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Dawn of Aerial Navigation 253 the general public by the efforts of Santos-Dumont, Captain Ferber, Archdeacon, Blériot, Esnault-Pelterie, the brothers Farman, and Voisin, to mention only a few of the men engaged in the task. The adventures of Santos-Dumont, which were thrilling and exciting in the extreme, attracted the attention of one and all, and the circumstance that he successfully escaped serious injury served to emphasise the fact that travelling, even erratically, through the air was far from being so extremely dangerous as the unenlight- ened man in the street was disposed to imagine. Similarly, the aerial acrobatics of Monsieur Louis Blériot, who appeared to be persistently dogged by ill-luck and who was the hero of a hundred and one accidents and smashes, one or two of which were so serious as to leave indelible traces, appealed to the public fancy. They admitted his daring and determin- ation ; it appealed irresistibly to the French instinct. But the enthusiastic appreciation of the general public became riveted upon the conquest of the air from the tempting prizes which commenced to be offered by wealthy patrons of the new sport. The prizes were not offered for impossibilities, but were in the character of enticing steps. Thus Santos- Dumont carried off the prize which had been offered for covering a distance of 100 metres—approximately 100 yards—through the air at Bagatelle on November 12th, 1906. To-day it seems a ridiculously short dis- tance to cover by aeroplane. But it must be remem- bered that in January of the same year not a single motor-propelled aeroplane had even risen from the ground with a passenger under the power of its motor.