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Other Aviators at Work.

The Wrights, however, are not alone in their efforts to promote the efficiency of the flying machine. Other competent inventive aviators, notably Curtiss, Voisin, Bleriot and Farman, are close after them. The Wrights, as stated, have a marked advantage in the possession of patents covering surface plane devices which have thus far been found indispensable in flying machine construction. Numerous law suits growing out of alleged infringements of these patents have been started, and others are threatened. What effect these actions will have in deterring aviators in general from proceeding with their experiments remains to be seen.

In the meantime the four men named—Curtiss, Voisin, Bleriot and Farman—are going ahead regardless of consequences, and the inventive genius of each is so strong that it is reasonable to expect some remarkable developments in the near future.