It remains for us now to make brief mention of how men have tried, and are still trying, to imitate the soaring or gliding flight of birds without the use of machinery to assist them. We have seen how an albatross can, when the wind is blowing, convert itself, as it were, into a kite, and keep aloft in the air for a while without moving its wings. Similarly many people have attempted, by attaching themselves to a large supporting surface or aeroplane, and casting themselves off from a height, to glide with the wind across wide stretches of country. In this mode of soaring flight some have made considerable progress. Herr Lilienthal, a German, was perhaps for a time the most successful. He started from small beginnings, jumping off a spring board a few feet high, and gradually increasing the height as he became more accustomed to his apparatus. Later he had a large artificial mound made specially for him, and from the top of this he would throw himself into the air, and with a favourable wind sail a distance of four hundred yards at a considerable height above the ground. Lilienthal’s experiments, however, came to a sad end. On August the 11th, 1896, after he had glided along in the air for about two hundred yards, a sudden gust of wind caught the wide-spread wings of his apparatus, and tilted it upwards. This caused him to lose his balance, and he fell from a height of sixty feet and broke his spine. A similar accident also caused the death, a few years later, of a young Englishman, Mr. Percy S. Pilcher, who had been following up Lilienthal’s experiments.
The greatest difficulty now to be overcome in solving the problem of human flight, whether with soaring apparatus or flying machine, may be summed up in one word—“balance.” Every schoolboy knows that the great art of kite-flying consists in so adjusting the point of attachment of the string and the length of the tail that his kite is properly balanced, and is not liable to turn over or “dip” when in the air. Every observer of birds, too, has noticed how largely the question of balance enters into their flying. A bird in the air is continually and instinctively adjusting its wings to its position, and to every puff of wind, even as a man on a bicycle is continually, though unconsciously, adjusting his handle-bar to the inequalities of the road; and as a cyclist requires practice before he can ride his machine, or a skater before he can keep his feet on the ice, so even a bird has to learn how to balance itself before it can use its wings.
Dwellers in the country are familiar with the way in which the parent birds teach their fledglings to fly, instructing them by example, and encouraging them in their first short flights until they have become familiar with their powers and can balance themselves aright in the air. And if even birds, with whom flying is an instinct, have to learn the art of balancing themselves in the air by practice, how much more so must such a clumsy creature as a man, to whom flying is entirely unnatural. Only by long and painful efforts can he ever hope to succeed at all, and unfortunately all such efforts are necessarily very dangerous. Many disastrous accidents have already occurred, and although great progress has been made, and the time may not now be far distant when, by means of improved machines, men will actually fly, it will be at the cost of much labour, and, it is to be feared, at the sacrifice of many more brave lives.
CHAPTER VIII
CONCLUSION
In our last chapters we have, in some measure, brought our aeronautical history up to the present day, though of necessity many important points and notable voyages have been passed over unnoticed. It now remains to us but to gather up the loose ends of the story, and then briefly to indicate the direction in which we may expect new advances in the future.
And, first of all, it may be well to mention a few ballooning “records.” The largest balloon ever known was used as a captive at the Paris Exhibition of 1878. It was of 883,000 cubic feet capacity, and capable of lifting more than fifty passengers at a time. Other mammoth balloons of almost as great dimensions have also been employed for captive work; but the largest balloon intended specially for “right away” ascents was the “Giant,” built in Paris in 1863 by M. Nadar. It held 215,000 cubic feet of gas, and was made of 22,000 yards of best white silk, at 5s. 4d. a yard. The car was particularly elaborate, almost as big as a small cottage, being of two stories, and divided into several rooms. It proved, however, to be a very dangerous adjunct, for on the two occasions it was used those within received very serious injury during rough landings, and it was soon put aside and replaced by an ordinary basket. None of these monster sky craft appear to have been very successful, and at the present day the largest balloons in general use do not exceed 50,000 or 60,000 cubic feet capacity.
The honour of the longest aerial voyage ever made rests with the unfortunate Andrée, who, if his dates are to be relied upon, had been forty-eight hours aloft in his balloon when he despatched his last found message. Not far behind in point of time, however, was Count de la Vaulx, who in the summer of 1901 attempted to cross the Mediterranean by balloon. Contrary winds in the end baffled his venture, and he was forced to descend on the deck of a steamer which was following his course, but not before he had spent forty-one hours in the sky. The year previous the Count had also achieved a record long-distance voyage in connection with some balloon competitions held during the French “Exposition” of 1900. Starting from Paris, he descended in Russia, 1193 miles away, having been aloft thirty-six hours all but fifteen minutes.
For lofty ascents the palm still rests with Glaisher and Coxwell, whose famous voyage of 1862, when, as related, a height of 37,000 feet (or seven miles) is said to have been reached, has never been equalled. The exact altitude attained on this occasion is, however, as we have explained, only conjectural, neither being capable at the last of taking observations, and no height being registered over 29,000 feet. On July 31st, 1901, two German scientists, Dr. Berson and Dr. Suring, ascended from Berlin to a registered altitude of 34,400 feet, or well over six miles. They were provided with compressed oxygen to breathe, but even then became unconscious during the last 800 feet of the ascent. Three years before Dr. Berson had made a very lofty ascent in England, accompanied by Mr. Stanley Spencer, when a height of 27,500 feet was reached. A terrible accident occurred in connection with a lofty scientific ascent made from Paris in 1875 by Tissandier, inventor of the airship already mentioned, and two companions. Their object was to attain a record height, in which they indeed succeeded, reaching 28,000 feet. But despite the artificial air they took with them to breathe, they all three became unconscious in the extreme upper regions, and when, after one of the most awful voyages in the whole history of ballooning, Tissandier came to himself, it was to find the bodies of his two friends stiff and cold beside him in the car.
Coming to the aeronautical work of the present day, it is humiliating to have to confess that, through lack of public support, England has somewhat fallen behind other nations. In America and on the Continent large sums of money are subscribed for experiments with balloons, airships, and flying machines; but in our own country all efforts in these directions are due to private enterprise alone. Among those most keenly interested in aeronautical progress may be mentioned Mr. P. Alexander, of Bath; Major Baden-Powell, President of the English Aeronautical Society; and the Rev. J. M. Bacon. The latter has made many scientific balloon ascents for the study of meteorology, acoustics, and other kindred sciences, and his observations have proved of much interest and value. During his voyages he has met with several adventures, though no serious mishaps. On one occasion, when the writer accompanied him, during a night ascent made to observe the great shower of Leonid shooting stars foretold for the 16th of November 1899, the balloon became unmanageable while lost above the clouds. For ten hours it refused to come down, during much of which time the sea was heard beneath, and the voyagers believed themselves blown out over the Atlantic. A very stormy landing, in which the writer broke her arm, was eventually made near the coast in South Wales as before mentioned.