Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

2 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. We must not forget, however, that the feats recently accomplished are the outcome of a great amount of experiment in the laboratory and in the open air. There has been little of what may be called accidental discovery in the story of the aeroplane. Slowly and systematically, with the aid of a multitude of models, the laws of the air have been explored, the problems of maintaining stability partly solved. If progress has been, on the whole, much slower than in the case of the steam locomotive, the steamship, and the electric and petrol-driven vehicle, it is due mainly to the characteristic difficulties of aerial navigation, the main one being that the failure of any man-carrying apparatus is attended by the most serious consequences, financial and physical. This meant a cautious advance into the fascinating field of aeronautics. A lot of work was done without achieving results such as would appeal to the popular imagination. Experi- menters were regarded as fools, bent on breaking their necks. Arguments were mar- shalled to show that man was not intended to fly, and that therefore he should not .endeavour to do so. It might have been maintained with equal fairness that man was not designed to travel on land at a hundred miles an hour, or on the sea at almost half that speed. The prejudice which overlooked these counter-arguments was based in no small degree upon an ignorance about or misconception of the physical qualities of the atmosphere. Though at rest, the air seems to have no substance ; the hurricane—air moving at high velocity—makes playthings of solid structures. It shows a curious anomaly of thought that, while the dirigible balloon was regarded as foredoomed to failure as being unable to overcome air resistance, the flying machine should have been derided on the grounds that mere air would not serve for its support. The fundamental fact that air will give support to any mass if that mass be provided with suitable surfaces and be propelled at a sufficiently high speed is now, however, more generally recognized. Though veritable engineering wonders, the airship and the flying machine are still in their infancy, so young that we cannot yet see clearly what form they are likely to take as they develop. Will the final victory rest with the dirigible balloon or with the heavier- than-air self-lifting and self-supporting machine ? Or will there be uses found for both types of air craft ? It is impossible to say. The attitude which, scouts the idea of aviation becoming more than a sport for the wealthy few seems hardly worthy of serious consideration. The advantages of being able to travel through the air, upborne by a medium which requires not a farthing’s-worth of expenditure in repairs, and which is practically illimitable, are too obvious to need setting forth. The motor car has come into general use largely because of its capacity to save time in “ cross-country ” journeys, through districts not served by the railway. But even the car has to keep to the beaten track ; to cross a river at one or other of a few points—often many miles apart—at which bridges have been built; to traverse mountain ranges where the engineers have made the roads. Long detours are, in many circum- stances, unavoidable. The aeroplane and “ dirigible ” know no such limitations. Given the capacity to keep moving in. the direction desired, there will be nothing to hinder them getting from any one place to any other. What effects the new locomotion will have on society it is indeed difficult to foresee. Pessimists, directing their attention mainly to the combative instincts of mankind, croak