Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-02-14
cONQUER|NG THE AIR.
Flight of Henry Farman's Aero-
 plane In Paris.
GRACEFUL BEYOND MEASURE
Work of the Successful Inventor and Hopes Founded Upon His Achieves ment-How Frenchmen Encourage Progress by Giving Prizes.

rr1ent--HoW Frenchmon encourage Progress by Giving Prizes. was lucky enough to study at lei
 sure the trial flights in Paris of Henry Farman for winning the $10000 prize
 which he earned so well, writes the
 New York Posts special Paris core spondent. He was to fly on his aero plane a half kilometer (one-third of .
 mile), then turn goal and return to
 the starting point, all without once
 touching ground. The length of this
 irregular oval around which he took
 his course in midair was full three
 quarters of mile, and since his yic-
 tory, out of pure lightness of heart at
 a motor working well, he has made .
 circular flight three times as long. Not
 enough has been said of the mere look
 of man and machine as they "plane"
 against the sky, for a new verb is
 needed to describe the motion.
 It is like nothing else ever seen be.
 fore. It is not even like Santos-D -Du-
 mont's little dirigible balloon, the No.
 9, which carried him back and forth
 so easily from place to place in the
 Bois de Boulogne, like an automobile
 running through the air. Small as it's
 gas bag was. the No. 9, like all bal-
 looms, kept the look of being suspend
 ed by something held up in the air as
 it glided about. On the other hand,
 Ln !, a; lrt ttn chn lxryov hv
 movements that string is holding it
 down. Farman's aeroplane moves like
 neither the one nor the other. It does
 not even resemble giant bird cutting
 through space any more than an auto mobile resembles horse.
 It is vast human structure, as evf- dently a machine as a steam engine, with it's spread of boxlike cells and whirring motor and place for the pilot in the middle. It's flight through the air in long rising and falling curves as the motor varies its power is grace full beyond measure, but thoroughly human-just such a mechanical grace as that of a motor launch over a broad expanse of water.
 Soon the sight will become as com mon as any other, for men have found what Clerk Maxwell called in electric ity the "go' of the thing. Farman knows now just how many pounds weight his motor will take up into the air and for how long a flight. The motors the thing.
 All these steady advances, however slow, were made possible by Santos Dumont's daring in hitching a petro- leum motor to balloon. l was also lucky enough to follow his very first experiments, only ten years ago. He had to face the entreaties of anxious friends and the open scorn of profess sional men of the air. He went on his way, year after year, undiscouraged by repeated failures. But he made of each failure a trial experiment of his right Thanks to his experiments, we have now two branches of an already practical industry-petroleum as c means of transport through the air. There are the great motor balloons for war, and there are these machines like Farman's, without any gas to help them, flying of themselves by the pro- pulsion of a petroleum motor. The world has moved within that space of ten years.
 No fair man can doubt that these flying machines will be made prac- tical. little by little, like everything that comes to stay. They are here now for learning and sport Soon rich amateurs will use them for their luxu- rious pleasure. Last will come their plain, everyday use when time and constant experiments shall have made known their possibilities.
 The prizes which stimulate to experi- ments like Farman's have been gradu- ated here in France with great good sense. Instead of asking brand new. still' uncertain invention to be put in with motor locomotion long practiced on terra firma, the first prize was for flight in a straight line for a distance long enough to prevent Skeptics saying, Pooh. that was only a great bound in the airv' Santos-Du- mont won this first prize last autumn, just as he was the first-publicly-to steer a balloon.
 Then NJ. Deutsch. the same who gave the S2O.O0O won by Santos by steering his balloon from St Cloud round the Elffel tower and back, and NJ. Archdeacon offered the prize which Farman has just won. The task was .O fly a moderate distance and turn in he air and return to the starting point.
 Now NJ. Armengaud. an engineer of reputation and an author ty on aeronautics, offers $20O0 to the nan who will fly on his aeropIane for of an hour without touch- ng ground.
 First to fly at all. then to steer the light. now to prolong the fight-these Ire the natural beginnings. even with l bird learning to fly. In due time will ome long distance flights. starting and anding and steering matches, then Ither exercises of skill and-crown of Ill. as with the horse. with automo- lies. with observation-disclosures. This 5 a practical order of things instead f summonlng the inventor first or to b everything at once or for ever after old his peace.
 Engiishmen are claiming Farman as heir own. and he may be one of the .ing's subjects. For all that. he is a roduct of Paris as a man and as one