individual records to the time when the machine began to dominate the
man. This latter because, in the early days, it was heroism to trust
life to the planes that were turned out--the 'Demoiselle' and the
Antoinette machine that Latham used in his attempt to fly the Channel
are good examples of the flimsiness of early types--while in the later
period, that of the war and subsequently, the heroism turned itself in a
different--and nobler-direction. Design became standardised, though
not perfected. The domination of the machine may best be expressed by
contrasting the way in which machines came to be regarded as compared
with the men who flew them: up to 1909, flying enthusiasts talked of
Farman, of Bleriot, of Paulhan, Curtiss, and of other men; later, they
began to talk of the Voisin, the Deperdussin, and even to the Fokker,
the Avro, and the Bristol type. With the standardising of the machine,
the days of the giants came to an end.

XIII. FIRST FLIERS IN ENGLAND

Certain experiments made in England by Mr Phillips seem to have come
near robbing the Wright Brothers of the honour of the first flight;
notes made by Colonel J. D. Fullerton on the Phillips flying machine
show that in 1893 the first machine was built with a length of 25 feet,
breadth of 22 feet, and height of 11 feet, the total weight, including a
72 lb. load, being 420 lbs. The machine was fitted with some fifty wood
slats, in place of the single supporting surface of the monoplane or two
superposed surfaces of the biplane, these slats being fixed in a steel
frame so that the whole machine rather resembled a Venetian blind. A
steam engine giving about 9 horse-power provided the motive power for
the six-foot diameter propeller which drove the machine. As it was
not possible to put a passenger in control as pilot, the machine was
attached to a central post by wire guys and run round a circle 100
feet in diameter, the track consisting of wooden planking 4 feet wide.
Pressure of air under the slats caused the machine to rise some two or
three feet above the track when sufficient velocity had been attained,
and the best trials were made on June 19th 1893, when at a speed of 40
miles an hour, with a total load of 385 lbs., all the wheels were off
the ground for a distance of 2,000 feet.

In 1904 a full-sized machine was constructed by Mr Phillips, with a
total weight, including that of the pilot, of 600 lbs. The machine was
designed to lift when it had at