Avery until, at the time of the writer's visit, they had
settled upon the biplane, or two-surface machine. Mr.
Herring later equipped this with a rudder, and made
other additions, but the general idea is still the basis of
the Wright, Curtiss, and other machines in which, by
the aid of gasolene motors, long flights have been made.

Developments by the Wrights.

In 1900 the Wright brothers, William and Orville, who were then
in the bicycle business in Dayton, Ohio,
became interested in Chanute's experiments and
communicated with him. The result was that the Wrights
took up Chanute's ideas and developed them further,
making many additions of their own, one of which was
the placing of a rudder in front, and the location of the
operator horizontally on the machine, thus diminishing
by four-fifths the wind resistance of the man's body.
For three years the Wrights experimented with the
glider before venturing to add a motor, which was not
done until they had thoroughly mastered the control of
their movements in the air.

Limits of the Flying Machine.

In the opinion of competent experts it is idle to look
for a commercial future for the flying machine. There
is, and always will be, a limit to its carrying capacity
which will prohibit its employment for passenger or
freight purposes in a wholesale or general way. There