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

254 All About Inventions When the first prize had been carried off further awards were offered for 200 metres, which Blériot and Delagrange secured by covering 220 metres through the air. In this way the distance to be flown was gradually increased until it reached a circle of one kilometre—a little more than half a mile—for the successful flight of which £2,000 was offered. Yet this was well and truly won by Henry Farman on January 13th, 1908. It was the offer of tempting prizes which gave aviation such a far-reaching impetus. It enabled successs to be achieved in far shorter time than would have been the case had the evolution of the new method of locomotion merely been pursued along normal lines. Under the direct encouragement of adequate reward for industry, ingenuity, and perse- verance, the length of the highway through the air was increased from 100 metres to a circular kilometre within fourteen months ! Needless to say, the aspirants to fame and the tempting prizes suffered experiences which otherwise would not have come their way. Thus in the early days the experimenters favoured a novel means of determining whether their machines possessed the vital ability of being able to rise into the air. The machines broadly resembled huge kites. They were not fitted with motors right away, but were hitched to fast motor-boats to be towed at high speed. The big kites rested on floats. As the motor-boat settled into its stride, naturally the machine, if of correct design, commenced to rise from the water, and at last attained the maximum height possible owing to the limited length of the towing rope.