FLYING AND FLYING-MACHINES. 345 



balloon. And we need look no further for the cause 

 of the repeated failures of all the flying-machines yet 

 constructed, than to the fact that no adequate provision 

 has yet been made to balance such machines, so that 

 they may travel steadily through the air. It seems to 

 have been supposed that if propelling and elevating 

 power were supplied, the flying-machine would balance 

 itself; and accordingly, if we examine the proposed 

 constructions, we find that in nine cases out of ten (if 

 not in all) the machine would be as likely to travel 

 bottom-upwards as on an even keel. The common 

 parachute (which, however, is not a flying-machine) is 

 the only instance I can think of in which a non- 

 buoyant machine for aerial locomotion has possessed 

 what is called a ' position of rest.' 



Perhaps the gravest mistake of all is that of sup- 

 posing that, on a first trial, a man could balance him- 

 self in the air by means of wings. Placed, for the 

 first time, in deep water, man is utterly unable to swim, 

 and if left to himself will inevitably drown ; although 

 a very slight and very easily acquired knowledge of the 

 requisite motions will enable him to preserve his 

 balance. And yet it seems to have been conceived 

 by most of those who have attempted flight, that when 

 first left to himself in open air, with a more or less 

 ingeniously contrived apparatus attached to him, a man 

 would not only be able to balance himself in that un- 

 stable medium, but also to resist the down-drawing action 

 of gravity (which scarcely acts at all on the swimmer), 

 and wing his way through the air by a series of new 

 and untried movements ! 



