Page:O que eu vi, o que nós veremos (1918).pdf/12

 make me go back to Paris to finish my studies. That same night I ran to several booksellers; I bought all the books I could find about balloons and air travel.

Facing the oil engine, I had felt the possibility of making Jules Verne's fantasies come true.

Later, all in one piece, I owe my success to the petroleum engine.

I was fortunate to be the first to use it in the air.

My predecessors never used it. Giffard adopted the steam engine; Tissandier took with him an electric motor. The experience showed, later, that they had followed the wrong path.

One morning, in São Paulo, to my great surprise, my father invited me to go to the city and, going to a notary's office, had a deed drawn up for my emancipation. I was eighteen years old. Back home, he called me to the office and told me: "I have already given you