Perhaps it was the clear blue sky of his native land, and the dense,
almost impenetrable thickets below, as Santos-Dumont himself has
suggested, that made him think how fine it would be to float in the air
above the tangle, where neither rough ground nor wide streams could
hinder. At any rate, the thought came into the boy's mind when he was
very small, and it stuck there.

His father owned great plantations and many miles of railroad in Brazil,
and the boy grew up in the atmosphere of ponderous machinery and puffing
locomotives. By the time Santos-Dumont was ten years old he had learned
enough about mechanics to control the engines of his father's railroads
and handle the machinery in the factories. The boy had a natural bent
for mechanics and mathematics, and possessed a cool courage that made
him appear almost phlegmatic. Besides his inherited aptitude for
mechanics, his father, who was an engineer of the Central School of Arts
and Manufactures of Paris, gave him much useful instruction. Like
Marconi, Santos-Dumont had many advantages, and also, like the inventor
of wireless telegraphy, he had the high intelligence and determination
to win success in spite of many discouragements. Like an explorer in a
strange land, Santos-Dumont was a pioneer in his work, each trial being
different from any other, though the means in themselves were familiar
enough.

[Illustration: SANTOS-DUMONT PREPARING FOR A FLIGHT IN "SANTOS-DUMONT NO. 6"
The steering-wheel can be seen in front of basket, the motor is
suspended in frame to the rear, the propeller and rudder at extreme
end.]

The boy Santos-Dumont dreamed air-ships, planned air-ships, and read