Arthur Finch approached the construction of his hydrogen balloon with a meticulousness that bordered on obsession, yet he remained surprisingly indifferent to the public acclaim that followed his record-setting flight over the English Channel in 1904. While his contemporaries eagerly sought the spotlight, organizing lecture tours and writing sensationalized memoirs, Finch retreated to his workshop in Yorkshire. He viewed his achievements not as personal triumphs but as simple demonstrations of engineering principles. To his assistants, he was a demanding and taciturn supervisor, but he was also characterized by an unwavering, quiet patience when explaining technical procedures to young apprentices. Rather than boasting of his daring aerial maneuvers, Finch’s journal entries focused exclusively on wind resistance, fabric tension, and the purity of the gas mixtures. This singular devotion to the mechanical, rather than the theatrical, defined his career.
According to the passage, when instructing young apprentices on technical procedures, Finch was characterized by which of the following traits?
- AA demanding and silent sternness
- A steady and calm patienceAnswer
- CAn indulgent and overly permissive attitude
- DA proud desire to share his record-setting flight maneuvers