The Bill-Toppers

by J. André Castaigne

“We shan’t fly at once,” he said. “We shall practise on the stand to learn how the handles work. Oh, you’ll have to think of everything during the few seconds that the flight lasts! The machine isn’t perfect, it’s a first attempt, it can only be ridden by a professional and a very clever one. Look here,” he continued, “it’s the principle of the back-wheel; you’ll have to keep your side-balance and front and back, but you’ll do it, I’m sure. I’ve done it.”

“What you can do, a man,” Lily interrupted, “I can do too. One can do anything on the bike!”

The machine which Jimmy explained to Lily in detail was a bike just like another, with a few differences in its general construction, bearing upon the services which it was expected to perform. The saddle, for instance, was made to slide backward and forward, so that the center of equilibrium could be shifted with a push of the rider’s back. The stability of the apparatus did not depend upon that alone. The ascensional rudder or screw-propeller, which was able to impart a speed of thirty miles an hour to the machine, was in the extension of the horizontal bar of the frame. It was fitted to a long piece of bent steel, pinned below the saddle, which, running beside the frame, ended by forming a pedal, so that, with a pressure of the foot, the rider could move it downward, at will, within an arc of some ten degrees. This propeller, which was small in dimensions, but endowed with enormous speed, was, in its normal position, perpendicular to the frame. The pressure of the foot raised it to its highest point. In this position, the propeller turned at full speed and therefore tended to descend and, consequently, to point the front of the aerobike upward. When brought still lower, its ascensional force increased and the front of the aerobike pitched downward. These two extremes would obviously serve only in sudden movements. In reality, the rider’s skill would consist in moving the propeller only very slightly, in order to maintain a horizontal flight. As for the machine itself, Jimmy had rejected the cumbersome system of cells, which he compared to boxes:

“The shape of a fish for the ship, the shape of a bird for the flying-machine,” he said.

He stuck to that principle and therefore he had added two enormous wings, one on each side. He had first experimented with reduced models, shaped like a bird, sending them up anyhow, to see, and he had ended by constructing one which preserved its stability when gliding over the atmospheric layers. He had thus been led to construct wings with a slightly rounded surface whose coefficient of yield was nearly double that of wings with flat surfaces. The width of these wings was about five feet and their length about sixteen. They tapered a little, were drawn out in front and widened at the opposite end, so as to get a more powerful hold of the air. They were made of double-milled canvas, stretched on curved ash and fastened to the sections by aluminum stays riveted with copper and clenched. They were as light as they were stiff. These two wings pointed slightly upward in front, parallel to the machine, and were fastened to it in the middle by means of an axis below the saddle-pillar, which brought their axis to the center of gravity. Other ingenious and quite individual arrangements made the apparatus very manageable. The resistance of the air, combined with the propelling power of the screw, exercised all its force in vain: the wings remained stationary. Their lines were carefully studied to facilitate the flow of the air, on the principle of Langley’s kite: and the two of them presented a carrying surface of forty-nine square feet.

“It’s not much,” Jimmy explained to Lily, who listened attentively. “If I carried my motor,” he said, “I should have a bigger surface. The machine ought then, theoretically speaking, to rise when it is going at a rate of thirty miles an hour; with a good back push the front-wheel would leave the ground and continue its course upward. But, on the stage, we have no room to acquire speed: we shall get it from an inclined plane, as at the start of ‘Looping the Loop.’ As for the side steering, the front wheel has spokes fitted with canvas and offers resistance to the air: it will steer the aerobike to left or right at a touch of the handle-bar, as in ordinary riding, and there you are, Lily.”

“My!” said Lily, bewildered by all this complicated apparatus. “Did you work it all out on paper? It’s enough to drive one mad!”

“When you’re on it, Lily,” said Jimmy, smiling, “you’ll have to work also, I promise you. But, with your talent, ... you’ll manage better than I should. And to-morrow,” he added, “I will give you something on account of your salary.”

“No, I have money,” said Lily, very proudly and fearing lest she should wear out her luck by adding that to it, by being paid for doing nothing....

Lily spent the whole week in a fever of expectation; she did not know where she was for joy. But she stifled that within herself. And it was owing to her talent, all owing to her talent! When people wanted a difficult trick done, they did not go to Daisy or the fat freaks, no, they came to little Lily! And it was settled, she wanted no more familiarity, now that she was going to top the bill at the Astrarium! A lady should be more reserved in her friendships: she would make herself very short-sighted, so short-sighted as to be almost blind, when she met the rotten lot! Resolved, that she would give up saying, “Damn it!” give up talking of smackings and using vulgar expressions: