Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1920 Jul
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE d'Or Lake, carrying Lieut. Thomas E. Selfridge, of the U. S. Army. This was the first machine of the Aerial Experiment Association formed by Dr. Bell in 1907 with summer headquarters in Cape Breton, the object being "to get into the air." Associated with him were Lieut. Thomas E. Selfridge, who was detailed by the U. S. Army to assist the experiments; two young Canadian engi neers, F. W. Baldwin and J. A. D. Mc Curdy, and Glenn H. Curtiss, who was the motor expert of the association. They got into the air. It was with an A. E. A. machine, the "Red Wing," that F. W. Baldwin made the first public flight in America over the ice at Lake Keuka, N. Y., in 1908-a flight of 318 feet, 11 inches; twenty feet in the air! Then the "White Wing" flew a thousand feet or so, and in the third machine, "The June Bug," Glenn Curtiss won the Scientific American trophy for flying the first measured kilometer under test con ditions. And finally came the "Silver Dart," which Cape Breton claims as par ticularly hers, because in it, on February 23, 1909, J. A. D. McCurdy, a Cape Bre toner born, over the ice of Baddeck Bay, made the first flight in the British Em pire. Its aim accomplished, the Aerial Ex periment Association automatically dis solved in March, 1909. This work of eighteen months, financed entirely by Mrs. Bell, resulted in the development of features which are fundamental in all modern heavier-than-air flying-machines; and it was the apprenticeship of men who were to go far in the art. Selfridge unfortunately met his death in an accident to one of the Wright ma chines, at Fort Myer, in 19o8-the first victim of modern aviation. Baldwin and McCurdy continued to fly, and with their Baddeck-built machines were the pioneers of Canadian flight. A BADDECK-MADE BOAT WHICH HAS A SPEED OF 70 MILES AN HOUR For the last ten years Graham Bell and F. W. Baldwin have been associated in the development of high-speed boats of the submerged hydroplane type-hydro dromes they call them, and abbreviate the term to "HD." The "HD-4," which makes 70 miles an hour is the latest con- tribution to the series. It embodies the best features developed in their ten years of joint experiment, and it is the fastest boat in the world (see pages 47-49). During the war the Beinn Bhreagh laboratories, where the HD's have been built, were converted into a boat-building establishment, and did useful work in building small craft for the Canadian and British governments. It was the first boat-building plant in Canada to employ women workers. THE FIRST STATION FOR TRANSATLANTIC WIRELESS As Cape Breton received the first direct cable message from Europe to America, so thirty-five years later the first public wireless message between the hemispheres was sent from the Table Head station near Glace Bay. The message was from the Governor-General of Canada to Ed ward VII. In permitting this purely British inter change for the historic message, Signor Marconi evidenced his appreciation of Canada's assistance in his experimental work, after the opposition of the cable people compelled him to abandon his work in Newfoundland. The site for this first station in the Americas was given by the Dominion Coal Co., and the expense of erecting the first four towers was largely covered by an appropriation of the Canadian Gov ernment. THE FINEST SCENERY IN TIlE MARITIME PROVINCES The finest scenery in the Maritime provinces is to be found in northern Cape Breton and through the lovely Bras d'Or Lake region of the interior. Most striking of the island's physical features is this inland sea, known in its two sections as the Great and Little Bras d'Or lakes. Widening out from its two Atlantic entrances, it extends in its 450 square miles of area through the heart of the island-nearly a thousand miles of interior coast-line bordering all four counties and forming in enchanting suc cession wide harbors, island-dotted bays, and deep fjord-like channels. A ship canal at historic St. Peters, across the old Indian portage of Nicholas Deny's
Links
Archive
1920 Aug
1920 Jun
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page