Produced by James Simmons. This file was produced from page images at the Internet Archive. Transcriber’s Note This book was transcribed from scans of the original found at the Internet Archive. I have rotated some images. The caption for Figure 20 was illegible in the scanned pages so I used a description from a paragraph that referred to it. DIRIGIBLE BALLOONS INSTRUCTION PAPER PREPARED BY CHARLES B. HAYWARD MEMBER, SOCIETY OF AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERS; MEMBER, THE AERONAUTICAL SOCIETY; FORMERLY SECRETARY, SOCIETY OF AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERS; FORMERLY ENGINEERING EDITOR, "THE AUTOMOBILE" AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CORRESPONDENCE CHICAGO ILLINOIS U.S.A. COPYRIGHT, 1912, 1918, BY AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CORRESPONDENCE COPYRIGHTED IN GREAT BRITAIN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DIRIGIBLE BALLOONS INTRODUCTION Of the first attempts of men to emulate the flight of birds, we have no knowledge, but one of the earliest, perhaps, is embodied in the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. Xerxes, it is said, possessed a throne which was drawn through the air by eagles. The Chinese have sometimes been given credit for the invention of the balloon, as they have for many other scientific discoveries. It is related that a balloon was sent up at Pekin in celebration of the ascension of the throne by an emperor in the beginning of the fourteenth century. [Illustration: Fig. 1. De Lana Airboat.] *Early Attempts.* Leonardo da Vinci devoted some time to the problem of artificial flight. His sketches show the details of batlike wings which were to spread out on the downward stroke and fold up with the upward stroke. Francisco de Lana planned to make a flying ship the appearance of which was somewhat like that shown in Fig. 1, by exhausting the air from metal spheres fastened to a boat. The boat was to be equipped with oars and sails for propulsion and guiding. The method in which he purposed to create the vacuum in the spheres consisted of filling them with water, thus driving out the air, then letting the water run out. He thought that if he closed the tap at the proper time, there would be neither air nor water in the spheres. His flying ship was never constructed, for he piously decided that God would never permit such a change in the affairs of men.