4 WiLUE, Oil Aerial Loconiotioii. 



screws which, when rotated, mounted into the air. Me also 

 proposed an aerial-screw machine of lari:^e size to be built 

 of iron and bamboo framework, covered with linen cloth. 

 The great Italian artist has also the singular merit of 

 inventing the parachute. Several sketches of his mechanism 

 of night have been found in his note-books, two of which 

 are rei)roduced in the Coinptcs roidiis dc F Acadnme des 

 Sciences, tome xciii., i88i. The sketch of the parachute, 

 fully inflated, shows the figure of a man in the act of des- 

 cending with it. Copies of these interesting designs are 

 shown below. 



9. The next important contribution to Aeronautics 

 which deserves notice was made by the learned Dr. Wilkins, 

 Bishop of Chester, whose name appears in the first Charter 

 of the Royal Society as one of the original Fellows. His 

 work entitled. Mathematical Magick, 0?-, the IVonders that 

 may be pcrfovjiied by Mechanical Geo)netry{\ 680), a quotation 

 from which appears at the head of this paper, is remarkable 

 in that it is strongly pervaded with the Baconian method of 

 interrogating nature by observation and experiment. The 

 general principles on which experiments on mechanical 

 flight are to be conducted are stated with great clearness 

 and precision, and his general method has been followed 

 by all subseciuciit workers in the field of aeronautics. 



