Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1918-09-06

Caproni received his early training.
His elementary schooling was acquired
in the small and isolated institutions
of the Trentino. Even in these schools
the boys love for mathematics was in
dicated and appreciated. and when he
had finished the courses presented his
aged father and mother packed his
few belongings. bestowed upon him
their blessings and sent him north
away from the Trentino to the engi-
neering college at Munich, Bavaria.
Was Graduated when of Age.
On his twenty-first birthday he was
graduated from that institution with
the degree of civil engineer 1t was
about this time that the Wright broth
ers began to demonstrate to a skepti-
cal world that man could fly in a heav-
ier-than-air machine.
Their successes so fired the young
italian engineer with the dream % be-
coming a creator that he decided upon
aviation as his life work. Despite his
racial impetuosity. he realized that
theoretical groundwork would be nee
ranks of the exhibition fliers who inn
mediately sprang up in Europe he con-
tinued the business of prying truths
from textbooks.
1t was hard pull. for the expense
of higher education along proper
lines was far from small and the sums
offered for exhibition flights were
large. But young Caproni stuck it out.
and travelling still further north and
away from the Trentino he went to
Liege and entered the Mirafiori insti-
tute In that city
He applied himself to the more diff
cult courses in its curriculum. among
them being that of electro-technics.
This he mastered, and Immediately
broadened the scope of his pilgrimage
for knowledge to include Paris and the
flying fields of the continent
He was always Gn irrepressible en-
thusiast on the future possibilities of
the airplane, but usually tempered his
advanced, and what In those days were
radical, views with solid facts CLEANED
from his long preparation.
In the earlier days of the French
demonstration flying the young man
from the Trentino spent a great deal
Of his time talking with the men who
were making exhibition flights and i'm
proving on the theories of the Wright
brothers. He was always ready TO
discuss the future of the airplane and
was frequently considered quite mad
when he talked of time and distance
annihilating machines capable of car
rying as many as ten and twenty men.
Not Daunted by Skepticism.
But the skeptlcism of the earlier
fliers, and many of them were painful
ly frank in their characterization of
Capronfs dream. did little to crush
the spirit of the man who has since
become the producer of heavier-than-
air machines which are larger and can
do more than those he pictured in his
own mind in the earlier days.
When he had drawn great mass of
opinions, practical experiences and be-
liefs from the earlier birdmen of Eu-
rope he returned to the Trentino.
where he spent some time digesting
them.
Finally Caproni was ready to build
his first machine. He enlisted the aud
Of ordinary Italian carpenters. and in
small shed not far from Arco began
the construction of a machine. 1t grew
under his direction. but it did not grow
as fast as the suspicious of the Aus
TRAN police authorities.
Caproni was watched and hlndered
in every possible manner. The police
did not limit their aggression to the
inventor, but extended it to his broth
err.