lifting devices, and are made to really fly by the
application of engine propulsion.

Mechanical Birds.

All successful flying machines--and there are a number of them--are
based on bird action. The various designers have studied bird flight
and soaring, mastered its technique as devised by Nature, and the modern
flying machine is the result. On an exaggerated, enlarged scale the
machines which are now navigating the air are nothing more nor less than
mechanical birds.

Origin of the Aeroplane.

Octave Chanute, of Chicago, may well be called "the developer of the
flying machine." Leaving balloons and various forms of gas-bags out
of consideration, other experimenters, notably Langley and Lilienthal,
antedated him in attempting the navigation of the air on aeroplanes,
or flying machines, but none of them were wholly successful, and it
remained for Chanute to demonstrate the practicability of what was then
called the gliding machine. This term was adopted because the apparatus
was, as the name implies, simply a gliding machine, being without motor
propulsion, and intended solely to solve the problem of the best form of
construction. The biplane, used by Chanute in 1896, is still the basis
of most successful flying machines, the only radical difference being
that motors, rudders, etc., have been added.

Character of Chanute's Experiments.

It was the privilege of the author of this book to be Mr. Chanute's
guest at Millers, Indiana, in 1896, when, in collaboration with Messrs.
Herring and Avery, he was conducting the series of experiments which
have since made possible the construction of the modern flying machine
which such successful aviators as the Wright brothers and others are
now using. It was a wild country, much frequented by eagles, hawks, and
similar birds. The enthusiastic trio, Chanute, Herring and Avery, would
watch for hours the evolutions of some big bird in the air, agreeing
in the end on the verdict, "When we master the principle of that bird's
soaring without wing action, we will have come close to solving the
problem of the flying machine."

Aeroplanes of various forms were constructed by Mr. Chanute with the
assistance of Messrs. Herring and Avery until, at the time of the
writer's visit, they had settled upon the biplane, or two-surface
machine. Mr. Herring later equipped this with a rudder, and made other
additions, but the general idea is still the basis of the Wright,
Curtiss, and other mac