About three years after Langley's death the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution established the Langley Medal for investigations in aerodromics in its application to aviation. The first award went (1909) to Wilbur and Orville Wright, the second (1913) to Mr. Glenn H. Curtiss and M. Gustave Eiffel. On the occasion of the presentation of the medals of the second award--May 6, 1913--the Langley Memorial Tablet, erected in the main vestibule of the Smithsonian building, was unveiled by the scientist's old friend, Dr. John A. Brashear. In the words of the present Secretary of the Institution, the tablet represents Mr. Langley seated on a terrace where he has a clear view of the heavens, and, in a meditative mood, is observing the flight of birds, while in his mind he sees his aerodrome soaring above them. The lettering of the tablet is as follows:-- SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY 1834-1906 SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 1887-1906 DISCOVERED THE RELATIONS OF SPEED AND ANGLE OF INCLINATION TO THE LIFTING POWER OF SURFACES WHEN MOVING IN AIR "I have brought to a close the portion of the work which seemed to be especially mine, the demonstration of the practicability of mechanical flight." "The great universal highway overhead is now soon to be opened."--Langley, 1897. A still more fitting tribute to the memory of the great inventor came two years later from a successful aviator. In the spring of 1914 Mr. Glenn H. Curtiss was invited to send apparatus to Washington for the Langley Day Celebration. He expressed the desire to put the Langley aeroplane itself in the air. The machine was taken to the Curtiss Aviation Field at Keuka Lake, New York. Langley's method of launching had been proved practical, but Curtiss finally decided to start from the water, and accordingly fitted the aeroplane with hydroaeroplane floats. In spite of the great increase in weight involved by this addition, the Langley aeroplane, under its own power plant, skimmed over the wavelets, rose from the lake, and soared gracefully in the air, maintaining its equilibrium, on May 28, 1914, over eight years after the death of its designer. When furnished with an eighty horse-power motor, more suited to its increased weight, the aerodrome planed easily over the water in more prolonged flight. In the periodical publications of June, 1914, may be read the eloquent announcement: "Langley's Folly Flies." REFERENCES Alexander Graham Bell, Experiments in Mechanical Flight, _Nature_, May 28, 1896. Alexander Graham Bell, The Pioneer Aerial Flight, _Scientific American_, Supplement, Feb. 26, 1910. S. P. Langley, _Experiments in Aerodynamics_. S. P. Langley, The "Flying Machine," _McClure's_, June, 1897 (illustrated). _Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge_, vol. 27, no. 3 (illustrated).