The earnest student of aviation is reminded that the progressive work in this new art of flying is not being done altogether, nor even in large part, by the daring operators who, with superb courage, are performing such remarkable feats with the flying machines of the present moment. Not one of them would claim that his machine is all that could be desired. On the contrary, these intrepid men more than any others are fully aware of the many and serious defects of the apparatus they use for lack of better. The scientific student in his workshop, patiently experimenting with his models, and working to prove or disprove untested theories, is doubtless doing an invaluable part in bringing about the sort of flying which will be more truly profitable to humanity in general, though less spectacular. [Illustration: A model flying machine built and flown by Louis Paulhan, the noted aviator, at a prize contest for models in France. The design is after Langley’s model, with tandem monoplane surfaces placed at a dihedral angle.] One of the greatest needs of the present machines is an automatic balancer which shall supersede the concentrated attention which the operator is now compelled to exercise in order to keep his machine right side up. The discovery of the principle upon which such a balancer must be built is undoubtedly within the reach of the builder and flyer of models. It has been asserted by an eminent scientific experimenter in things aeronautic that “we cannot hope to make a sensitive apparatus quick enough to take advantage of the rising currents of the air,” etc. With due respect to the publicly expressed opinion of this investigator, it is well to reassure ourselves against so pessimistic an outlook by remembering that the construction of just such supersensitive apparatus is a task to which man has frequently applied his intellectual powers with signal success. Witness the photomicroscope, which records faithfully an enlarged view of objects too minute to be even visible to the human eye; the aneroid barometer, so sensitive that it will indicate the difference in level between the table and the floor; the thermostat, which regulates the temperature of the water flowing in the domestic heating system with a delicacy impossible to the most highly constituted human organism; the seismograph, detecting, recording, and almost locating earth tremors originating thousands of miles away; the automatic fire sprinkler; the safety-valve; the recording thermometer and other meteorological instruments; and last, if not of least importance, the common alarm-clock. And these are but a few of the contrivances with which man does by blind mechanism that which is impossible to his sentient determination.