Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-06-14
STUDIED THE BIRDS
And Louis MouiIIard Pointed the
Way to the AeropIane.

The French-themseIves masters OF
the air-cau Louis Mouillard the father
of aviation, although he never few.
ted today that his theories were sound,
although he never put them into
achieving form MouillaFd wrote two
books. The Empire OF the Air. and
Flight With Fixed Wings" Only the
first Of these works appeared during
his lifetime, and that had q small cir
culation- But he pointed the way To
fly. and ten years after his death the
Wright brothers, following principles
he set down. proved that he had Solv-
ed the problem.
MouiIlard explained that to seek to
hy by initiating the beating of birds
wings was error; that, instead OF try
ing this impossible feat man should
initiate those birds which soar with
steady wings and avail themselves OF
air currents. II Mouillard had possess
ed money there Is little doubt that he
would have demonstrated his theory,
as it has been successfully proved
The life Of this remarkable man seems,
on superficial view, to have been
failure. But bis compatriots, recog-
nizing his real worth. set up q monu-
ment to his memory at Heliopolis,
Egypt He died in 1897. The story
OF his life is pathetic.
Mouillard was the son of a dyer OF
Lyons. From boyhood he was fas-
cinated by the fight of birds. He
managed to buy an eagle, which he
secreted in the family garnet and
studied with an avid interest when
ever he could escape from his books
or work. He watched the birds
movements, measured its wings and
studied IT with infinite pains. And
when he had mastered the secret.
with the aid Of his admiring sisters. he
built an aeroplane with cotton and
corset bones and determined himself to
fly.
Going to a hill crowned with a
church. with a sheer cliff on one side,
the young inventor was about to trust
himself to his contrivance when the
beadle rushed at him, boxed his ears,
! confiscated his machine and sent him
! home in disgrace. This was the only
/ attempt Mouillard ever made to fly,
/ but his studies on the subject never
ceased.
! He showed such aptitude at drawing
| that it was decided he should make his
living by this talent. He won a schol.
arship and, going to Paris. studied un,
! der Ingres. Yet while he drew and
! painted his mind was always on fight
He would climb the towers of Notre
Dame, watch the startled birds take
fight and study their movements.
Mouillard's father died. and his arts
tic career suddenly closed. He went tC
| Algeria as a cOlonist and made a fail
ure in that. but the birds again were
his teachers. He noted that the sea
birds rose, turned and flew against the
wind without a movement of theil
wings. He weighed the bodies of thu
strongest. calculated wing space anC
advanced in his theories toward the
truth.
Casting about for q vocation. for he
was poor Mouillard secured a place t.
teach drawing at the Polytechnic schoO
of Cairo. Here he had another oppor
tunity. He would study the vulture:
of the desert and almost daily ht
sought them inland. He finally called
the vulture the master of flight" add
ing: I'm the perfection of the result
and the simplicity OF the movement
their flight is so splendid that it over
comes the watcher Every time yoI
look at it you are amazed that non,
has tried to reproduce II. 1t is SO sim
pie. so exactly what we want. Wha
could we ask more than that stead.
flight and those immense circles which
carry the bird into the heavens? The.
are all our desires realized" By de
grees he formulated his theories of al
currents. He observed that birds rOs
and hung mOtiODless and moved with
out bea ting their wings He ruminate,
on the air forces caused by the risin
of hot air FROM the desert and their et
feet on the flight OF the birds. He ha,
solved the mystery.
Stricken with illness. MOuillard coul
no longer teach drawing. He manage
to publish his Empire of the Air,
knowing its scientific value, and t
reach Paris. where his theories wer