This was more than four years after the Wright brothers had made far more remarkable flights, to which few persons had paid any attention, and of which most people had never heard. But in the autumn of the same year Orville Wright in America, and Wilbur Wright in France began a series of public flights which demonstrated for all time that the air at last had been conquered, and that they were the unquestionable conquerors. Orville, at Fort Myer, near Washington, on September 12th, electrified the world by flying continuously around a circular course for an hour and fifteen minutes. This was the most conclusive performance yet accomplished and set at rest all doubts as to the possibility of mechanical flight. For no one could doubt that a machine which could maintain itself in the air by its own power for more than an hour was truly a flying-machine in the most exacting sense of the term. A few days after this performance an accident to the propeller of this machine wrecked it, the resulting fall breaking the leg of the inventor, and killing his companion, Lieutenant Selfridge of the United States Army. Almost simultaneously Wilbur Wright began a series of flights at Le Mans, France, which demonstrated still more conclusively that erstwhile earth-bound man had really learned to fly. His longest flight lasted for two hours, twenty minutes, and twenty-three seconds; while by flying over captive balloons at an altitude of three hundred and sixty feet, he demonstrated that the mere matter of altitude offered no obstacle. From this time forward the number of aeronauts increased day by day, and new records were made in bewildering confusion. Only a few of the more spectacular of these need be referred to. On July 19, 1909, Hubert Latham attempted a flight across the English Channel, but his motor failed him and his machine plunged into the water, from which, however, he was rescued, having suffered no injury. On July 25th, Louis Blériot made a similar attempt with better results. Starting from the cliffs near Calais he made the passage without mishap and landed near Dover. [Illustration: THE FARMAN AEROPLANE. This is the machine with which Mr. Farman, an Englishman living in France, won the Deutsch prize in the early spring of 1908. This performance was notable as being the most important public flight hitherto made by a heavier-than-air machine. The Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio, had made numerous flights of far greater length, but the general public was not aware of that fact and for a time Mr. Farman was popularly regarded as the foremost of aviators. His best performances were, however, eclipsed by the public flights of the Wright brothers a few months later.]