Artificial FLYING, that which is attempted by men, by means of mechanical contrivances.
The art of flying has been attempted by various persons in all ages. The superstitious Leucadians are reported to have had a custom of precipitating a man from a high cliff into the sea, first fixing feathers, variously expanded, round his body, in order to break his fall.
Fraser Bacon not only affirms that the art of flying is possible, but assures us that he himself knew how to make a machine in which a man sitting might be able to convey himself through the air like a bird; and he further adds, that there was then a person who had tried it with success. The secret consisted in a couple of large thin hollow copper globes, exhausted of air; which being much lighter than common air, would sustain a chair on which a person might sit and be buoyed along. Father Francisco Lana, in his Prodromo, proposes the same thing. He computes, that a round vessel of plate brass, fourteen feet in diameter, weighing three ounces the square foot, will only weigh 1848 ounces, whereas a quantity of air of the same bulk will weigh 2155 ounces; so that the globe will not only be sustained in the air, but will carry with it a weight of 378 ounces; and by increasing the bulk of the globe without increasing the thickness of the metal, he conceives that a vessel might be made to carry a much greater weight. But the fallacy is obvious. A globe of the dimensions he describes, as shown by Dr Hook, would not sustain the pressure of the air, but be crushed inwards. Besides, in whatever ratio the bulk of the globe were increased, in the same ratio must the thickness of the metal, and consequently the weight, be increased; so that there would be no advantage in such augmentation.
The philosophers of the reign of Charles II. were mightily busied about this art. The celebrated Bishop Wilkins was so confident of success in the attempt, that he says he does not question but in future ages it will be as usual to hear a man call for his wings when he is going a journey, as it is now to call for his boots.
Flying Fish, a name given to several species of fishes, which, by means of long fins, can keep themselves out of the water for some time. See ICHTHYOLOGY.