The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1918-12-20

| Capronl 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
dictated 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 Il skepti-
cal world that man could fly in a heav-
! ier-than-air machine.
Their successes 80 fired the young
! Italian engineer with the dream Of be-
coming Il creator that he decided upon
aviation as his life work. Despite his
| racial impetuosity. he realized that n
theoretical groundwork would be nee
essary, and instead of Joining the
ranks Of the exhibition fllers who i'm
mediately sprnng 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 Miraflori insti-
tute In that city.
| lie 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 an irrepressible en-
! tlusiast on the future possibilities of
| the alrplane 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 mar
! from the Trentino spent 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 arplane and
| was frequently considered quite mad
/ 4 A.n. -
annihlating machines capable of car
/ rying as many as ten and twenty men.
Not Daunted by Skepticism.
But the skepticism Of the earlier
fliers, and many of them were painful
ly frank In their characterization of
Caproni's 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 Ne pictured in his
own mind In the earlier days.
| When he had drawn great mass OF
licfs 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 AID
OF ordinary Italian carpenters, and in
| small shed not far from Arco began
the construction Of n machine. II grew
hunder his direction, but It did not grow
as fast rs the suspicious OF the Aus
| TRAN police authorities.
Caproni was watched and hindered
In every possible manner. The police
did not limit their aggression to the
inventor. but extended 1t to his broth
err.