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Ireland, which opened to-day in Agricultural Hall, Islington. Each inventor seems confident that his idea has solved the problem of successful air navigation, but in most cases the model is simply a model and doesn't represent much more than the fancy kite. Of the whole number, to the layman's mind, less than a dozen present the slightest degree of practicability. In those, for the most part, practically the same principles are employed as have been made use of by the Wright brothers and M. Santos-Dumont, the difference being generally the method of sterring.
At the same time the exhibition has served the purpose of bringing together the different conceptions of inventors and those who would rank as such, and the members of the Aero Club believe that much good will result.
Adjoining this exhibition is another devoted to balloons. Here are shown three balloon cars belonging to Hon. C.S. Rolls, one of which, the Britannia, was third in the recent race for the International Cup. Another midget is the smallest Japanese silk balloon in Great Britain. The third is a touring car which carries ten passengers. Hon. Mrs. Harboard is showing her balloon, and Professor Huntington, who was one of the competitors in the recent international race, is among the exhibitors.
The visitor to the model show can hardly help experiencing a sense of deep sympathy for the creators of many of the queer devices which are on view. Pathetic in its way is a tiny contrivance over which an aged man stands guard. It is only two feet long and is made of 

HON C.S.ROLLS

thin muslin, but to insure its being in the exhibition the maker,. who has spent many years developing it, trudged all the way from Suffolk, ninety-five miles, carrying his previous model under his arm. 
Two of the best-known exhibitors are Major A. F. Baden-Powell and Major R. F. Moore, the former showing three models—the first of a vertical screw type, the second on the flapping wing principle, and the third an aeroplane. Major Moore shows two of the flapping wing variety. One model shown, which is about five feet tall and is marked "Not Complete," looks for all the world like a clothes horse. Another is in the shape of a gayly colored marquee, with a floor at the bottom, below which is a large propeller, placed horizontally, which is supposed to lift the whole contrivance.
One inventor has patented wings made of feathers, another has limited the wings of the flying fox and still another model looks like a huge sausage formed of corrugated aluminum, supported by three concave aeroplanes of the same material. Attached to it is the typewritten announcement:—"Evidently M. Santos-Dumont has not heard of Blank's corrugated aeroplanes or he would have built his machine with them."
The largest exhibit is that of A. V. Roe, who recently went over to Colorado to make experiments. Mr. Roe has five models on view, most of them aeroplanes, which he says propelled themselves more than one hundred and fifty feet. Mr. Roe told me he has almost finished a real flying machine. It is thirty-six feet long and weighs with the inventor 400 pounds. With an eight-horse power Jap engine he expects to attain twenty-five miles an hour.
Adjoining Mr. Roe's exhibit is that of T. W. K. Clarke, one of whose models is a modified Wright machine, with two surfaces in tandem.
An exhibit that attracts considerable attention is that of José Weiss. It is shaped exactly like an albatross. The machinery is placed inside the body.
One of two Piffard models makes a handsome appearance with two sets of superimposed curved surfaces supporting a very long car.
The trial of the contrivances is announced for a week from Monday, when for the best three working models of aeroplanes prizes aggregating £250 will be given.