Such difficulties are to be expected with this material, but here they were enhanced by the small scale of the construction and the constant demand for lightness. And it was found to be very hard to fill the small reservoirs intended to carry the supply for the engines. When they were screwed to the large case in which the liquid was received and the whole inverted, the small reservoir would be filled from one-third to one-half full, and nothing that could be done would force any more liquid to enter.
In view of these difficulties, and the objections to using a heater of any sort for the gas, as well as the absolute lack of success attendant upon the experiments of others who were attempting to use liquid CO2 as a motive power on a large scale elsewhere, experiments were at first temporarily and afterwards permanently abandoned.
The above experiments extended over nearly a year in time, chiefly during 1892, and involved the construction and use of the small aerodromes Nos. 1, 2, and 3, presently described.
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CHAPTER IV
EARLY STEAM MOTORS AND OTHER MODELS
In dealing with the development of the aerodrome, subsequent to the early rubber-driven models, the very considerable work done and the failures incurred with other types of motors than steam, have been briefly dealt with in the preceding chapter, but are scarcely mentioned here, as no attempts at long flights were ever successful with any other motor than steam, and no information was gained from any of the experiments made with compressed air, gas, carbonic acid, or electricity, that was of much value in the development of the successful steam machines.
In November, 1891, after the long and unsatisfactory experiments with rubber-driven models already referred to, and before most of the experiments with other available motors than steam had been made, I commenced the construction of the engines and the design of the hull of a steam-driven aerodrome, which was intended to supplement the experiments given in “Aerodynamics” by others made under the conditions of actual flight.
In designing this first aerodrome, here called No. 0, there was no precedent or example, and except for the purely theoretical conditions ascertained by the experiments described in “Aerodynamics,” everything was unknown. Next to nothing was known as to the size or form, as to the requisite strength, or as to the way of attaching the sustaining surfaces; almost nothing was known as to the weight permissible, and nothing as to the proper scale on which to build the aerodrome, even if the design had been obtained, while everything which related to the actual construction of boiler and engines working under such unprecedented conditions was yet to be determined by experiment.
The scale of the actual construction was adopted under the belief that it must be large enough to carry certain automatic steering apparatus which I had designed, and which possessed considerable weight. I decided that a flying machine if not large enough to carry a manager, should in the absence of a human directing intelligence, have some sort of automatic substitute for it, and be large enough to have the means of maintaining a long and steady flight, during which the problems (which the rubber-driven models so imperfectly answered) could be effectually solved.