A Careful Study of the Turkey Buzzard
May Teach Us the Secret of Flight,
Says John P. Holland.
John P. Holland, the inventor of the submarine war-ship, said some very
interesting things at a recent banquet. The element that occupies his
attention is not air, but water. He dreams of a time when his shark-like
boats will make war on the sea a thing of the past. Yet he also has hopes
of air-ships. His advice to Professor Bell was to forget about his kites
and other artificial devices, and to study the turkey buzzard, which knows
more about flying than all the colleges on earth.
The thing that beats you all, said Mr. Holland, is the
humble turkey buzzard. There is an incomprehensible mystery
which it is for mighty man to solve--how that bird can soar,
circle, and sweep over a radius of half a mile without an
apparent movement of its wings. Solve that mystery, and man
will conquer the air.
It is not surprising that two men so practical as Professor Bell and John
P. Holland are joining the ranks of the air-ship enthusiasts. The air-ship
is not altogether a thing of the future. It is here now. Last month the
French government bought a couple for military purposes. The Wright
brothers, in Dayton, Ohio, have flown twenty-five miles on their machine
and carried with them a load of pig-iron besides. And at the recent
automobile exhibitions in New York, two flying-machines were put on
exhibition and sold.
Both Bell and Holland were called fools and dreamers thirty years ago,
because they believed it possible to send words along a wire and travel
under the sea. To-day they are regarded as practical men of
affairs--wealthy and honored. It is a striking fact that both of these
veteran inventors are looking for bigger things from the future than those
which they dug from the past. The air-ship age, they say, is at hand, and
the human race may get ready to fly.