THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.
succeeds so admirably with automobiles, and controlling a rudder analogous to that of a ship?
I wish that in the past I might have seen many builders of air-ships take part in aërial contests. Progress is only achieved at this price: it should be the work of all.
To my knowledge, there are in existence a dozen petroleum balloons, completed months ago, some of them belonging to millionaires, to whom the expense of aërial experiments would be a trifle. I have done all that I could to induce them to compete in the Grand Prix de Paris; for nothing is more annoying to me than to be alone in the air during a competition. I hope to have an opportunity of meeting them at the competitions at London or St. Louis and elsewhere. For it is probable that the multiplication of contests will attract a number of competitors, and it is for this reason that I beg for the organization of aërial contests in America, as well as in Europe.
Nothing is easier than to take part in the next experiments; for, in the present conditions of aëronautic industry, scarcely a month's time is needed for the construction of an air-ship. For my own part, at the beginning of this month of May I have in process of construction three new air-ships which will be finished before the first of June. These will be "No. 8," "No. 9," and "No. 10" of the series. In their general construction they resemble "No. 6," which won the Grand Prix de Paris in 1901, which made live voyages in the Mediterranean in January and February, 1902, and which I shall ride again at London in June. But they differ from it in their dimensions, in the perfecting of details, which I wish to study in succession.
I am doing this for the sake of example; and if, contrary to my hope, I do not encounter those who wish to compete with me, on either side of the Atlantic, there is left to me, at least, the resource of exhibiting my air-ships in the leading cities of the world, with the object of popularizing, by every means in my power, the idea of aërial navigation.
The essential thing is to create a universal movement in favor of aëronautics.
Until lately, I have thought that to attain this end it was enough to ascend into the air myself, and to multiply my experiments, at the risk of my life. But now I see that this is not enough, and that, before the aërial idea becomes practical, it
