Finds One Cause Of Airmen's Falls.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 4, 1912:
French Aeronautic Laboratory Discovers Rudder Must Sometimes Be Reversed.
AVIATOR CANNOT TELL WHEN
An Active Campaign Has Been Started for Installing Stabilisators to Work Automatically.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    PARIS, Aug. 3.— After a long series of experiments at the laboratory of military aeronautics Gen. De Lacroix, chief of that institution, announced this week that great light had been thrown on the hitherto inexplicable accidents to aeroplanes, wherein the latter, while flying smoothly, suddenly turn over and crash to the ground without any discoverable cause.
    "The important fact," says the General, "has been discovered that in certain conditions of force and direction of wind, of speed, and of inclination of the machine the rudder for moving in a vertical direction must be worked in a way contrary to the usual one. In other words, to ascend, the pilot must in one case put the rudder in the descending position, and in another ease, he must reverse it.
    "Unfortunately, however," continues the General, "this discovery has only a theoretical value, as the aviator can never know when to reverse the direction of the redder. The only means of insuring the accurate working of this part of the mechanism is the use of an automatic stabilisator, and until the value of this invention is universally recognized,these terrible accidents must continue."
    The laboratory of military aeronautics, which has thoroughly proved the efficacy of the stabilisator in the course of its experiments, is about to undertake a campaign to overcome the existing prejudice of Freneh airmen against it, and Gen. De Lacroix asks that important prizes be offered for races between stabilized aeroplanes in order to induce constructors to continue the work of perfecting this accessory.
    M. Doutre, inventor of the first automatic stabilisator, an account of which has appeared in The New York Times, has this week received an important money prize from the Institute of France.