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Dawn of Aerial Navigation 239 Captains Renard and Krebs had been drawn to the “ Conquest of the Air ” from the results previously achieved by Henry Giffard in 1855, who sought to propel a gas-inflated vessel through the atmospheric ocean by means of a steam-engine ; of Dupuy de Lome in 1870-72 ; and of Albert and Gaston Tissandier in 1883. Dupuy de Lome attempted to solve this vexatious problem, which had been occupying the minds of men —brilliant and otherwise—for centuries, and the know- ledge which he accumulated from his experiments provided the foundation upon which Captains Renard and Krebs pursued their studies. Dupuy de Lome conceived his idea during the German investiture of the City of Paris. On February 2nd, 1872, a vessel was built according to his designs, and despite the indifferent propelling resources available, he suc- ceeded in imparting a speed of about five miles an hour to his craft in calm air. In 1883 the brothers Tissandier attacked the issue because by this time an alternative means of pro- pelling an airship had been devised. Gramme had given the world the electric dynamo, and it was thought that thereby aerial navigation might be solved. An electric motor of the type which Siemens had produced but a short while before, and developing ij horse- power, was employed, the current being drawn from accumulators. Several experiments therewith were carried out, but the first decisive flight was not made until September, 1884—after the maiden trip of La France—when the vessel made a two-hours’ sojourn in the air during which it attained a speed of about 13I feet per second and performed various evolutions.