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PATENT OFFICE

(Copyright, 1906, by John Elfreth Watkins.)

Santos-Dumont is the first man to have performed aerial flight with a self-propelled machine heavier than the air which it displaced. He has solved a problem which has caused inventive geniuses to burn the midnight oil and toss restlessly upon their couches since centuries before the dawn of the Christian era. During three millenniums of more ambitious men have broken their hearts and their heads seeking the great goal which this fearless Brazilian has won within the past few weeks.
Although the balloon is commonly regarded as the father of the aerodrome, history bears it out that man took up first the more difficult problems involved in the latter mechanism. Nature gave to the ancient inventor the birds of the air as models after which to build. But the ancients for many centuries regarded the ability of feathered creatures to fly as a supernatural gift.
The first mechanical flying machine of history was the artificial pigeon of Archytas, a Greek geometrician, who flourished about 400 years before Christ. The historian Aulus Gellius says that "Archytas constructed a wooden pigeon which could fly by means of mechanical powers and an aura spirit." This "aura," according to the Greeks, was a force emanating from all living things, which it surrounded like an atmosphere. Some of our recent inventors of new religions have applied the term to what others call "animal magnetism." According to fuller descriptions the buoyancy of Archytas' pigeon was effected by magnets, the propelling power only being an occult force. One writer stated that although the machine could fly, "it could not raise itself up again" if it fell.

During the reign of Nero a man flew high in the air, but lost his life in the descent, according to Antonius Byerlink, who gave some description of the wings and apparatus and attributed the violent death of this pioneer Darius Green to the fact that his evil genius suddenly became displeased while he was aloft and suffered him to fall. This warning appears to have been effective, for not until the fifteenth century does history record another actual flying machine.
An artificial eagle, which flew out to meet the Emperor Charles V and accompanied him back to town, is said by several historians to have been constructed at Nuremburg by Johann Muller, known also as Regiomontanus—a German bishop, astronomer and mathematician. About the same period "a certain monk named Elmerus flew about a furlong from the top of a tower in Spain." Another of these early experimenters is said to have attempted flight from St. Mark's steeple, in Venice, and still another at Nuremburg, while "by means of a par of wings a person named Dante of Perouse was enabled to fly, but while amusing the citizens with his flight he fell on top of St. Mark's Church and broke his thigh."
Leonardo da Vinci practiced flying successfully, according to Cuporus' "Excellence of Man." How the celebrated Italian artist, musician and mechanician accomplished this feat four centuries ago is not, however, stated. Busbec, ambassador of Ferdinand I at Constantinople, also speaks of a Turk in that city who attempted to fly.

John Wilkins, bishop of Chester, a celebrated English scientist of two centuries and a half ago, said: "I have heard from credible testimony that one of our nation hath succeeded so far in this experiment that he was able, by the help of wings, in such a running pace to step constantly (off the ground) ten yards at a time." This appears to be the first suggestion of the soaring machine, such as used in recent years by Lilienthal, Chanute and the Wright brothers.
A flight with wings, consisting of four rectangular surfaces, one at each end of two rods passing over the shoulders of the operator, was made by Besnier, a locksmith of Sable, France, according to the Journal des Savans, 1678. Besnier, it was further stated, progressively raised himself from one height to another until he reached the top of a house, from which he passed over the neighboring houses. He could thus cross a river of considerable breadth. His first pair of wings were purchased by a Mr. Baldwin of Guibre, who was said to have used them with remarkable success.
The world's first flying machine patent was issued in 1709 to Bartholomew Lourence de Gusman, friar of Lisbon. He presented to the King of Portugal an address representing himself as having invented a swift flying machine capable of carrying passengers and requesting prohib[[?]] against all imitators. The king, delighted that his subject had won the great [[?]] issued a decree ordering "the pain of [[?]] against any one who should infringe [[?]] friar, who was also rewarded with an [[?]] pension of 600,000 reis, the first [[?]] ship in the University of Coimbra first vacancy in the College of [[?]] In the absence of wind the sail [[?]] chine was to be filled by a pai[[?]] assisted by two powerful magnets [[?]]eral pieces of amber. How long [[?]] friar enjoyed his pension and patronage is not stated, nor does history state what the king did to him after discovering the extent to which his majesty had been "buncoed."

Students of mechanical flight shortly afterward paused to behold at last a vehicle which could mount the air to a great height and carry human freight long distances. Somewhat extravagant suggestions of an airship on the balloon principle had been first made by Roger Bacon, the celebrated English philosopher of five centuries ago, who proposed "a large, hollow globe of copper" to be "filled with etherial air or liquid fire and then launched from some elevated point into the atmosphere." About four centuries later Francis Lana, a Jesuit, had further proposed to prepare four hollow globes of thinnest copper, each twenty feet in diameter and suspending a boat for the aeronaut. But doing the stormy days just preceding the French revolution there dwelt at Avignon Stephen Montgolfier, who had observed that a light paper bag filled with smoke would rise in the air. He concluded that if the bad were made large enough it would not only rise of itself, but lift one or more men. So he and his brother Joseph set to work to experiment with several large paper envelopes in the shape of the "balloon"—a short-necked vessel used

[[image]] THE "LEBAUDY"   


 



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