The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-09-25
Making Flying Machines.

"Please tell me-" writes Tommy B.,
show to make a flying machine. y First
OF all. Tommy must get the ''ingredi.
ents, and these are, paper, cane OF
wood, pack thread and paste. With
the cane or wood and pack thread make
light framework in any desired shape
pear, diamond or hexagonal-and
then take the paper, cut it to fit and
paste it on securely. Afterward take
more pack thread and tie small strips
OF paper to it st intervals, say, of about
three inches. until the strips stretch
out in line ten or twelve times the
length OF the framework. The machine
is now ready for use. We can imagine
Tommy reading this receipt twice over,
to be sure he has not missed ANYTHING.
and we can fancy also hearing him say:
$50, it's just kite Of course it is.
what better flying machine could boy
have? None better has ever been in
vented, or is likely to be. If Tommy
wants to be told how to construct an
apparatus that will enable him to sweep
through the air like a bird he might
have asked for the philosophers stone,
about which something, by the way,
was said few weeks ago. The one
thing is as unattainable as the other.
And yet, although we have become
wise enough to know that we can not
always be young. save in the matter OF
good temper, and though we know well
enough also thatiron cannot be changed
into gold in any fashion save by selling
one for the other, men are now and
again met with who believe it to be
possible to move about in the style of
the swallows. And it is an old notion.
Some of the ancients believed in it, and
we are told:
THUS did of old the adventurous Cretan dare
With wings not given to man attempt the air.
There is story also of an old English
monk, who lived before the Conquest.
who fitted wings to his hands and feet.
and, thus prepared, jumped from the
top of tower. 1t is said that he flew
more than furlong, when he came
flop on to the ground and broke his
legs. Some one asked him why he fell,
and his answer was that he had made a
mistake in not having a tail like the
birds as well as wings. He might have
added that for the experiment to have
been a success he should have
had the bones and form OF
a bird, and not the heavy
trunk and limbs of a human being.
The inventors of most of the living ma
enines have acted as the old monk did
gone up to a height for start. In
such eases some sort of flight is certain.
To rise straight from the ground like
bird is very different matter. 1t can
be managed with balloon, but bal
loon is not what is usually meant by
the words flying machine There Is
an account of a man who protested to
start from the earth and 90 upwards.
but it was said to be by means of gun
powder. The experiment took place in
Siam two centuries ago. The man
stood on a cask aud went ND into the
air amid display of fireworks, and
came down safely. holding an enor-
nous umbrella or parachute. It is said
the cask concealed balloon and that
fireworks were used to keep the people
from seeing how the trick was
10 have sent tho man
into the air with gunpowder would
have blown him to pieces. An old
English newspaper. published at the
of the last century, has a
picture of q flying ship. This ship has
the head of bird for bowsprit, the
tail of bird for rudder, and the
wings of bird for side sails. The pic
ture shows man inside the ship look
ing through telescope. This machine
vas the invention of Brazilian priest,
who said it would go 200 miles in twen-
-y-four hours. There is no proof that
It ever went yard in the air. An
Italian priest, who was made an abbot
n Scotland by James ", tried to fiv
once from Stirling Castle, and, as the |
Did Scotch chronicle puts it, .but
'hortlie he fell to the grund and brak
lis thee bane." Like the English monk
We have already heard about, the Scotch |
abbot had an excuse to offer. 1t was
hat he fell because some hen feathers
lad got into his wings, and that it was
10 wonder he found the earth instead |
Il the skies, seeing that hen looks to |
he ground rather than the clouds. |
he abbot was content after that to be |
ike the hens. He found out that the
ky was for eagles, the highways and
he fields for men.-Leeds Eng. Mer-
ury.