"Although I had thought much of the internal-combustion engine it
seemed to me that it would take too long to develop one and that
it would be a hopeless task in my absence from England; so I
decided that in my first experiments at least I would use a
steam-engine. I therefore designed and made a steam-engine and
boiler of which Mr. Charles Parsons has since said that, next to
the Maxim gun, it developed more energy for its weight than any
other heat engine ever made. That was true at the time, but is
very wide of the mark now."

Speaking of motors, the veteran lecturer remarked: "Perhaps
there was no problem in the world on which mathematicians had
differed so widely as on the problem of flight. Twenty years ago
experimenters said: 'Give us a motor that will develop 1
horse-power with the weight of a barnyard fowl, and we will very
soon fly.' At the present moment they had motors which would
develop over 2 horse-power and did not weigh more than a 12-pound
barnyard fowl. These engines had been developed--I might say
created--by the builders of motor cars. Extreme lightness had
been gradually obtained by those making racing cars, and that had
been intensified by aviators. In many cases a speed of 80 or 100
miles per hour had been attained, and machines had remained in
the air for hours and had flown long distances. In some cases
nearly a ton had been carried for a short distance."

Such words as these, coming from the lips of a great inventor,
give us a deep insight into the working of the inventor's mind,
and, incidentally, show us some of the difficulties which beset
all pioneers in their tasks. The science of aviation is, indeed,