There is a publication called the “Aeronautical Annual,” edited by James Means, Boston, Mass. In No. ‘Z and 3 of that work, Mr. Octave Chanute goes exhaustively into the question of sailing flight, and specifies every letter and article that bears on the subject. This paper may be said to take up the running where Mr. Chanute leaves off. My reasons for not writing to that periodical straight, are that publication would be delayed for many months; and the state of the art is such that at any moment some one of the many who are investigating this subject may drop on the facts stated in this paper, take out a master patent which would rule the construction of all future flying machines, and tax us all round for our good, as the protectionists say, thus throwing our work back for years. I therefore, with your permission, read this paper, and show the models that work as I describe, and thereby destroy the novelty of the invention for all time.

The Kite, one of the oldest of inventions, familiar to everyone and to every nation under the sun, is nevertheless but little understood. It has always been the custom to look upon this contrivance as a toy and nothing else. Very seldom indeed, until the last few years, has it been put to any practical use. Yet it is full of promise, and those few who have made regular and careful experiments in this line have all been impressed with the satisfactory results obtained. A kite sailing in a wind gives a very considerable pull on its line, which pull can be converted into lifting power or tractive power. This appliance may then be used for lifting great weights, such as that of a man, lagh into the air, or it may be used for towing carts or boats. Kites can be made to ascend to very great heights, carrying up automatically registering meteorological instruments, or may carry a string to communicate with places a long distance off.

Many difficulties beset explorers in wild countries. Much time has to be devoted to the journey; transport of supplies, hostility of natives, progress through jungles, marshes, and rivers impede the traveller. Long sojourns and hard work in hot and unhealthy climates, or extreme cold, all present great difficulties. There is, however, one high road which leads unobstructed to all parts — the air. An aeronaut, seated in the car of a balloon, floats along above all impediments and obstructions, travelling day and night at the speed of the wind, and with an extensive view of all the country below. But there are two practical difficulties to be overcome. First, the ordinary free balloon must travel wherever the wind chooses to take it, and that may be in any but the desired direction; secondly, no free balloon has as yet ever remained up longer than a day or two.

Probably few readers realize the advance which has been made towards a practical solution of the problem of aviation within the last eight years. It is greater than all that was accomplished during the preceding two centuries. Not only has the subject been rescued from the contempt brought upon it by past failures and eccentric proposals, but very able men—Langley, Maxim, Pilcher, Hargrave, and Lilienthal—have shown by their experiments and writings that man may fairly hope eventually to fly through the air.

Hundreds of failures during the last 300 or 400 years have well shown what arrangements will not answer, but the labours of these latter experimenters now enable us to forecast that success is most probably to be won with aerocurves, driven by screws or flapping propellers, actuated by a steam or a petroleum engine.

What is the best course to be now followed to make still further advance? Most of the above experimenters seem to have proceeded upon the assumption that it is practicable to evolve a complete flying machine at one operation, and to apply propellers and motors from the first, before we are quite certain as to the stability in a wind.

A full account has recently been published of one of the longest balloon voyages ever undertaken. (In point of duration it has been beaten at least once.) The ascent was made on October 19th last, at Leipzig, in the great balloon belonging to MM. L. Godard and E. Surcouf, which had been used for captive work throughout the summer at that place. At the close of the Exhibition it was decided to let the balloon go free. It was therefore specially fitted for the event, the large annular car being replaced by a smaller rectangular one. A novel feature was an “equilibriator” or guide rope of steel wire with a leaden core. This was 11 mm. in diameter, 50 metres long, weighing 25 kilogs, and was attached to the end of a hempen rope 100 metres long and 25 mm diameter.

In most circles, particularly amongst technical aeronauts, the opinion is widespread that the adherents of construction of aerostatical dirigible balloons are on a false track, and that their objects are fundamentally different from those who seek to solve the problem of flight by purely dynamical means. The great resistance of the air which the balloon has to overcome, and the unfavourableness of such a form of construction, is generally put forward as .an insurmountable obstacle.

The balloon, as all must allow, his already gained a recognized position, and has become useful for military and scientific purposes, whilst the dynamical flying machine has proved that, with such modern technical ingenuity of construction as has been created by Maxim, and is represented by the first flying machine to carry three persons, anything may be expected of it in the future.

This belief in the future of the dynamical aerial machine is shared rightly by all aeronauts, but the development of it can only proceed (in the opinion of all practical and experienced balloonists) through the aerostatical balloon. The latter is an inevitable step in the evolution of aerial navigation.