CONQUERING THE AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13485, 11 May 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

CONQUERING THE AIR.

"Wk crawl about like crabs at the bottom of the sea," said Major B. F. S. BadenPowell one evening recently to the members of the Royal Meteorological Society, before whom he was lecturing on "The Exploration of the Air." "We make our meteorological observations on the ground, ignorant of all that is going on in that great expanse of- ocean above us, where the rain and hail are formed, where, the clouds hang, :and where the lightning originates." If the clouds could be solidified, he mused, what vast realms and unexplored territories there would be! Coming down, figuratively speaking, to earth, Major Baden-Powell said there were two classes of persons interested in the exploration of the upper air. There were the meteorologists—the weather recorders and prognosticators —and the inventors, those who would use the air as a highway of locomotion. But they were not rivals; they could, indeed, be of great service to one another. : Balloons, kites, : fly-ing-machines, all of them might be, and in the case of the two former • already were, of use to the meteorologist. Had we not kites,: on which were fixed self-recording instruments, which had ascended four miles above the earth? And had we .not small balloons, also carrying such instruments, which had ascended to the enormous height of 82,000 ft, or sixteen . miles above our heads?; But still more practical results would one day, and shortly, too, be achieved by the flying-machine. Not so many years ago people laughed at the idea, that it was possible to lift, by its own energy, ; into the air that which was -far heavier than air. The advocates of aerial navigation pointed to the birds; "but!" replied the pessimists, " the birds have intelligence, which enables them to balance themselves, and balance is a. difficulty which must inevitably baffle inventors of inanimate machines.' - In spit* of the incredulous, airships, had actually been,/made which had flown three-quarters of a mile, and had sustained men in the air Lfor three-quarters of. an hour.