information meager to the last degree. The young inventor had to
experiment and find out for himself the obstacles to success and then
invent ways to surmount them. He had need of ample wealth, for the
building of air-ships was expensive business. The balloons were made of
the finest, lightest Japanese silk, carefully prepared and still more
vigorously tested. They were made by the most famous of the world's
balloon-makers, Lachambre, and required the spending of money
unstintedly. The motors cost according to their lightness rather than
their weight, and all the materials, cordage, metal-work, etc., were
expensive for the same reason. The cost of the hydrogen gas was very
great also, at twenty cents per cubic meter (thirty-five cubic feet);
and as at each ascension all the gas was usually lost, the expense of
each sail in the air for gas alone amounted to from $57 for the smallest
ship to $122 for the largest.

[Illustration: SANTOS-DUMONT IN HIS AIR-SHIP "NO. 6" ROUNDING THE EIFFEL
TOWER ON HIS PRIZE-WINNING TRIP]

Nevertheless, in November of 1899 Santos-Dumont launched another
air-ship--No. 3. This one was supported by a balloon of much greater
diameter, though the length remained about the same--sixty-six feet. The
capacity, however, was almost three times as great as No. 1, being
17,655 cubic feet. The balloon was so much larger that the less
expensive but heavier illuminating gas could be used instead of
hydrogen. When the air-ship "Santos-Dumont No. 3" collapsed and dumped
its navigator into the trees, Santos-Dumont's friends took it upon
themselves to stop his dangerous experimenting, but he said nothing, and
straightway set to work to plan a new machine. It was characteristic of
the man that to him the danger, the expense, and the discouragements
counted not at all.