“I am delighted to hear it,” exclaimed the lawyer, with friendly enthusiasm. “Then you really think that before many years we shall be able to skim from country to country on the wings of the wind, so to speak.”
“I have not a doubt of it,” answered the inventor, in a tone of quiet confidence. “We already know how great a degree of speed has been attained by our steamers and locomotives, in the face of far greater obstacles than are to be encountered in the case of aërial navigation. The great impediment to the speed of the locomotive is, as you are doubtless aware, the friction that necessarily results from its constant contact with the earth.”
Mr. Sharp nodded assent.
“While the speed of the ocean-steamer is in like manner very materially lessened by the resistance of the water.”
Mr. Sharp had often been struck by this very thought. Indeed, he had expended considerable time and thought in the leisure stolen from his professional cares in attempting to devise means for remedying to some extent these causes of loss. For, as he had before assured Mr. Ford, though a lawyer by profession, his tastes lay in quite a different direction.
“Now in traversing the air,” continued Mr. Ford, “we have the advantage of not being obliged to contend either with the friction generated by constant contact with the earth, or with the resistance of a foreign element like water. All that needs to be overcome is the resistance of the air, which is no greater than in the other cases, while the other obstacles are removed.”
“Very true,” said Mr. Sharp, with an air of profound conviction.
“All that is needed to establish aërial navigation on a firm basis is to find some means of steadying and regulating the motion, which no doubt would be incredibly rapid. It is intended that the machine shall partake of the nature of a balloon, as buoyancy will of course be requisite.”
“My dear sir,” said Mr. Sharp, warmly grasping the hand of the inventor, “nothing could be more clear and lucid than your explanation. The same course of reasoning, if you will permit me to say so, has more than once suggested itself to me, but, if I may be allowed the expression, it is an idiosyncrasy of mine to possess more theoretical than practical ability. Therefore even if my many engagements would suffer it, I doubt whether I should become a successful inventor. You, my dear sir, who so happily combine both, are admirably adapted to that high vocation.”
“I ought to succeed,” said Mr. Ford, with a little sigh, “if the labor and thought of many years employed in one direction can achieve success.”