Santos Dumont, who has attained world wide publicity in connection with
his daring and novel experiments in ærostatics, is still a young man.
He was born in Brazil in 1873 and is of French ancestry, although his
father was also a Brazilian by birth. The Santos Dumont plantations at
San Paulo are said to be the largest in the country in question, so
large indeed that a small railroad runs around it, which is used for
the transportation of labor and products. At an early age Santos Dumont
developed a taste for mechanics and the railroad was his constant study
and delight. When still a boy he was sent to France to be educated, and
in that country, some thirteen years since, began to experiment with
automobiles, abandoning them, however, in 1893, for ærostatics. His
first ascents were made in spherical balloons, but he quickly adopted
those of cylindrical form. He has practically invented the dirigible
balloon of to-day through the medium of his ingenious arrangement of
screws, rudders, motors, cars, shifting weights, etc. He was the first
to give up the net and attach his car to the balloon itself. On July
12, 1901, he sailed from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and around in
Paris. He has made over half a dozen machines and is engaged on others.
During his experiments he has had more than one narrow escape from
death, but these have had little or no effect upon his nerve or his
enthusiasm.