FLIGHT AND FLYING MACHINES. 497 
water or any other periodic motion. We should use an intermittent 
light to illuminate the ripples when the crest of one wave was passing 
a particular point, and to illuminate it again when the crest of the next 
wave had just passed over the same point and so forth, so as to make 
the observed changes of position appear much less rapid than the 
actual motion. By this method M. Marey has obtained figures of a 
gull flying horizontally, ten images per second, and also of a pelican 
descending, which show the action of the wings fairly well. He also 
gives a figure of a pigeon ascending, which illustrates another point. 
If, instead of taking the photographs at an interval slightly greater 
than one complete stroke of the wings, we take them at an interval 
slightly less, then in the second photograph the wings will be a little 
further back than in the first, in the third a little further back than in 
the second, and so on; and the result is that, although the pigeon is 
ascending, the action of the wings is represented in the reverse order 
to that in which it actually occurs, it looks as if the bird were, so to 
speak, flying backwards, although it is really going forwards. Another 
photograph of a pigeon settling, illustrates how, when the bird is just 
coming to rest, it turns its wings nearly vertical, and gives several very 
powerful forward flaps to destroy its horizontal velocity. This action 
has to be imitated in soaring experiments, such as those of Lilienthal. 
In coming to the ground, it is necessary to throw the wing surface 
forwards and upwards, so as to present the great resistance to the 
forward motion, otherwise the experimenter will be sure to fall over 
head foremost. M. Marey has also taken simultaneous photographs of 
a gull seen from three different directions. In his figures, one view is 
taken from below, another is taken from the side, and a third is taken 
from directly behind the bird, and these three views of the same thing 
were used to construct a series of models of a gull, showing the action 
of the wings in different stages. On placing these models inside a 
stroboscope, and making it revolve, the whole series looked exactly 
like a number of birds flying round and round. 
Passing from natural to artificial flight, I propose to give a brief out- 
line of the early history of the subject, and to show a few of the 
grotesque flying machines devised and in a few cases even constructed, 
but never actually tried up to the beginning of the present century. 
The first person who is supposed to have constructed a flying n+ chine 
was Dedalus. According to legend, Deedalus attached wings .» his 
body so that he could fly, but he got a little bit too near the sun. which 
melted the cement, by which the wings were attached, and down he 
dropped. ‘I'he probable explanation of the legend is that Daedalus (as 
we have reason to believe) was the first inventor of sailing ships, and 
the resemblance of the sails to a bird’s wings naturally made people 
think that he had attached wings to himself. 
In 1500, Leonardo da Vince made some ingenious experiments on 
the same subject ; but one of our earliest figures of a man with wing's 
was given in a novel by Retif de la Bretonne on the “ Flying man and 
his voyage to the South Pole,” published in France in the 17th century. 
In 1678, a locksmith, named Besnier, invented another kind of flying 
machine. He had wings on his legs and wings worked by his arms. 
67 
