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

Dawn of Aerial Navigation 259 made a flight of 11 miles, which was gradually in- creased until on October 5th they had covered 24} miles in the air. Then the experiments suddenly ceased. The American public was becoming too curious for the Wright brothers. Crowds began to assemble around their experimental field. The aviators, apprehensive that details concerning the design and construction of their machine might leak out, drew within their shell to complete the specifica- tions and claims for the patent which they were pre- paring to file so as to secure the protection which the laws of civilised countries extends to inventors. But a toiler in this realm is unable to shield his product for ever from public notice. In the case of the Wright brothers their resolution to keep every- thing to themselves until their claims had received legal protection, owing to the time involved in this essential task, caused the reports of their suggested successes to be keenly disputed. But at last they came out into the open, and in 1908 Orville Wright took his machine to France to give a series of demon- strations. In this manner he fully vindicated the claims which he, together with his brother, had advanced. At that time, however, the Wright machine was not regarded as a complete success ; certainly it was maintained to be inferior to those which had been evolved in Europe. In the first place, it did not ascend under its own effort; an extraneous and elaborate launching device was necessary to send it into the air. This was certainly a disadvantage as compared with the French machines which, owing to the wheeled carriage with which they were fitted, were able to lift themselves into the air.