; the tips
being raised 4 feet above the body. The spars forming the entering
edges of the wings crossed each other in the centre and were lashed to
opposite sides of the triangle that served as a mast for the stay-wires
that guyed the wings. The four ribs of each wing, enclosed in pockets
in the fabric, radiated fanwise from the centre, and were each stayed by
three steel piano-wires to the top of the triangular mast, and similarly
to its base. These ribs were bolted down to the triangle at their roots,
and could be easily folded back on to the body when the glider was not
in use. A small fixed vertical surface was carried in the rear. The
framework and ribs were made entirely of Riga pine; the surface fabric
was nainsook. The area of the machine was 150 square feet; its weight
45 lbs.; so that in flight, with Pilcher's weight of 145 lbs. added, it
carried one and a half pounds to the square foot.

Pilcher's first glides, which he carried out on a grass hill on the
banks of the Clyde near Cardross, gave little result, owing to the
exaggerated dihedral angle of the wings, and the absence of a horizontal
tail. The 'Bat 'was consequently reconstructed with a horizontal tail
plane added to the vertical one, and with the wings lowered so that the
tips were only six inches above the level of the body. The machine now
gave far better results; on the first glide into a head wind Pilcher
rose to a height of twelve feet and remained in the the air for a third
of a minute; in the second attempt a rope was used to tow the glider,
which rose to twenty feet and did not come to earth again until nearly
a minute had passed. With experience Pilcher was able to lengthen his
glide and improve his balance, but the dropped wing tips made landing
difficult, and there were many breakages.

In consequence of this Pilcher built a second glider which he named
the 'Beetle,' because, as he said, it looked like one. In this the
square-cut wings formed almost a continuous plane, rigidly fixed to the
central body, which consisted of a shaped girder. These wings were built
up of five transverse bamboo spars, with two shaped ribs running from
fore to aft of each wing, and were stayed overhead to a couple of masts.
The tail, consisting of two discs placed crosswise (the horizontal
one alone being movable), was carried high up in the rear. With the
exception of the wing-spars, the whole framework was built of white
pine. The wings in this machine were