CHAPTER I. 
Reactive Locomotion. 
An Inventor s Maxims. 
I know nothing until I try. The way to difcover is to doubt. The way 
to invent, do it the other way. Everything that ought to be done, can be done. 
Nothing is “ good enough ” that can be done better. 
Winds or Force-denftty in the Atmofphere the fource of 
Aerial Locomotion. 
“ A moderate wind moves at the rate of feven miles an hour, a ftorm at 
thirty-fix miles, a hurricane at eighty, whilft air rulhing into vacuum at 32 0 
Fahr. and barometer 30 inches, reaches the velocity of 884 miles per hour.” 
Lardners Philojophy. 
S far as we can glean anything from fable and 
hiftory, the Firfl and Original Theory upon 
which mankind proceeded in their attempts 
at locomotion in the air, was the Bird - 
Theory. 
The Second Theory, originated juft one hundred years 
ago, and was the Balloon Theory. All attempts at air 
navigation bafed on thefe two theories have failed. 
I now offer to the world a Third Theory. The 
D 
