otor--a special construction
made by them--much the same, though, as the motor on the Pope-Toledo
automobile--was of from 12 to 15 horse-power. The motor weighed 240 lbs.
The frame was covered with ordinary muslin of good quality. No attempt
was made to lighten the machine; they simply built it strong enough
to stand the shocks. The structure stood on skids or runners, like a
sleigh. These held the frame high enough from the ground in alighting
to protect the blades of the propeller. Complete with motor, the machine
weighed 925 lbs.

XII. THE FIRST YEARS OF CONQUEST

It is no derogation of the work accomplished by the Wright Brothers to
say that they won the honour of the first power-propelled flights in
a heavier-than-air machine only by a short period. In Europe, and
especially in France, independent experiment was being conducted by
Ferber, by Santos-Dumont, and others, while in England Cody was not far
behind the other giants of those days. The history of the early years
of controlled power flights is a tangle of half-records; there were no
chroniclers, only workers, and much of what was done goes unrecorded
perforce, since it was not set down at the time.

Before passing to survey of those early years, let it be set down that
in 1907, when the Wright Brothers had proved the practicability of their
machines, negotiations were entered into between the brothers and
the British War office. On April 12th 1907, the apostle of military
stagnation, Haldane, then War Minister, put an end to the negotiations
by declaring that 'the War office is not disposed to enter into
relations at present with any manufacturer of aeroplanes' The state
of the British air service in 1914 at the outbreak of hostilities, is
eloquent regarding the pursuance of the policy which Haldane initiated.

'If I talked a lot,' said Wilbur Wright once, 'I should be like the
parrot, which is the bird that speaks most and flies least.' That
attitude is emblematic of the majority of the early fliers, and because
of it the record of their achievements is incomplete to-day. Ferber,
for instance, has left little from which to state what he did, and that
little is scattered through various periodicals, scrappily enough. A
French army officer, Captain Ferber was experimenting with monoplane
and biplane gliders at the beginning of the century-his work was
contemporary with that of the Wrights. He corresponded both with Chanute
and with the Wrights, and