THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR 85 



long and 10 wide. It was covered with heavy express paper. 

 Its tail was made of old rope, abandoned at the mine but still 

 strong enough for our purposes. We used small rope to fly it. 

 We found it necessary to rig a windlass on top of an old stump on 

 the hill behind our house to wind the big kite in. I shall never 

 forget the demonstration the monster gave of its lifting power as 

 it pulled me off my feet in one of our early attempts to fly it. 



Civilized man has always been envious of the flight of birds. 

 It seemed strange that the lords of creation should be condemned 

 to progress by such a tiresomely slow method as walking, while 

 birds and even lowly insects mount the blue heavens on beating 

 wings and soar over the earth with speedy flight and wide vision. 

 So mythology has supplied its heroes with a winged horse, a 

 magic carpet, wings like those of Icarus, or some such contrivance 

 by which they, in story at least, might move swiftly from place 

 to place as do the birds. 



It is related of Archytas, a Greek who was famous for his 

 knowledge of mathematics and mechanics, that he made a me- 

 chanical contrivance resembling a pigeon and that like a pigeon it 

 could fly. But this is very doubtful, and the tale probably 

 belongs with other Greek myths indicating desire rather than 

 achievement. Nevertheless, it does show that even these early 

 natural philosophers had it in mind to devise a flying machine. 



One Simon, a magician in Rome in the days of Nero, so legend 

 says, actually went up in the air by means of some sort of a con- 

 trivance, just what we do not know. But he fell and was killed, 

 and the populace credited his performance to his alliance with 

 the devil. 



It is apparently authentic history that a Benedictine monk 

 Elemus, at Malmesbury, England, in the eleventh century, built a 

 machine with wings and tried it from a tower. He glided for a 

 short distance, but, lacking the skill to balance his appliance, 

 fell with disastrous results. 



A Scotchman, Albert Damien, undertook to fly in 1508 with 

 a pair of wings made to fit on to his arms and feathered with 



