H G Wells

An Englishman Looks at the World H G Wells

The telephone bell rings with the petulant persistence that marks a trunk call, and I go in fromsome ineffectual gymnastics on the lawn to deal with the irruption. There is the usual trouble inconnecting up, minute voices in Folkestone and Dover and London call to one another and aresubmerged by buzzings and throbbings. Then in elfin tones the real message comes through: "Bliriothas crossed the Channel.... An article ... about what it means."I make a hasty promise and go out and tell my friends. From my garden I look straight upon the Channel, and there are white caps upon the water, andthe iris and tamarisk are all asway with the south-west wind that was also blowing yesterday. M. Bliriot has done very well, and Mr. Latham, his rival, had jolly bad luck. That is what it means to usfirst of all. It also, I reflect privately, means that I have under-estimated the possible stability ofaeroplanes. I did not expect anything of the sort so soon. This is a good five years before myreckoning of the year before last. We all, I think, regret that being so near we were not among the fortunate ones who saw that littleflat shape skim landward out of the blue; surely they have an enviable memory; and then we felltalking and disputing about what that swift arrival may signify. It starts a swarm of questions. First one remarks that here is a thing done, and done with an astonishing effect of ease, that wasincredible not simply to ignorant people but to men well informed in these matters. It cannot befifteen years ago since Sir Hiram Maxim made the first machine that could lift its weight from theground, and I well remember how the clumsy quality of that success confirmed the universal doubtthat men could ever in any effectual manner fly. Since then a conspiracy of accidents has changed the whole problem; the bicycle and its vibrationsdeveloped the pneumatic tyre, the pneumatic tyre rendered a comfortable mechanically driven roadvehicle possible, the motor-car set an enormous premium on the development of very light, veryefficient engines, and at last the engineer was able to offer the experimentalists in gliding one strongenough and light enough for the new purpose. And here we are! Or, rather, M. Bliriot is!What does it mean for us?One meaning, I think, stands out plainly enough, unpalatable enough to our national pride. Thisthing from first to last was made abroad. Of all that made it possible we can only claim so much asis due to the improvement of the bicycle. Gliding began abroad while our young men of muscle andcourage were braving the dangers of the cricket field.