THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



Despite the protests of the majority of interested 

 persons, however, Cocking and a companion named 

 Green made the ascent at the appointed time. After 

 rising to a certain height the parachute was cast off, the 

 parachute's car containing the inventor, while Green 

 remained in the balloon. Instead of sailing slowly 

 toward the earth, however, the parachute fell rapidly, 

 with an oscillating movement, gaining speed and jerking 

 violently as it descended, until finally when several 

 hundred feet in the air. Cocking was thrown from the 

 car and dashed to pieces, while the wreck of the para- 

 chute landed a few yards away. Thus the predictions 

 of the majority came true, although as we know now, the 

 cause of the tragedy was due to faulty material rather 

 than the design of the machine. For the American 

 aeronaut. Wise, demonstrated a little later that para- 

 chutes built on the same principle as that of Cocking 

 could be used successfully. 



As we have seen, most of the flying-machines attempt- 

 ed heretofore took for their model the bird with flapping 

 wings. There were certain persons, however, who had 

 observed that this flapping movement was not essential 

 to flight — that certain large-winged birds, such as buz- 

 zards and hawks, were able to soar in any direction at 

 will, holding their wings rigidly. It was evident, there- 

 fore, that shape, position, and construction of the bird's 

 wing played quite as important a part as the flapping 

 movement. The lifting power of plane surfaces, or 

 aeroplanes, was also carefully studied in this connection 

 and in 1842 the inventor, Henson, constructed a flying- 

 machine utilizing this aeroplane principle, his machine 



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