THE BROTHERS WRIGHT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 9, 10 July 1909, Page 10

THE BROTHERS WRIGHT.

ENTERTAINED IN LONDON. Whatever may 'be the opinions of Messrs. Wilbur and Orville Wright in regard to aeronautics in Great Britain (writes the Daily Telegraph) they must leave London on their return to America impressed by the hospitality of their admirers in this country. They were the guests of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom at a banquet which was given at the Hotel Ritz. The company numbered about 150. It would have been much larger had it been possible to accommodate all who desired to be pve£ent. On the table, in front of the chief guests, was a small model of an aeroplane. This, made in sugar, was a rare specimen of the confectioner's art. Mr. Roger W. Wallace, K.C., presided, and on his right was Mr. Wilbur Wright and on his left Mr. Orville Wright. Mi&s Wright was also present. Other members of the company were: — Prince Francis of Teck, Lord Mtontagu of Beaulieu, the Hon. Whitelaw Reid, Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, Vice-Ad-miral Sir Percy Scott, Sir Henry Norman, M.P., Sir Arthur Paget, Sir Clifton Robinson, Mr. Arthur Stanley, M.P Mr. Arthur Dv Cros, M.P., the Hon. C* S. Rolls. EARLY STRUGGLES. The Bon. C. S. Rolls, proposing "The Houses of Parliament," &aid apart from knowing the brothers Wright, he had had the advantage of making a short llight with one of them, and he was also acquainted with them in America before they made their European succtsses. They continued their experiments, unlearning everything that they had learnt in text-books, and were enabled to accomplish what had been pronounced by a number of eminent men of science, and, moreover, proved on paper, to be absolutely impossible. At the end of the first two years, the whole of the time which their machines — they had a good many — remained in the air amounted, he believed, to ten minutes. They cani3 to the conclusion at the end of their first two years' work that so complex was the problem, and so great its difficulties, that everything would be aocomplis-ned probably in anything from fifty to a hundred years' time — certainly not in their own lifetime. But now their work was destinel to bring aJOout one of the greatest changes the civilised world had seen. ENGLISH PIONEER WORK. Mr. Wilbur Wright, who was loudly 'cheered on rising, said : "It has been an intense pleasure to me to make even a brief vioit to the little island which has occupied so big a place in the history of the world, and likewise so big a place in the history of flying. About a hundred years ago an Englishman, Sir George Caley, carried the science of flying to a point which it had never reached before, and which it scarcely reached again during the last century. This pei4od of high tide was followed by an ebb. But about fifty years ago another period of high tide arrived at a time when Henson, ' Wenham, and Stringfellow raised the hopes of the world and carried the art to a very high point. After a period of -depression, a third period of high tide came when Maxim and Philips and therr friends again placed England in the lead in regard to flying, and perhaps it- was the irony of fate that brought further success in a period when flying in England was at the ebb tide. To-day it has been my pleasure to inspect the magnificent ground for flying experiments, and from what 1 have seen of the preparations there, the suitability of the ground, and the^earnestness of the people, I have no doubt that another period of high tide is approaching, and that England will again occupy the position which its history justly entitles it to hold. ' Mr. Orville Wright also briefly replied, remarking, "It has often, been said that the English people are slow, cold-blooded, without enthusiasm, and inhospitable. We find these/ reports false, particularly since our arrival here. We have never met with such a cordial reception in all our travels r.s we have had here."'