THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



of his time. It is said that he could bend and straighten 

 horseshoes with his hands. But in his experiments with 

 the aerial screw he probably discovered very soon that 

 even such muscular force as he was capable of exerting 

 was entirely inadequate ; and there being no other mode 

 of producing power at that time, the idea of aerial navi- 

 gation by this means was also abandoned. 



About this time some imaginative persons, realizing 

 the possibilities of muscular development when begun in 

 childhood and persistently practiced, attempted the 

 development of a race of men whose abnormally strong 

 pectoral muscles would enable them to use artificial 

 wings for flying. For this purpose a certain number of 

 young boys were selected and constantly drilled in ex- 

 ercises of flapping the arms, to which broad sails were 

 attached. These attempts were persisted in for several 

 years, and it is said that some of these boys became so 

 expert that by skipping along the surface of the ground 

 and vigorously flapping their wing-attachments, they 

 could travel at incredible speed, although never able 

 actually to rise from the ground. 



In 1678, a Frenchman named Besnier invented a 

 flying-machine that is credited with being more success- 

 ful than any hitherto attempted. His machine con- 

 sisted of two bars of wood which were so hinged to a 

 man's shoulders that they could be worked up and down 

 by movements of the hands and feet. At the ends of 

 these two bars were muslin wings made like shutters, so 

 arranged that they were opened by a downward stroke 

 and closed automatically by a reverse motion. The 

 general appearance presented by these wings was that 



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