enty years later in an Austrian dirigible, giving a speed of 3 miles
an hour. About the same time much useful work was accomplished by Dupuy
de Lome, whose dirigible, with a propeller driven by man power, gave a
speed of 5-1/2 miles an hour. Twelve years later, in 1884, two French
Army officers, Captain Kubs and Captain Renard, constructed the first
successful power-driven lighter-than-air craft fitted with an 8-1/2
horse-power electric motor, which may be regarded as the progenitor of
all subsequent non-rigid airships. In 1901 Santos Dumont flew round the
Eiffel Tower, travelling 6-3/4 miles in 1-1/2 hours, and in 1903 the
flight of the "Lebaudy," covering a distance of 40 miles at a speed of
20 miles an hour, led the French military authorities to take up the
question of airships.

What the French initiated, the Germans, concentrating with
characteristic thoroughness on the development of the rigid as opposed
to the non-rigid airship, improved. In 1896 Wolfert's rigid airship
attained a speed of 9 miles an hour and in 1900 the first Zeppelin was
launched. Whatever we may think of the German methods of using their
airships during the war, we cannot but admire the courage and
determination of Count Zeppelin, who, in spite of many mishaps,
succeeded in producing the finest airships in the world and inspiring
the German people with a faith in the air which they have never lost.
From 1905 onwards development was rapid. In 1907 Zeppelin voyaged in
stages from Friedrichshaven to Frankfort, a distance of 200 miles in
7-1/2 hours. Popular enthusiasm is illustrated by the fact that within a
few months the same airship made four hundred trips, carrying 8,551
passengers and covering 29,430 miles. Other airships showed similar
records. Between 1909 and 1913 eighteen of the Parseval type were built,
and 1912 saw the construction of the first Schutte-Lanz, designed
expressly for naval and military purposes. If France at this period led
the world in aeroplane design, Germany was undeniably ahead in airship
development.

In Great Britain, in 1905, we had one very small airship, designed and
constructed by Willows.

THE BEGINNINGS OF AVIATION IN ENGLAND.

Though the names of Pilcher, Dunne, Howard Wright, and Rolls testify to
the fact that the science of aviation had its followers in England at
the beginning of this century, flying came comparatively late, and the
real interest of the movement centres round the early efforts of