To that Amalgamation I was really not a party; I left it to my uncle
because I was then beginning to get keen upon the soaring experiments
I had taken on from the results then to hand of Lilienthal, Pilcher and
the Wright brothers. I was developing a glider into a flyer. I meant
to apply power to this glider as soon as I could work out one or two
residual problems affecting the longitudinal stability. I knew that I
had a sufficiently light motor in my own modification of Bridger's
light turbine, but I knew too that until I had cured my aeroplane of a
tendency demanding constant alertness from me, a tendency to jerk up its
nose at unexpected moments and slide back upon me, the application of an
engine would be little short of suicide.
But that I will tell about later. The point I was coming to was that I
did not realise until after the crash how recklessly my uncle had kept
his promise of paying a dividend of over eight per cent. on the ordinary
shares of that hugely over-capitalised enterprise, Household Services.
I drifted out of business affairs into my research much more than either
I or my uncle had contemplated.
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