ng.
With the 1900 machine one-fourth of the rudder action had been necessary
for far better control.

Practically all glides gave the same result, and in one the machine rose
higher and higher until it lost all headway. 'This was the position from
which Lilienthal had always found difficulty in extricating himself,
as his machine then, in spite of his greatest exertions, manifested a
tendency to dive downward almost vertically and strike the ground head
on with frightful velocity. In this case a warning cry from the ground
caused the operator to turn the rudder to its full extent and also to
move his body slightly forward. The machine then settled slowly to the
ground, maintaining its horizontal position almost perfectly, and landed
without any injury at all. This was very encouraging, as it showed that
one of the very greatest dangers in machines with horizontal tails had
been overcome by the use of the front rudder. Several glides later the
same experience was repeated with the same result. In the latter case
the machine had even commenced to move backward, but was nevertheless
brought safely to the ground in a horizontal position. On the whole this
day's experiments were encouraging, for while the action of the rudder
did not seem at all like that of our 1900 machine, yet we had escaped
without difficulty from positions which had proved very dangerous
to preceding experimenters, and after less than one minute's actual
practice had made a glide of more than 300 feet, at an angle of
descent of ten degrees, and with a machine nearly twice as large as had
previously been considered safe. The trouble with its control, which
has been mentioned, we believed could be corrected when we should have
located its cause.'

It was finally ascertained that the defect could be remedied by
trussing down the ribs of the whole machine so as to reduce the depth of
curvature. When this had been done gliding was resumed, and after a few
trials glides of 366 and 389 feet were made with prompt response on the
part of the machine, even to small movements of the rudder. The rest of
the story of the gliding experiments of 1901 cannot be better told than
in Wilbur Wright's own words, as uttered by him in the lecture from
which the foregoing excerpts have been made.

'The machine, with its new curvature, never failed to respond promptly
to even small movements of the rudder. The operator could cause it to
almost skim the ground, following the