294 SCIENTIFIC RECREATIONS. 



From a very early period man appears to have been desirous to study 

 the art of flying. The old myths of Daedalus and Icarus show us this, and 

 it is not to be wondered at. When the graceful flight of birds is noticed, we 

 feel envious almost that we cannot rise from the earth and sail away at our 

 pleasure over land and sea. Any one who has watched the flight of the 

 storks around and above Strasburg will feel desirous to emulate that long, 

 swift-sailing flight without apparent motion of wing, and envy the accuracy 

 with which the bird hits the point aimed at on the chimney, however small. 

 It is small wonder that some heathens of olcl time looked upon birds as 

 deities. 



The earliest flying machine that we -can trace is that invented by 

 Archytas, of Tarentum, B.C. 400. The historian of the " Brazen Age " tells 

 us how the geometrician, Archytas, made a wooden pigeon which was able 

 to sustain itself in the air for a few minutes, but it came down to the ground 

 after a short time, notwithstanding the mysterious " aura spirit" with which 

 it was supposed to be endowed. The capability of flying has for centuries 

 been regarded as supernatural. Putting angels aside, demons are depicted 

 with wings like bats' wings, while witches, etc., possessed the faculty of flying 

 up chimneys upon broomsticks. We even read in childish lore of an old 

 woman who " went up in a basket " (perhaps a balloon-car), and attained a 

 most astonishing altitude an elevation no less than " seventy times as high 

 as the moon ! " 



But to descend to history. It is undoubtedly true that in the time of 

 'Nero Simon Magus attempted to fly from one house to another by means 

 of some mechanical contrivance, and failing, killed himself. Roger Bacon, 

 the " admirable doctor," to whom the invention of gunpowder is generally 

 attributed, had distinct notions of flying by means of machines, and " hollow 

 globes," and "liquid fire." But he did not succeed, nor did many successive 

 attempts succeed any better in subsequent years. Bishop Wilkins treated of 

 the art of flying, but most, if not all who discussed the subject appear to- 

 have been indebted to Roger Bacon for the idea. 



When the nature and pressure of the atmosphere by Torricelli's 

 experiments became better known, Father Lana, a Jesuit priest, con- 

 structed a flying machine or balloon of curious shape. He proposed to 

 fix four copper globes, very thin, and about twenty feet in diameter, and to 

 these he fastened a boat or car, looking very much like a basin. His idea 

 was to empty his great copper globes, and that their buoyancy would then 

 bear the weight of the traveller. But he overlooked or was ignorant of the 

 effect of the atmospheric pressure, which would have speedily crushed the 

 thin copper globes when empty. Lana's suggestion was made in 1670, the 

 barometer had been discovered in 1643. 



There were some fairly successful experiments made in flying in 1678 

 and in 1709. The former attempt was made by Besmir, a locksmith of 

 Sable, who raised himself by means of wings up to the top of a house by 

 leaps, and then succeeded in passing from one house to another lower down 



