He drew the sheets towards him and began shading a bar. “The governor just been up the rails swearing like a tornader.”. “A massive alley of interlacing iron and timber” extending almost two miles (3.2 km) has become a familiar landmark for commuters travelling by train between Wimbledon and Worcester Park in south-west London. A man! Year or so,” said Woodhouse carelessly, without looking up. I never thought of the money,” said Woodhouse, and then, speaking now in a very different tone to that with which he said the words before, he repeated, “I’ll come. My title 'The Argonauts' Is A Voyage Through Parenting, Partnership And Transition Maggie Nelson's philosophical memoir uses her pregnancy — and … But the crash, the flame of blazing paraffin that shot heavenward from the shattered engines of the machine, the crushed horrors that were found in the garden beyond the Students’ Club, the masses of yellow parapet and red brick that fell headlong into the roadway, the running to and fro of people like ants in a broken ant-hill, the galloping of fire-engines, the gathering of crowds-all these things do not belong to this story, which was written only to tell how the first of all successful flying-machines was launched and flew. A train went gliding noiselessly across the middle distance, its rattle drowned by the hammering of the workmen overhead. The land ran away underneath with diminishing speed. “It’s the alterations play the devil with us,” said Monson, biting a paper-fastener. Rooks and gulls fly enormous distances in that way with scarcely a perceptible movement of the wings. It’s just funk, I tell you, Woodhouse. They are also called paper nautiluses, referring to the paper-thin eggcase that females secrete. He could see nothing before him but a mass of white clouds in the sky. First published in Phil May’s Annual in 1895 – eight years before the first flight of the Wright Flyer in 1903 – it was reprinted in The Plattner Story and Others A collection of 17 short stories by H. G. Wells, first published in 1897. Do you know, all his workmen call that place of his ‘Monson’s Folly’? And instead of taking an intelligent interest, they grin and make their stupid jokes, and call me and my appliances names.”. “Now!” said Woodhouse at last, and with a violent effort Monson wrenched over the wheel and altered the angle of the wings. Men are killed outright in the reserves sometimes, while others who have been left for dead in the thickest corner crawl out and survive. The nose of the machine seemed to leap up before him. Home / The Argonauts of the Air “T he Argonauts of the Air” is a short story by H. G. Wells, about an unsuccessful early attempt at powered flight. Monson could imagine the grinning faces at the windows of the carriages. It has not only the perfect apparatus, but the perfect instinct to use it. It … “All right,” said Woodhouse, gripping the hand, and with a queer softening of his features. The bird really drives along on an aerial switchback. Woodhouse threw back his head, and put it, first this side and then that, to appreciate his bit of shading better. The Argonauts of the Air By H. G. Wells © 2005 by http://www.HorrorMasters.com One saw Monson’s flying-machine from the windows of the trains passing either along the South-Western main line or along the line between Wimbledon and Worcester Park,—to be more exact, one saw the huge scaffoldings which limited the flight of the apparatus. Though he failed, and failed disastrously, the record of Monson’s work remains a sufficient monument—to guide the next of that band of gallant experimentalists who will sooner or later master this great problem of flying. “Here these fools . Monson had crossed the line with a curve that was too sharp, and Woodhouse had opened and shut his white lips; but neither spoke. The women received the Argonauts with great hospitality, and the heroes began to forget their quest. [1] The story is told by an unnamed third-person narrator. 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