University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD. 11 pardoned for suggesting the idea of a commission of reputable, competent and impartial men who, undismayed by the confusion of clamoring tongues, would judiciously examine the authen- tic records which begin with the Inter- national Aeronautical Conference in 1893, and then positively confirm or re- fute (and no one, with facts for a basis, can refute) Professor John J. Mont- gomery ' s posthumous claim to priority of discovery and application of princi- ples which have enabled man, like fabled Mercury, to mount the clouds and terrorize the eagles in the sky. CHARLES D. SOUTH, SR.

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10 THE REDWOOD. The ambition to enter the field of commerce with the most perfect of aer- oplanes perished with the tragic death of Professor Montgomery. Cap- ital for his enterprise was at hand, and he had gone into the foothills near Evergreen, California, accompanied by a mechanician and an operator, to make final tests of a machine embody- , ing his ideas of aeroplane construction. Having absolute confidence in the in- herent equilibrium of his model, he scouted the thought of accident; but he had been advised by friends and rel- atives, and by his mechanician, Corne- lius Rhinehart, and his operator, John Vierra, against making flights, not be- cause of his age or weight, but because vertigo had seized him on occasions during glides into the air. Argument was useless against his iron will, and on the morning of October 81st, 1911, he mounted the machine and, speeding along the starting track down the side- hill, began his ascent. He had risen less than thirty feet into the air when his assistants, with affright, saw his hands drop to his side and his body fall backward. The unpiloted machine slowly descended to earth, but the great weight of Montgomery ' s body rolling to one side threw the aeroplane out of balance when hardly a dozen feet from the ground. One wing struck and broke, and the unconscious Mont- gomery, falling through the guy-wires, his head hit a projecting bolt which pierced his brain. The fatal accident occurred immediately following a series of fifty-four flights, in all of which. according to the copious notes taken by Mrs. Montgomery (who acted as her husband ' s amanuensis), and ac- cording to the testimony of Rhinehart and Vierra, the light machine had in- variably maintained perfect equilibri- um in the air both in wind and calm. Without seeking in the least to min- imize the just fame of the Wright brothers, one of whom, like Montgom- ery, has joined the innumerable cara- van, — without seeking in the least to minimize the just fame of any of the brilliant navigators of the air, — I claim that Professor John J. Montgomery, an American and a Californian, is clearly entitled to be called the Father of the Aeroplane , and that all present-day aviators who really ply the heavens are indebted for their success to those long years of scientific experi- ment which had for their climax (on the memorable April 29th, 1905), that eight-mile glide which Octave Chanute, in a congratulatory letter to Professor Montgomery, called the greatest and most daring feat ever attempted in gliding flight . The marvellous development of the heavier-than-air machine, crowned with the thousand-year dream of aerial navigation, has roused universal inter- est in aeronautical science and its seem- ingly illimitable possibilities and led to a world-wide discussion of the genesis of siiccessful aviation ; but since many conflicting though insistent, claims of discovery, invention and patent-rights unmannerly jostle one another along the broadway of publicity, I may be

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COLUMBUS The rising sun dispels tKe mists of night, And Palos ' port witn bunting is beaignt ; For Castille ' s queen, tKougK pressed witn other care, Has heard, at last, Columous ' earnest prayer. And now, Ke nails tKe long, long-wisKed-for Kour, WKen Ke, tKe seas, for unknown lands can scour. He Kids Kis motel}? crew witK Kim repair To Palos ' CKurcK, wKere, rapt in fervent prayer. He Kumbly Kegs tKe Virgin Queen to Ke, His guide, upon tKe vast uncKarted sea. TKen, rising up, Ke seeks tKe bark so frail. In wKicK, so large a freigKt of Kope, must sail. A migKty tKrong Kas come to bid adieu. And wisK Godspeed to Kim, and to Kis crew. And, as tKe Kour of starting drawetK near. From many an e-pe tKere wells a bitter tear. For some brave Kearts tKere are, wKo never more, Will look, witK love, upon tKeir native sKore; Tet in tKe eyes of all tKere glistens Kope, And grim resolve, witK dangers fell to cope. TKe ancKor ' s weigKed ; tKe sails unfurled Columbus sails to find anotKer world. D. 12