ident occurred. The machine was broken. The
newspapers made cruel fun of Professor Langley; he was criticized in
the U. S. Congress; and overcome by grief at the failure of his great
idea he tried no more. Two years later he died, crushed and broken in
spirit.

But the Wright brothers did not let any such unkind comment hinder
their work. They kept on studying the flight of birds. Lying flat on
their backs they would watch birds for whole afternoons at a time,
until at last they came to believe that a bird himself is really an
aeroplane. The parts of the wings close to the body are supporting
planes, while the portions that can be flapped are the propellers.
Watch a hawk or a buzzard soaring and you will see they move their
wings but little. They balance themselves on the rising currents of
air. A hawk finds that on a clear warm day the air currents are high
and rise with a rotary motion. That is why we see these birds go
sailing round and round. When you see one poised above a steep hill on
a damp, windy day you may be sure he is balancing himself in the air
which rises from its slope and he will be able to glide down at will.

The Wright brothers were certain if they could balance a machine in
the air they could make it go. To find out how to do this they made a
difficult experiment with delicate sheets of metal balanced in a long
tube. Through this tube steady currents of air were blown. The speed
with which the currents were sent through the tube was changed often,
as well as the angles of sending. Over and over they did this, until
they were sure of the same results each time. They knew how to plan
the shape of a surface that would do what they wanted it to in the
air, and they were soon ready to make a trial flight with their
aeroplane.

The United States Weather Bureau told them the winds were strongest
and steadiest at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and there they made their
first test flights in 1900. That year they had only two minutes of
actual sailing in the air. But they went back the next year and the
next, learning more each time, and working untiringly.

One day Dr. Octave Chanute, the man who knew more than any one else in
the United States about flying, appeared suddenly at Kitty Hawk. He
watched them, and gave as his opinion that they had gone farther than
any one else in this new art. Cheered by his words they began to work
harder. Now that they could balance in the air they must make their
machine