was
ready for its first trial every newspaper in Dayton was notified, and
about a dozen representatives of the Press were present. Our only
request was that no pictures be taken, and that the reports be
unsensational, so as not to attract crowds to our experiment grounds.
There were probably fifty persons altogether on the ground. When
preparations had been completed a wind of only three or four miles was
blowing--insufficient for starting on so short a track--but since many
had come a long way to see the machine in action, an attempt was made.
To add to the other difficulty, the engine refused to work properly. The
machine, after running the length of the track, slid off the end without
rising into the air at all. Several of the newspaper men returned again
the next day, but were again disappointed. The engine performed badly,
and after a glide of only sixty feet the machine came to the ground.
Further trial was postponed till the motor could be put in better
running condition. The reporters had now, no doubt, lost confidence in
the machine, though their reports, in kindness, concealed it. Later,
when they heard that we were making flights of several minutes'
duration, knowing that longer flights had been made with airships, and
not knowing any essential difference between airships and flying
machines, they were but little interested.'

The indifference and scepticism of the public and the press provided a
very effective veil of secrecy, and the brothers prosecuted their
researches undisturbed. In 1904 they made more than a hundred flights,
practising turning movements and complete circles, and learning how to
handle the machine so as to prevent it from 'stalling', that is, from
losing flying speed and falling to earth out of control when the air
resistance caused by its manoeuvring reduced its speed. In 1905 they
built another machine and resumed their experiments in the same field.
They did not want to attract a crowd. The cars on the electric line
adjoining the field ran every thirty minutes, and they timed their
flights between the runs. The farmers living near by saw the flying, but
their business was with the earth, not the air, and after looking on for
two years they lost what little interest they had. On the 5th of October
1905 one of them, from a neighbouring field, saw the great white form
rushing round on its circular course in the air. 'Well,' he remarked,
'the boys are at it again'; and he kept on cutting