What I Saw
threatened me to see in that my last day. I didn't lose heart, however. With this new device, my No. 3, I crossed the city of Paris.
There was a lot of noise around this experience. I even believe that, if the first gave rise to the foundation of the Aero Club, it was this that determined the institution of the Deutsch prize.
In fact, when I crossed over from Paris, they began to discuss whether it was possible to go from one point to another and return to the starting point in a balloon.
Great controversies...
⁂
At one of the Aero Club's assemblies, a gentleman appeared, unknown to all of us, very shy, very sympathetic, who offered, he, Deutsch de la Meurthe, a prize of one hundred thousand francs to the first pilot who, within the next five years, starting from St. Cloud, which was where the Club's park was then, circumnavigated the Eiffel Tower and returned to the starting point, all in less than 30 minutes. He added that at the end of each year, if the prize was not won, the interest on the money would be distributed among the best competitors.
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