All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

248 All About Inventions apparatus, the knowledge gained from the use of which was quite as, if not more, valuable than that advanced by Lilienthal. Pilcher selected the biplane form of gliding apparatus for his investigations. Flushed with the measure of success which he achieved, he was also tempted to install a motor in his machine. Indeed, he contrived an aeroplane which may be said to be the father of those in use to-day. He built an oil motor developing 4 horse-power, but although this machine was constructed he never tested it. He resolved to carry out further experi- ments with his gliding apparatus before trusting himself to a motor-driven machine, and in October, 1899, while giving a demonstration in a park near Rugby, while he was sailing at a height of about 32 feet, a weak part of the machine broke. The accident threw Pilcher to the ground, and he died thirty-four hours later, at the early age of thirty-two years. As a matter of fact, although considerable merit is paid to the work of Lilienthal, that achieved by Pilcher was far more directly contributory to subsequent investigation, and was far more useful, because he practically outlined the successful flying machine with which we are so familiar at the moment. Lilienthal’s contrivance was extremely dangerous. Greater credit is due rather to the man for his courage and perseverance than to his machine. The dangerous character of the Lilienthal flying apparatus was brought home very convincingly by Mr. A. M. Herring while acting as assistant to Mr. Octave Chanute, of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. He built an exact copy of the German investigator’s