s, and read
about aerial navigation, until he was possessed with the idea that he
must build an air-ship for himself.

He set his face toward France, the land of aerial navigation and the
country where light motors had been most highly developed for
automobiles. The same year, 1897, when he was twenty-four years old, he,
with M. Machuron, made his first ascent in a spherical balloon, the only
kind in existence at that time. He has described that first ascension
with an enthusiasm that proclaims him a devotee of the science for all
time.

His first ascension was full of incident: a storm was encountered; the
clouds spread themselves between them and the map-like earth, so that
nothing could be seen except the white, billowy masses of vapour shining
in the sun; some difficulty was experienced in getting down, for the air
currents were blowing upward and carried the balloon with them; the
tree-tops finally caught them, but they escaped by throwing out ballast,
and finally landed in an open place, and watched the dying balloon as it
convulsively gasped out its last breath of escaping gas.

After a few trips with an experienced aeronaut, Santos-Dumont determined
to go alone into the regions above the clouds. This was the first of a
series of ascensions in his own balloon. It was made of very light silk,
which he could pack in a valise and carry easily back to Paris from his
landing point. In all kinds of weather this determined sky navigator
went aloft; in wind, rain, and sunshine he studied the atmospheric
conditions, air currents, and the action of his balloon.

The young Brazilian ascended thirty times in spherical balloons before
he attempted any work on an elongated shape. He realised that many
things must be learned before he could handle successfully the much more
delicate and sensitive elongated gas-bag.

In general, Santos-Dumont worked on the theory of the dirigible
balloon--that is, one that might be controlled and made to go in any
direction desired, by means of a motor and propeller carried by a
buoyant gas-bag. His plan was to build a balloon, cigar-shaped, of
sufficient capacity to a little more than lift his machinery and
himself, this extra lifting power to be balanced by ballast, so that the
balloon and the weight it carried would practically equal the weight of
air it displaced. The push of the revolving propeller would be depended
upon to move the whole air-ship up or down or forward, just as the
mo