reason.

Santos-Dumont has been very fortunate in this respect, his success,
indeed, being largely due to the compact and powerful gasoline motors
that have been developed for use on automobiles.

Even before the balloon for the first air-ship was ordered the young
Brazilian experimented with his three-and-one-half horse-power gasoline
motor in every possible way, adding to its power, and reducing its
weight until he had cut it down to sixty-six pounds, or a little less
than twenty pounds to a horse-power. Putting the little motor on a
tricycle, he led the procession of powerful automobiles in the
Paris-Amsterdam race for some distance, proving its power and speed. The
motor tested to his satisfaction, Santos-Dumont ordered his balloon of
the famous maker, Lachambre, and while it was building he experimented
still further with his little engine. To the horizontal shaft of his
motor he attached a propeller made of silk stretched tightly over a
light wooden framework. The motor was secured to the aeronaut's basket
behind, and the reservoir of gasoline hung to the basket in front. All
this was done and tested before the balloon was finished--in fact, the
aeronaut hung himself up in his basket from the roof of his workshop and
started his motor to find out how much pushing power it exerted and if
everything worked satisfactorily.

On September 18, 1898, Santos-Dumont made his first ascension in his
first air-ship--in fact, he had never tried to operate an elongated
balloon before, and so much of this first experience was absolutely new.
Imagine a great bag of yellow oiled silk, cigar-shaped, fully inflated
with hydrogen gas, but swaying in the morning breeze, and tugging at its
restraining ropes: a vast bubble eighty-two feet long, and twelve feel