ves of the Press were present. Our only request was
that no pictures be taken, and that the reports be unsensational, so as
not to attract crowds to our experiment grounds. There were probably 50
persons altogether on the ground. When preparations had been completed a
wind of only three or four miles was blowing--insufficient for starting
on so short a track--but since many had come a long way to see the
machine in action, an attempt was made. To add to the other difficulty,
the engine refused to work properly. The machine, after running the
length of the track, slid off the end without rising into the air at
all. Several of the newspaper men returned the next day, but were again
disappointed. The engine performed badly, and after a glide of only 60
feet, the machine came to the ground. Further trial was postponed till
the motor could be put in better running condition. The reporters had
now, no doubt, lost confidence in the machine, though their reports, in
kindness, concealed it. Later, when they heard that we were making
flights of several minutes' duration, knowing that longer flights had
been made with airships, and not knowing any essential difference
between airships and flying machines, they were but little interested.

We had not been flying long in 1904 before we found that the problem of
equilibrium had not as yet been entirely solved. Sometimes, in making a
circle, the machine would turn over sidewise despite anything the
operator could do, although, under the same conditions in ordinary
straight flight, it could have been righted in an instant. In one
flight, in 1905, while circling around a honey locust tree at a height
of about 50 feet, the machine suddenly began to turn up on one wing, and
took a course toward the tree. The operator, not relishing the idea of
landing in a thorn-tree, attempted to reach the ground. The left wing,
however, struck the tree at a height of 10 or 12 feet from the ground
and carried away several branches; but the flight, which had already
covered a distance of six miles, was continued to the starting-point.

The causes of these troubles--too technical for explanation here--were
not entirely overcome till the end of September, 1905. The flights then
rapidly increased in length, till experiments were discontinued after
October 5, on account of the number of people attracted to the field.
Although made on a ground open on every side, and bordered on two sides
by much-traveled thor