Robur the Conqueror

in the depths to live in the

of mechanics has enabled us to solve the problem of aviation. And in a few years-as we c

d dreamt of the conquest of space by mechanical means. The first inventors did not think of apparatus lighter than air, for that the science of their time did

carus, the son of Daedalus, whose wings, fixed toget

d researches of Derblinger, Vigual, Sarti, Dubochet, and Cagniard de Latour. In 1842 we have the Englishman Henson, with his system of inclined planes and screws worked by steam. In 1845 came Cossus and his ascensional screws. In 1847 came Camille Vert and his helicopter made of birds' wings. In 1852 came Letur with his system of guidable parachutes, whose trial cost him his life; and in the same year came Michel Loup with his plan of gliding through the air on four revolving wings. In 1853 came Béléguic and his aeroplane with the traction screws, Vaussin-Chardannes with his guidable kite, and George Cauley with his flying machines driven by gas. From 1854 to 1863 appeared Joseph Pline with several patents for aerial systems. Bréant, Carlingford, Le Bris, Du Temple, Bright, whose ascensional screws were left-handed; Smythies, Panafieu, Crosnier, &c. At length, in 1863, thanks to the efforts of Nadar, a society of "heavier than air" was founded

ecessors, how could the inquirer have conceived so perfect an apparatus? And though he had but contempt for those who obstinately worked away in the direction of balloons, he held in high esteem all those partisans of "heavier than air," Englis

claimed one of the most pe

ey crowd the earth!" said one

the noisiest of all, who had turned on the trum

r is highly resistant. A circumference of only a yard in diameter in the shape of a para

ork of the weight varies in almost inverse ratio to the squ

less is the proportional increase in the surface beaten by the wings i

these natural laws, to imitate the bird, "that admirable type of aer

s likely to solve the pr

ifers, which are simply

hich endeavour to reproduce

y inclined planes like kites,

inately resolved to give way in not the slightest particular.

copied from the hare, nor are ships copied from the fish. To the first we have put wheels which are not legs; to the second we have put screws which are not fins. And they do not do so badly. Besides, what is this mechanical movement in t

odels experimented on have shown that the disposable weight, that is to say the weight it is possible to deal with as distinct from that of the apparatus, inc

thrown in his teeth at the Weldon Institute-had sufficed for all the needs of his flying machine. One series could hold i

he fins of the screw as it mounted on an inclined plane. These fins, or arms, are in reality wings, but wings disposed as a helix instead of as a paddle

e seen from the following detailed description, which can be divided under three

ments were used as cabins for the crew, or as machine rooms. In the center house was the machine which drove the suspensory helices, in that forward was the machine that drove the bow screw, in that aft was the machine that drove the stern screw. In the bow were the cook's galley and the crew's quarters; in the stern were several cabins, including that of the engine

est, and each alternate one spun round in a different direction from the others, so as to avoid any tendency to gyration. Hence the screws as they rose on the vertical column of air retained their equilibrium by their horizontal resistance. Consequently the apparatus was furnished with seventy-four suspensory screws, whose three branches were connected by a metallic circle which economized their motive force. In

ts of these piles, and what were the acids he used, Robur only knew. And the construction of the accumulators was kept equally secret. Of what were their positive and negative plates? None can say. The engineer took good care-and not unreasonably-to keep his secret unpatented. One thing was unmistakable, and that was that the piles w

t a close secret. And, if the president and secretary of the Weldon Insti

Its center of gravity proved that at once. There was no danger of its

xactly applied to the "Albatross." What was this material, so hard that the bowie-knife of P

this lightness and solidity which Robur availed himself of in building his aerial locomotive. Everything-framework, hull, houses, cabins-were made of straw-paper turned hard as metal by compression, and-what was not to be despised in an apparatus flying at great heights-incombustible. The different parts of the engines and the

s, and sextants for checking the course, thermometers for studying the temperature, different barometers, some for estimating the heights attained, others for indicating the variations of atmospheric pressure; a storm-glass for forecasting tempests; a small library; a portable printing press; a field-piece mounted on a

insubmersible, which could carry eight men on

d. The axes of the screws were independent. The stoppage of a few would not affect the motion of the

r of the seventh part of the world, larger than Africa, Oceania, Asia, America, an