encies will not human ingenuity supply, and
what obstacles will not human skill overcome? It has already triumphed
over much greater than any that Nature has interposed between man and
the pleasures of aerial communication.

We have to a great extent, mastered the mysterious elements of nature.

We have conquered the thunderbolt and learned to write with the
burning fluid out of which it is forged.

We have converted the boundless ocean into a vast highway, traversed
for our use and on our errands, by the swift agent, and by great ships
driven against wind and tide by the mighty power of steam.

And yet a single generation ago, we knew nothing of all this, Our
grand-sires would have given these achievements a prominent place in
the list of impossible things.

But, do you say, "the Creator never intended us to
fly--_therefore_, it is impossible."

For what did the Creator give us skill and boundless perseverance?
Was it designed that we should _swim_, more than that we should
furnish ourselves with wings and mount up as eagles? "We sink like
lead in the mighty waters," we only fall a little faster through the
air.

Still, I grant that the problem of aerial navigation will only be
solved when the principles of flight are clearly understood, and we
recognize precisely what are the obstacles which prevent us from
flying by artificial means.

Will these obstacles prove insuperable? It is at present believed by
the multitude that they will, but I entertain a different opinion,
most decidedly.

From my earliest youth this subject has occupied my thoughts. It
has been the study of my life, and I modestly trust that I have not
questioned nature and science in vain.

In the first place, I undertook to make myself familiar with the
obstacles to be overcome. I found the greatest of these to be gravity.
I found, however, that heavy fowls, who were unable to rise _from
the earth_, and only accomplished flight by taking advantage of an
eminence, sustained themselves without difficulty when once fairly
embarked. I also found that the best flyers were not equal to the feat
of keeping me company, when walking at my usual pace; hence I inferred
that _velocity_ was a necessary element in flight, and that
gravity, so fatal to human attempts to fly, might be made a powerful
auxiliary when rightly used.

Acting upon this hint, I made experiments with heavy barn yard fowls,
and finally constructed a light apparatus to be operate