Previous to nearly every great discovery, difficulties have been thought to exist which its completion dissolved. In the days of stage-coaching, the expectations held out by those interested in steam transport were considered, even by most competent and intelligent men, as wholly chimerical; yet the locomotive far surpasses the race-horse in speed and endurance. When practice proved and datas could be fixed, that smooth tires met all the requirements on railroads—in place of cogwheels to gear into racks—how easy all calculations on adhesive force and friction then became. So with flight.
XX.—WHAT THE CHANGES FOR THE BETTER WILL BE.
It is impossible to overestimate the benefits which will accrue to mankind from such a creation. Flying will become a studied art, an amusement, an accomplishment, and inconvenience from sultry heat, or freezing cold, or deadly epidemics will no longer be suffered. Flying will become a business, a trade, and the advantages derived from it for industrial purposes will be wonderfully great. New channels of employment will be opened to thousands, yes, millions of starving fellow-beings. A new era will be inaugurated in history; and great as has been the destiny of our race, it will be quite outlustred by the grandeur and magnitude of coming events.
Traveling at a speed of over one hundred miles an hour, distance will become comparatively annihilated. Cutting through the air from San Francisco to New York, for instance, in twenty-four hours, at one-sixth in cost and time; far safer, because of no irregulations nor obstructions of road, no snow-blockades or unnecessary delays; far cheaper, because of no great expense for outfit or maintenance, the ærial carriage will soon become the great means of travel throughout the world.
The vast uninhabited but productive regions of this globe will be populated from overcrowded and impoverished communities, because of the extraordinary cheap, safe, and rapid travel by flying machines. New life will again be imparted to enterprise, speculation and labor; and lands will be cultivated and great cities be built in regions where the foot of human being has not trod for ages.
The Andes and Rocky Mountains will become as familiar to us as the hills of our own city; and mining and other discoveries will follow each other with wonderful rapidity. The vexing and expensive explorations in the interiors of Africa and Australia, and towards the North Pole, will soon be brought to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion; and some of the wildest dreams of men be realized.
XXI.—CONCLUDING REMARKS.
The accomplishment of ærial navigation, then, is within reach; its practicability can no longer be denied. It will be one of the most glorious and fruitful conquests, and of the highest value and importance to civilized nations. But all inventions, and particularly an undertaking of such gigantic nature, require pecuniary assistance. This should not, in our age of progress, be lacking for a single moment; because, if for no other reason, the first promoters of it will reap such great financial benefits therefrom as must be beyond their calculation. Singer, Howe, Colt, McCormick, and hundreds of others, all, with thousands of friends so immensely wealthy, bear out this assertion. Let not this enlightened age look upon a great invention as was done in Robert Fulton's time, when he proposed the steamship to Napoleon in 1801. The plan was laid before a scientific commission, and these learned men reported it as "visionary" and impracticable. Such was the reception which steam navigation, that has achieved such immense results, first received at the hands of philosophy and capital; but France lost thereby, indirectly, the control of Europe, and Napoleon his crown; while another nation—America—more wise, ten years later commenced to reap the benefits emanating from Fulton's genius.