River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-02-27

1raW1ng at our pipes; the TACT 10, VIC
were the most downhearted set of men
% be found that night in all London
Il give it up" sighed Mac. This
IS my fourth attempt, and it's my
last" Ills eyes dwelt gloomily on the
broken model Of the flying machine
hat Uttered the table.
Time wasted-money gone-hope
vanished" Dawes ground out between
his teeth He was thinking of the col
lapse of his last piece Of apparatus,
On which he had spent three months
and all the money he could borrow.
/ was on the point of adding my
quota to the chorus of vain regrets
when the door opened with jerk and
Bridger stumbled in Our nerves, just
then, were not in a state to support
any form of shock however slight, and
his sudden entrance startled US.
Rridger's face was like the face Of
man who had seen a ghost
aW-whats up" Mac exclaimed.
Tor answer, Bridger supported him
self on the edge OF the table and made
sound that we knew meant
IN the bottle that Mac hurriedly pro-
duced, and Bridger swallowed the bet
ter part of it, Then he wiped the per-
5oirati0n from his forehead and col
lapsed into a chair.
Feel better?" asked Dawes sympa-
lhetically
Bridger nodded, and presently spoke
~ 1xryft,1
to make such an ass Of myself, but I've
had bit Of shock"
Bad news?" | inquired.
Not so much that as a series of
nerye-trying incidents. Cumulative,
you know They've knocked me out
Of time
Although he worded his distress in
conventional iargon, it was obviously
acute He was shaking all over.
Il ought to have told you," he said,
rather desperately, that, like your
selves, I've been giving months to
the problem of aerial flight, working
with another man, an Italian chemist,
who has made strange discovery in
motive power Our joint efforts re
flight week ago"
You don't mind giving us details?"
suggasted Dawes. You can rely on
Us e. respect your confidence"
y II ISL you everything" declared
Brdger cit will be a relief. Indeed,
| cant keep the hellish thing to my
self any longer He waited a moment
as if to concentrate his thoughts.
You know the ring-dOve? It's
flight is noiseless and very rapid We
kept one captive in the shed where we
worked, intending to base our designs
on it. Somehow, we changed them.
Ioffani, my partner, had manufactured
q cartilaginous substance sort of
membrane, and this was stretched
over digits. and the planes ultimately
took the shape of bats wing. The
whole model was only a foot across
and extremely light For the digits,
stays and braces we used only al
batr0ss quilts, and the motive pow
er-" He made an impressive pause
was radium!"
"Radium." echoed Mac. increduous-
ly You're not serious?"
Il never was more so in my life"
Bridger's tone was too impressive to
leave any doubt on that score.
"But-how did you apply it," |
asked
In the form Of the Beta-ray. ] am
not a chemist, and ! fear | can't give
you the explanation | should like of
how this form Of energy was adapted
10 our purpose In fact, this portion
of the work was undertaken by Zof-
FAM.
By this time our interest was thor
oughly aroused. Bridger had begun
by exciting our curiosity; now, both
his manner and his words rivetted our
attention when, at the first trIaI,'
he continued, we found that the lift
ing power of the machine was nine
times that OF its total weight you may
imagine our exultation. Our fondest
hopes had been exceeded. Its flight
was so strong and sustained that con-
troll was necessary from the first.
Connected to the middle of the floor
by a strong fishing line. it could keep
ia mid-air for. apparently. indefinite
periods. At first, it rose and remained
n q vertical position, but it was,
tank, al the third trial that we began
to notice its tendency to incline to-
wards the cage in which the dove was
kept"
Up to this point Bridger had shown
comparative calmness, but directly he
referred to tine dove a change came
over him. His breath grew shorter;
lis words came in jerks.
The bird was a wild one-we got it
from Romney marsha female. 1t
had got used to captivity, but directly
tie machine approached it. it showed
fedc-hattled against the bars of its
cage Al these times we could plainly
see that the machine was eXerting an
increased pull as though striving to
reach tie bird.
There was something horribly
fascinating in the machines strange
attraction to the bird, and the birds
obvious terror OF the machine. If
you've ever seen an ophidian exer
cising its influence on its prey you
will know what l mean"
He shivered slightly
we moved the cage to the opposite
end of the building. The machine
followed it! That was not all. 1t be-
gan to emit strange sounds-not the