Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-10-30
1902, by Harry Danie1

as far as the top of the back fence,
but he was at last compelled to leave
the skies unexplored.
In 1859 soarist by the name of
Bright made machine which, he be-
lieved, would enable him to spend
many a happy hour awing. The
mang1ed remains of Mr.. Bright's ma
chine were embalmed after it's first
flight and may to this day be seen
in a London museum, but history
closes her lips and refuses to tell
what became of Mr.. Bright.
In 1874 Aeronaut May constructed
a large side-wheeler. It succeeded
in winging it's way into the boughs
of the nearest tree, where Mr.. May
cast anchor and then slid down the
trunk of the tree with words on his
lips which he afterward lived to re-
greet. Mr.. Mays subsequent at
tempts were equally unsuccessful,
and he was never able to sneak out
into the amber sky as had been his
original intention.
In 1890 Prussian named Lilien-
thai constructed device which, when
strapped to his shoulders, enabled
him to jump from the top of high
building out into the atmosphere and
then settle down with but slight
/ danger of tearing up the ground.
He. kept improving his machine un-
til he was at length able to fly 1000
| feet in the air. But one day while
| soaring along at lively clip one of
his wings got hot box and the in
ventor came down to the earth, never
| to fit into the air again.
It will thus be seen that a large
lumber of aeronauts have been
winging their way through the pages
! of history during the last 300 years,
some having been able to fly quite
a distance before the final summons
! came and called them out of the air
forever, while others hoped from
their second story windows into an
extemporaneous and untimely grave.
M. Santos-Dumont is the most sue
cessful man who has ever tried to
get from one place to another with
out the use of solid ground, although
in Kansas and other sections of the
great zephyr belt many farmers have
from time to time successfully
picked up the hen house and few
of the members of their families and
flown over considerable scope of
country. But, notwithstanding these
occasional successes, the science of
aerostation is still in crude state.
M. Santos-Dumont's present ex-
periments are, if we mistake not, be-
ing conducted with his sixth airship,
the other five having either been
worn out or knocked to pieces with
monkey wrench in the hands Of
the exasperated aerialist.
Mr.. Santos-Ddmont is the son of 8
wealthy Brazilian farmer, and his
first knowledge of mechanics was
gained on a railroad locomotive on
his fathers farm. In Brazil many
farmers own railroads and keep
them around on the farm. If some
of our American farmers would buy
railroad once in awhile and take
it home for the children to play with
we would perhaps in time have a lot
of homegrown flyers and would not
have to send to foreign countries to
get people to come here and do our
flying for us.
After graduating from the locomo-
tive, Santos-Dumont took to the ball
loon, and his first ascension was
made in Paris in 1898. In going up
he was not injured, but in coming
down he fell a distance of 1900 feet,
which would have given him quite a
little jar had he not become entan-
gled in some ropes just before reach
ing the earth.
Other balloons and airships were
built and as quickly put on the re-
tired list, until last fall, when Num-
Der 6, in the face of a strong wind
and 300 years of aeronautical fail
ures, made her trip around Eiffe1
tower, to the delight of the civilized
world.
That is as far as the science of
aerostation has gone. How much
further it will go we dare not ven
ture to say. This is wonderful
age. In New Jersey they are making
pure country butter in the tallow
factories, and some of the finest
pure Vermont maple syrup that ever
ran is made out of hickory bark in
ST. Louis. Is it for us, then, to say
what science and invention may yet
accomplish?
When we can go to county fair
and see large, brainy man wrap
his feet around an old broom handle
and sail off into the empty realms of
space, or hang suspended in midair
1000 fet above sea level, we refuse
to question the future of aerosta-
ton. 1t is too wonderful theme
for some minds to fool with.
Perhaps the time will come when
we can put on linen buster and a
skull cap and go right through to
the Milky Way without a change of
cars, and, perhaps, there will some
day be cheap rates to Polaris and
other northern points, although at
the present time we are having a
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