wspapers contained brief reports of aerial experiments which were
being carried out at Dayton, in the State of Ohio, America. So wonderful
were the results of these experiments, and so mysterious were the
movements of the two brothers--Orville and Wilbur Wright--who conducted
them, that many Europeans would not believe the reports.

No inventors have gone about their work more carefully, methodically,
and secretly than did these two Americans, who, hidden from prying
eyes, "far from the madding crowd", obtained results which brought them
undying fame in the world of aviation.

For years they worked at their self-imposed task of constructing a
flying machine which would really soar among the clouds. They had read
brief accounts of the experiments carried out by Otto Lilienthal, and
in many ways the ground had been well paved for them. It was their great
ambition to become real "human birds"; "birds" that would not only glide
along down the hillside, but would fly free and unfettered, choosing
their aerial paths of travel and their places of destination.

Though there are few reliable accounts of their work in those remote
American haunts, during the first six years of the present century, the
main facts of their life-history are now well known, and we are able
to trace their experiments, step by step, from the time when they
constructed their first simple aeroplane down to the appearance of the
marvellous biplane which has made them world-famed.

For some time the Wrights experimented with a glider, with which
they accomplished even more wonderful results than those obtained
by Lilienthal. These two young American engineers--bicycle-makers by
trade--were never in a hurry. Step by step they made progress, first
with kites, then with small gliders, and ultimately with a large one.
The latter was launched into the air by men running forward with it
until sufficient momentum had been gained for the craft to go forward on
its own account.

The first aeroplane made by the two brothers was a very simple one, as
was the method adopted to balance the craft. There were two main planes
made of long spreads of canvas arranged one above another, and on the
lower plane the pilot lay. A little plane in front of the man was known
as the ELEVATOR, and it could be moved up and down by the pilot; when
the elevator was tilted up, the aeroplane ascended, when lowered, the
machine descended.

At the back was a rudder, also under control