I have never taught; nor lectured, that is to say,
I have never had to express my thoughts about mechanical things in
ordinary everyday language, and I doubt very much if I could do so now
without extreme tedium.
My work was, to begin with, very largely theoretical. I was able to
attack such early necessities of verification as arose with quite little
models, using a turntable to get the motion through the air, and
cane, whalebone and silk as building material. But a time came when
incalculable factors crept in, factors of human capacity and factors of
insufficient experimental knowledge, when one must needs guess and
try. Then I had to enlarge the scale of my operations, and soon I had
enlarged them very greatly. I set to work almost concurrently on the
balance and stability of gliders and upon the steering of inflated bags,
the latter a particularly expensive branch of work. I was no doubt moved
by something of the same spirit of lavish expenditure that was running
away with my uncle in these developments. Presently my establishment
above Lady Grove had grown to a painted wood chalet big enough to
accommodate six men, and in which I would sometimes live for three
weeks together; to a gasometer, to a motor-house, to three big
corrugated-roofed sheds and lock-up houses, to a stage from which to
start gliders, to a workshop and so forth.
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