Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 274, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1912 — MAN’S PROPHECY OF FLYING [ARTICLE]

MAN’S PROPHECY OF FLYING

Character In "Rasselas” Said That Aviator Would Be Next Step After Swimming. Chicago.—Among the prophecies of conquest of the air, the account of an inventor’s faith that men could learn to fly since they have learned to swim, as found in Johnson’s “Rasselas,” is interesting. The mechanic says: “I have been long of opinion that instead of the tardy conveyance of ships and chariots, man might use the swifter migration of wings; that th§ fields of air are open to knowledge, and that only ignorance and idleness need crawl upon the ground.” This hint rekindled the prince’s desire of passing the mountains; having seen what the machinist had already performed, he was willing to fancy that he could do more. ... ‘‘l a® afraid,” said he to the artist, “that your imagination prevails over your skill, and that you now tell me rather what you wish, than what you know. ...” “So,” replied the machinist, "fishes have the water, in which yet beasts can swim by nature, and men by art. He that can swim needs not despair to fly;, to swim is to float in a grosser fluid, and to fly is to swim in a subtler. We are only to proportion our power of" resistance to the different density of matter through which we are to pass. You will be necessarily upborne by the air. If you can renew any impulse upon it faster than the air can recede from the pressure.” The prince promised secrecy, and waited for the performance, not wholly hopeless of success. He visited the work from time to time, observed its progress, arid "remarked many ingenious contrivances to facilitate motion *and unite levity with strength. The artist was every day more certain he should leave vultures

and eagles behind him, and the contagion of his confidence seized upon the prince. In a year the wings were finished, and on a morning appointed, the maker appeared furnished for flight on a little promontory; he waved his pinions aw’hile to gather air, then leaped from his stand, aYid in an Instant dropped Into the lake. His wings, which were of no use In the air, sustained him in the water, and the prince drew him to land.