“What shall we do with them?”
There are many answers to this question, and new ones are coming to light every day. In the aggregate they mean that a new era has dawned in human affairs—the era in which the sky has been annexed to the world in which man lives. Henceforth we shall have more elbow room. We shall no longer be imprisoned in Flatland, but set free in Spaceland. It is impossible to foresee all the implications of this fact, but those that are already apparent suffice to fill us with enthusiasm.