476 Artificial Flight. [July* 
experimenters in flight are placed at a great disadvantage. 
The laboratory, or anything of the dimensions of a labora- 
tory, would suffocate flight. Space and privacy are two 
necessities. The absence of these greatly deters progress, 
because for experiments in flight the object must fly ; and 
we are necessarily, most of us, confined to models of small 
dimensions, which upon an increased scale would have more 
than a proportionate effect. 
There is a mode of progression adopted by some fishes 
which is not reproduced by any flying creature, and in ob- 
serving that motion — which was an undulating one — I asked 
myself whether in the air it would adt also as a support ? 
The fish is about the same gravity as the water ; but how 
would the undulating motion of a loose fabric support a 
weight in the air ? The result of my experiment was so 
satisfactory that it seems to me to get over the great diffi- 
culties that always suggest themselves in all plans except 
our own. For instance, in some designs which possessed 
encouraging features there seemed a want of provision for a 
safe and gradual descent, so that a parachute naturally sug- 
gested itself as a necessary adjunct. But the addition of a 
parachute means weight, and also an incumbrance. In the 
loose material, however, which I employ, both for support 
and propulsion, there exists the parachute, which acts upon 
cessation of the motive power, and brings the machine down 
with a gently gliding motion in the direction of its travel. 
In none of the plans which have been submitted to the 
Aeronautical Society has there been the slightest hint that 
flight could be attained by imparting a wave-like action to a 
loose surface extended in the direction of its length ; nor do 
I well see how it would occur to anyone to try the effect, 
unless he had been experimenting with flying models, so that 
he could readily substitute one arrangement for another. 
Certain it is that this discovery enables us to make a very 
large surface effective for support, which with wings alone 
appeared to be impossible. Of course, like every machine 
intended to find support in the air, it must be balanced ; but 
in the model which I have made, such is its stability 
that an inch more or less does not affect it. So that we 
are at liberty to contemplate the construction of an aerial 
vehicle whose dimensions would suffice to maintain in wave 
motion six or seven hundred square feet of canvas, actuated 
by steam-power, and capable of supporting the additional 
weight of a man, whose weight, together with the machine, 
would certainly not exceed 500 lbs. ; and we can contemplate 
the man as being able to move a few feet backward or 
