Huntsville gazette., 1882-07-15
IA FLYING Ship.

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| Almost every one has read of Ezekiel
Green and his flying machine, and a
great many boys and men have been
quite sure that they could manufacture
wings that would enable them to fly.
/, AS long ago as the reign of James ".
of Scotland an Italian who pretended to
be able to change common metals into
gold, and who wasted a great deal of
| the King's money in this way, but all to
no purpose stock in hand to fly with
Wings as far as France, and to be
there before the Kings ambassadors,
who travelled in the ordinary way. He
had pair of wings made of feathers,
and when these had been fastened upon
him he flew off the wall of Stirling
Castle, but only to fall heavily to the
ground and break his thigh-bone.
The Abbot of Tarryland (for SO he
had been created by the credulous King)
declared that the blame of this failure
should be laid upon the fact that there
were hen feathers in the wings, and
that hens are more inclined to the
barn-yard than to the skies-a very in
genious way of defending himself; but
it could not quiet the ,twinges in his
broken limb.
Another experiment, which was made
three hundred years later, was more
successful. 1t was tried on a convict
from the galleys, whose life was not
thought too valuable to risk, and when
ready for flight he must have been an
object capable of frightening all the
birds of the air. s'He was surrounded
/ with whirls of feathers, curiously inter-
laced, and extending gradually at suita-
BILE distances in horizontal direction
from his feet to his neck.' When first
launched from height of seventy feet,
his feelings could not have been envia-
bic, and the great mass of spectators
watched him in almost breathless 81.
lence. But instead of falling, he went
down slowly, and landed on his feet,
with no inconvenience except a feeling
of sea-sickness.
| Nothing seems to have come of it, as
men are not flying through the air yet;
but the Flying Ship may possibly have
led to the balloon. This strange scheme
made quite sensation in the year 1909,
and the first account of it.was written in
Portuguese. 1t was invented by Bra
lillian priest, who wanted the King OF
Portugal to adopt it.
In an ancient document purporting TO
be an address made to this monarch we
read: ssFather Bartholomew Laurent
says that he has found out an Invention,
by the Help of which one may more
speedily travel through the Air than any
other Way either by Sea or Land, so
that one may 90 200 Miles in twenty
four Hours; send Orders and Conclu-
sions of Councils to Generals, in man
ner, as soon as they are determined in
private Cabinets; which will be so much
the more Advantageous to your Majesty,
as YOUR Dominions lie far remote from
one another, and which for want of
Councils can not be maintained nor
augmented in Revenues and Extent.
''Merchants NAV have their Mer-
chandize, and send Letters and Packets
more conveniently. Places besieged
may be Supply'd d with Necessaries and
Succours. Moreover, we may transport
out of such Places what we please, and
the Enemy can not hinder it.'
This remarkable ship was made as
nearly in the form of bird as possible;
the tail (not quite true to nature) being
| Cn6 stern, anu tHo nedu bHo l8uTe-Hedu
of the vessel. At the bottom were two
queerly shaped wings ''to keep the ship
upright" at the top, the sails, which
rounded over like the body of the bird;
the light body of the ship was scalloped
at both ends, and in the cavity of each
was pair of bellows, to be blown when
there was no wind; and there were
globes of heaven and earth, two load
stones, and ''a good number of large
amber beads fastened in an iron wire
net, which, by a secret operation, would
help to keep the ship aloft." m H
The strange vehicle was supposed to
accommodate ten or eleven men "be-
side the artist and this last parsonage,
sby the help of the celestial globe, a sea
map and compass, takes the height of
the sun, thereby to find out the spot of
land over which they are on the globe
of the earth.'' 1t was a very funny af-
fair, but quite ingenious, considering
how little the laws of gravitation, and
many other things connected with the
art Of flying, were then understood; yet
no such object has been seen making its
way through the air, and flying ship
would be very apt to find itself on the
/ ground or in the water.-HDper's
| Young People. ssA s s-