3, for a dirigible balloon. The factory was a
small place, but it was full of energy. In 1904 experiments were carried
out with man-lifting kites, with photography from the air, with
signalling devices, with mechanical apparatus for hauling down the
balloons, and finally with petrol motors. It must always stand to the
credit of those who were in charge of the factory that when the new era
came, revolutionizing all the conditions, and when, not many years
later, the Great War made its sudden and enormous demands, they rose to
the occasion. Up to May 1906 Colonel Templer was superintendent of the
balloon factory. He was succeeded by Colonel J. E. Capper, who held the
position till October 1909. During these early years the balloon factory
and balloon school, though nominally separate, were under the same
control. The chief point of difference was that the factory employed
some civilians, whereas the school was wholly in the hands of the
military. Mr. Haldane decided to separate them, and in 1909 appointed
Mr. Mervyn O'Gorman superintendent of the balloon factory, while Colonel
Capper, who was succeeded within a year by Major Sir Alexander
Bannerman, Bart., took over the command of the balloon school. Colonel
Capper was a firm believer in the future of the aeroplane, and a true
prophet. In a lecture on military ballooning, delivered at the Royal
United Service Institution in 1906, just before he was appointed
superintendent of the balloon factory, he concluded with a forecast.
'There is another and far more important phase of aerial locomotion,' he
said, 'which in the near future may probably have to be reckoned
with.... In a few years we may expect to see men moving swiftly through
the air on simple surfaces, just as a gliding bird moves.... Such
machines will move very rapidly, probably never less than twenty and up
to a hundred miles per hour; nothing but the heaviest storms will stop
them. They will be small and difficult to hit, and very difficult to
damage, and their range of operations will be very large.' Colonel
Capper acted on this belief, and during his time at the factory did what
he could with meagre funds to encourage aviation. The policy which, in
the spring of 1908, he recommended to the War Office was to buy any
practicable machines that offered themselves in the market, and at the
same time not to relax effort at the factory. The attempts of Lieutenant
Dunne and Mr. Cody to construct an efficient aeroplane