In this
department inventors had a fruitful field, the use of aluminum offering
abundant opportunity for the greatest variety of devices, and the
development of the flying machine was one of the most interesting features
in the march toward our present high civilization. Perhaps the presence of
so many electrical machines in the air and the utilization of so much
electricity on land and water have, after thousands of years, done much
toward freeing us from the thunderstorm, with its deadly lightning. We
have fairly robbed the clouds of their electricity and taught it to do our
work.
"Swift and economical as our modern electric cars are, there is one mode
of traveling sometimes adopted which is more rapid still, and the cheapest
and in some respects the easiest way of getting over the surface of the
globe ever dreamed of. It was discovered by accident, just before
accidents entirely ceased, in the following manner:
"A couple of scientific enthusiasts, of the kind we call cranks--I don't
know what you call them on the earth--conceived the idea that they could
find something better to take the place of the highly purified and buoyant
gases which we used in our flying machines.
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