invention and yet this will not perhaps seem so very difficult to any one who hath but diligently observed the flight of some other birds particularly of a Kite how he will swim up and down in the air sometimes at a great height and presently again lower guiding himself by his train with his wings extended without any sensible motion of them and all this when there is only some gentle breath of air stirring without the help of any strong forcible wind Now I say if that fowl which is none of the lightest can so very easily move it self up and down in the air without so much as stirring the wings of it certainely then it is not improbable but that when all the due proportions in such an engine are found out and when men by long practise have arrived to any skill and experience they will be able in this as well as in many other things to come very near unto the imitation of nature As it is in those bodies which are carried on the water though they be never so bigge or so ponderous suppose equall to a City or a whole Island yet they will alwaies swim on the top if they be but any thing lighter then so much water as is equall to them in bignesse So likewise is it in the bodies that are carried in the air It is not their greatnesse though never so immense that can hinder their being supported in that light element if we suppose them to be extended unto a proportionable space of air And as from the former experiments Archimedes hath composed a subtle science in his Book De insidentibus humido concerning the weight of any heavy body in reference to the water wherein it is So from the particular triall of these other experiments that are here inquired after it is possible to raise a new science concerning the extension of bodies in comparison to the air and motive faculties by which they are to be carried We see a great difference betwixt the severall quantities of such bodies as are commonly upheld by the air not only little gnats flies but also the Eagle and other fowl of vaster magnitude Cardan and Scaliger doe unanimously affirm that there is a bird amongst the Indians of so great a bignesse that his beak is often used to make a sheath or scabbard for a sword And Acosta tels us of a fowl in Peru called Condores which will of themselves kill and eat up a whole Calf at a time Nor is there any reason why any other body may not be supported and carried by the air though it should as much exceed the quantity of these fowl as they doe the quantity of a flie Marcus Polus mentions a fowl in Madagascar which he cals a Ruck the feathers of whose wings are 12 paces or threescore foot long which can with as much ease soop up an Elephant as our Kites doe a Mouse If this relation were any thing credible it might serve as an abundant proof for the present quaere But I conceive this to be already so evident that it needs not any fable for its further confirmation 2. The other doubt was whether the strength of the other persons within it will be sufficient for the moving of this engine I answer the main difficulty and labour of it will be in the raising of it from the ground neer unto which the earths attractive vigor is of greatest efficacy But for the better effecting of this it may be helped by the strength of winds and by taking its first rise from some mountain or other high place When once it is aloft in the air the motion of it will be easie as it is in the flight of all kind of birds which being at any great distance from the earth are able to continue their motion for a long time way with little labour or wearinesse 'T is certain from common relation and experience that many birds doe cross the seas for divers hundred miles together sundry of them amongst us which are of a short wing and flight as Blackbirds Nightingales c. doe flie from us into Germany and other remoter Countries And Mariners doe commonly affirm that they have found some fowle above sixe hundred miles from any land Now if we should suppose these birds to labour so much in those long journies as they doe when they flie in our sight and near the earth it were impossible for any of them to passe so farre without resting And therefore it is probable that they do mount unto so a high a place in the air where the naturall heavinesse of their bodies does prove but little or no impediment to their flight Though perhaps either hunger or the sight of ships or the like accident may sometimes occasion their descending lower as we may ghesse of those birds which Mariners have thus beheld and divers others that have been drowned and cast up by the sea Whence it may appear that the motion of this chariot though it may be difficult at the first yet will still be easier as it ascends higher till at length it shall become utterly devoid of gravity when the least strength will be able to bestow upon it a swift motion as I have proved more at large in another discourse But then may some object If it be supposed that a man in the aethereall air does lose his own heavinesse how shall he contribute any force towards the motion of this instrument I answer The strength of any living creature in these externall motions is something really distinct from and superadded unto its naturall gravity as common experience may shew not only in the impression of blows or violent motions as a river hawk will strike a fowl with a far greater force then the meer descent or heavinesse of his body could possibly perform But also in those actions which are done without such help as the pinching of the finger the biting of the teeth c. all which are of much greater strength then can proceed from the meer heavines of those parts As for the other particular doubts concerning the extream thinnesse and coldnesse of this aethereall air by reason of which it may seem to be altogether impassible I have already resolved them in the above cited discourse The uses of such a Chariot may be various besides the discoveries which might be thereby made in the lunary world It would be serviceable also for the conveyance of a man to any remote place of this earth as suppose to the Indies or Antipodes For when once it was elevated for some few miles so as to be above that orb of magnetick virtue which is carried about by the earths diurnall revolution it might then be very easily and speedily directed to any particular place of this great globe If the place which we intended were under the same parallel why then the earths revolution once in 24 howers would bring it to be under us so that
following diagram Suppose an equall weight at C unto that at B which points are both equally distant from the center A it is evident that then the beam BF will hang horizontally But if the weight supposed at C be unequall to that at B or if there be an equall weight at DE or any of the other unequall distances the Beam must then necessarily decline With this kinde of Ballance it is usuall by the help onely of one weight to measure sundry different gravities whether more or lesse then that by which they are measured As by the example here described a man may with one pound alone weigh any other body within ten pounds because the heavinesse of any weight doth increase proportionably to its distance from the Center Thus one pound at D will equiponderate unto two pounds at B because the distance AD is double unto AB And for the same reason one pound at E will equiponderate to three pound at B and one pound at F unto ten at B because there is still the same disproportion betwixt their severall distances This kind of Ballance is usually styled Romana statera It seems to be of ancient use and is mentioned by Aristotle under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence it is easie to apprehend how that false ballance may be composed so often condemned by the wise man as being an abomination to the Lord. If the sides of the Beam be not equally divided as suppose one have 10 parts and the other 11 then any two weights that differ according to this proportion the heavier being placed on the shorter side and the lighter on the longer will equiponderate And yet both the scoles being empty shall hang in aequilibrio as if they were exactly just and true as in this description Suppose AC to have 11 such parts whereof AB has but 10 and yet both of them to be in themselves of equall weight it is certain that whether the scoles be empty or whether in the scole D we put 11 pound and at E 10 pound yet both of them shall equiponderate because there is just such a disproportion in the length of the sides AC being unto AB as 11 to 10. The frequency of such cousenages in these days may be evident from common experience and that they were used also in former ages may appear from Aristotles testimony concerning the Merchants in his time For the remedying of such abuses the Ancients did appoint divers officers styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were to overlook the common measures So great care was there amongst the Jews for the preservation of commutative justice from all abuse and falsification in this kind that the publike standards and originals by which all other measures were to be tryed and allowed were with much religion preserved in the sanctuary the care of them being committed to the Priests and Levites whose office it was to look unto all manner of measures and size Hence is that frequent expression According to the shekel of the Sanctuary and that Law All thy estimations shall bee according to the shekel of the Sanctuary which doth not refer to any weight or coin distinct from and more then the vulgar as some fondly conceive but doth onely oblige men in their dealing and traffique to make use of such just measures as were agreeable unto the publike standards that were kept in the Sanctuary The manner how such deceitfull ballances may be discovered is by changing the weights into each other scole and then the inequality will be manifest From the former grounds rightly apprehended it is easie to conceive how a man may finde out the just proportion of a weight which in any point given shall equiponderate to severall weights given hanging in severall places of the Beam Some of these ballances are made so exact those especially which the refiners use as to be sensibly turned with the eightieth part of a grain which though it may seeme very strange is nothing to what Capellus relates of one at Sedan that would turne with the four hundredth part of a grain There are severall contrivances to make use of these in measuring the weight of blows the force of powder the strength of strings or other oblong substances condensed air the distinct proportion of severall metals mixed together the different gravity of divers bodies in the water from what they have in the open air with divers the like ingenuous inquiries CAP. IV. Concerning the second Mechanick faculty the Leaver THe second Mechanicall faculty is the Leaver the first invention of it is usually ascribed to Neptune and represented by his Trident which in the Greek are both called by one name and are not very unlike in form being both of them somewhat broader at one end then in the other parts There is one main principle concerning it which is as it were the very sum and epitome of this whole art The meaning of it is thus expressed by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is as the weight is to an equivalent power so is the distance betwixt the weight and the center unto the distance betwixt the center and the power and so reciprocally Or thus the power that doth equiponderate with any weight must have the same proportion unto it as there is betwixt their severall distances from the center or fulciment as in this following figure Where suppose the Leaver to bee represented by the length AB the center or prop at the point C the weight to bee sustained D the power that doth uphold it E. Now the meaning of the foresaid principle doth import thus much that the power at E must bear the same proportion to the weight D as the distance CA doth to the other CB which because it is octuple in the present example therefore it will follow that one pound at B or E will equiponderate to eight pounds at A or D as is expressed in the figure The ground of which maxime is this because the point C is supposed to be the center of gravity on either side of which the parts are of equall weight Thus also must it be if we suppose the power to be placed betwixt the fulciment and the weight as in this example Where as AC is to AB so is the power at B to the weight at C. Hence likewise may we conceive the reason why it is much harder to carry any long substance either on the shoulders or in the hand if it be held by either of the extreams then if it be sustained by the middle of it The strength that must equiponderate at the nearer end sometimes increasing the weight almost double to what it is in it self Imagine the point A to bee the place where any long substance as suppose a Pike is sustained it is evident from the former principle that the strength at B which makes it lye levell must be equall to all the
external inanimate agent Whence these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are easily distinguishable into two sorts 1. Those that are moved by something which is extrinsecall unto their own frame as Mils by water or wind 2. Those that receive their motion from something that does belong to the frame it self as clocks watches by weights springs or the like Of both which sorts there have been many excellent inventions In the recitall of them I shall insist chiefly on such as are most eminent for their rarity and subtilty Amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that receive their motion frō some externall agent those of more common use are Mils And first the Water-mils which are thought to be before the other though neither the first Author nor so much as the time wherein they were invented is fully known And therefore Polydor Virgil refers them amongst other fatherlesse inventions Pliny indeed doth mention them as being commonly used in his time and yet others affirm that Bellisarius in the reign of Iustinian did first invent them Whence Pancirollus concludes that it is likely their use was for some space intermitted and being afterwards renued again they were then thought to be first discovered However 't is certain that this invention hath much abridged and advantaged the labours of men who were before condemned unto this slavery as now unto the Galleys And as the force of waters hath been usefull for this so likewise may it be contrived to divers other purposes Herein doth the skill of an artificer chiefly consist in the application of these common motions unto various and beneficiall ends making them serviceable not only for the grinding of corn but for the preparing of iron or other oare the making of paper the elevating of water or the like To this purpose also are the Mils that are driven by wind which are so much more convenient then the other by how much their situations may be more easie and common The motions of these may likewise be accommodated to as various uses as the other there being scarce any labour to the performance of which an ingenious artificer cannot apply them To the sawing of Timber the plowing of land or any other the like service which cannot be dispatched the ordinary way without much toil and tediousnesse And it is a wonderfull thing to consider how much mens labours might be eased and contracted in sundry particulars if such as were well skilled in the prinples and practises of these Mechanicall experiments would but thoroughly apply their studies unto the inlargement of such inventions There are some other motions by wind or air which though they are not so common as the other yet may prove of excellent curiosity and singular use Such was that musicall instrument invented by Cornelius Dreble which being set in the sun-shine would of it self render a soft and pleasant harmony but being removed into the shade would presently become silent The reason of it was this the warmth of the sun working upon some moisture within it and rarifying the inward air unto so great an extension that it must needs seek for vent or issue did therby give severall motions unto the instrument Somewhat of this nature are the Aeolipiles which are concave vessels consisting of some such materiall as may indure the fire having a small hole at which they are filled with water and out of which when the Vessels are heated the air doth issue forth with a strong and lasting violence These are frequently used for the exciting and contracting of heat in the melting of glasses or metals They may also be contrived to be serviceable for sundry other pleasant uses as for the moving of sails in a chimney corner the motion of which sails may be applied to the turning of a spit or the like But there is a better invention to this purpose mentioned in Cardan whereby a spit may be turned without the help of weights by the motion of the air that ascends the Chimney and it may be usefull for the roasting of many or great joints for as the fire must be increased according to the quantity of meat so the force of the instrument will be augmented proportionably to the fire In which contrivance there are these conveniences above the Jacks of ordinary use 1. It makes little or no noise in the motion 2. It needs no winding up but will constantly move of it self while there is any fire to rarifie the air 3. It is much cheaper then the other instruments that are commonly used to this purpose There being required unto it onely a paire of sails which must bee placed in that part of the chimnie where it begins to be straightned and one wheel to the axis of which the spit line must be fastned according to this following Diagram The motion of these sails may likewise be serviceable for sundry other purposes besides the turning of a spit for the chiming of bels or other musicall devices and there cannot be any more pleasant contrivance for continuall cheap musick It may be usefull also for the reeling of yarn the rocking of a cradle with divers the like domestick occasions For as was said before any constant motion being given it is easie for an ingenious artificer to apply it unto various services These sails will always move both day and night if there is but any fire under them and sometimes though there bee none For if the air without be much colder then that within the room then must this which is more warm and rarified naturally ascend through the chimney to give place unto the more condensed and heavy which does usually blow in at every chink or cranny as experience shews Unto this kind of motion may be reduced all those representations of living creatures whether birds or beasts invented by Ctesibius which were for the most part performed by the motion of air being forced up either by rarefaction with fire or else by compression through the fall of some heavier body as water which by possessing the place of the aire did thereby drive it to seek for some other vent I cannot here omit though it bee not altogether so pertinent to mention that late ingenious invention of the winde-gun which is charged by the forcible compression of air being injected through a Syringe the strife and distention of the imprisoned air serving by the help of little fals or shuts within to stop and keep close the vents by which it was admitted The force of it in the discharge is almost equall to our powder-guns I have found upon frequent trials saith Mersennus that a leaden bullet shot from one of these gunnes against a stone wall the space of 24 paces from it will be beaten into a thinne plate It would be a considerable addition to this experiment which the same Authour mentions a little after wherby he will make the same charge of air to serve for the discharge of
but fly in a swift ship as Diodorus relates the Historicall truth on which that fiction is grounded CAP. VII Concerning the Art of flying The severall ways whereby this hath been or may be attempted I Have formerly in two other Discourses mentioned the possibility of this art of flying and intimated a further inquiry into it which is a kind of engagement to some fuller disquisitions and conjectures to that purpose There are four severall ways whereby this flying in the air hath beene or may be attempted Two of them by the strength of other things and two of them by our owne strength 1. By spirits or Angels 2. By the help of fowls 3. By wings fastned immediately to the body 4. By a flying chariot 1. For the first we read of divers that have passed swiftly in the air by the help of spirits and Angels whether good Angels as Elias was carried unto heaven in a fiery chariot as Philip was conveyed to Azotus and Habbacuck from Jewry to Babylon and back again immediately Or by evill Angels as our Saviour was carried by the Devill to the top of a high mountain and to the pinacle of the Temple Thus witches are commonly related to passe unto their usuall meetings in some remote place and as they doe sell windes unto Mariners so likewise are they sometimes hired to carry men speedily through the open air Acosta affirms that such kind of passages are usuall amongst divers Sorcerers with the Indians at this day So Kepler in his Astronomicall dream doth fancy a witch to be conveyed unto the Moon by her Familiar Simon Magus was so eminent for miraculous sorceries that all the people in Samaria from the least to the greatest did esteem him as the great power of God And so famous was he at Rome that the Emperour erected a statue to him with this inscription Simoni Deo Sancto 'T is storied of this Magician that having challenged Saint Peter to doe miracles with him he attempted to fly from the Capitoll to the Aventine hill But when he was in the midst of the way Saint Peters prayers did overcome his sorceries and violently bring him to the ground in which fall having broke his thigh within a while after he died But none of all these relations may conduce to the discovery of this experiment as it is here enquired after upon natural artificial grounds 2. There are others who have conjectured a possibility of being conveyed through the air by the help of fowls to which purpose that fiction of the Ganza's is the most pleasant and probable They are supposed to be great fowl of a strong lasting flight and easily tamable Divers of which may be so brought up as to joyn together in carrying the weight of a man so as each of them shall partake his proportionable share of the burden and the person that is carried may by certain reins direct and steer them in their courses However this may seem a strange proposall yet it is not certainly more improbable then many other arts wherein the industry of ingenious men hath instructed these brute creatures And I am very confident that one whose genius doth enable him for such kind of experiments upon leisure and the advantage of such helps as are requisite for various and frequent trials might effect some strange thing by this kind of enquiry 'T is reported as a custome amongst the Leucatians that they were wont upon a superstition to precipitate a man from some high cliffe into the sea tying about him with strings at some distance many great fowls and fixing unto his body divers feathers spread to break the fall which saith the learned Bacon if it were diligently and exactly contrived would be able to hold up and carry any proportionable weight and therefore he advises others to think further upon this experiment as giving some light to the invention of the art of flying 3. 'T is the more obvious and common opinion that this may be effected by wings fastned immediately to the body this coming nearest to the imitation of nature which should be observed in such attempts as these This is that way which Fredericus Hermannus in his little discourse de Arte volandi doth onely mention and insist upon And if we may trust credible story it hath been frequently attempted not without some successe 'T is related of a certaine English Munk called Elmerus about the Confessors time that he did by such wings fly from a Tower above a furlong and so another from Saint Marks steeple in Venice another at Norinberge and Busbequius speaks of a Turk in Constantinople who attempted something this way M. Burton mentioning this quotation doth beleeve that some new-fangled wit 't is his cynicall phrase will some time or other find out this art Though the truth is most of these Artists did unfotunately miscarry by falling down and breaking their arms or legs yet that may be imputed to their want of experience and too much fear which must needs possesse men in such dangerous and strange attempts Those things that seem very difficult and fearfull at the first may grow very facil after frequent triall and exercise And therefore he that would effect any thing in this kind must be brought up to the constant practise of it from his youth Trying first onely to use his wings in running on the ground as an Estrich or tame Geese will doe touching the earth with his toes and so by degrees learn to rise higher till hee shall attain unto skill and confidence I have heard it from credible testimony that one of our own Nation hath proceeded so far in this experiment that he was able by the help of wings in such a running pace to step constantly ten yards at a time It is not more incredible that frequent practise and custome should inable a man for this then for many other things which we see confirmed by experience What strange agility activenesse doe our common tumblers dancers on the rope attain to by cōtinuall exercise 'T is related of certain Indians that they are able when a horse is running in his full career to stand upright on his back to turn thēselves round to leap down gathering up any thing from the ground immediatly to leap up again to shoot exactly at any mark the horse not intermitting his course And so upon two horses together the man setting one of his feet upon each of them These things may seem impossible to others and it would be very dangerous for any one to attempt them who hath not first gradually attained to these arts by long practise and triall and why may not such practise inable him as well for this other experiment as for these things There are others who have invented ways to walk upon the water as regularly and firmly as upon the land There are some so accustomed to this element
at F yet would it still retain the same weight which it had at C because these plummets as is the nature of all heavy bodies doe tend downewards by a streight line So that their severall gravities are to be measured by that part of the horizontall Semidiameter which is directly either below or above thē Thus when the plummet C shall be moved either to G or H it wil lose ◠of it s former heavinesse and bee equally ponderous as if it were placed in the ballance at the number 3 and if we suppose it to be situated at I or K then the weight of it will lie wholly upon the Center and not at all conduce to the motion of the wheel on either side So that the streight lines which passe through the divisions of the diameter may serve to measure the heavinesse of any weight in its severall situations These things throughly considered it seems very possible and easie for a man to contrive the plummets of a wheel that they may be always heavier in their fall then in their ascent and so consequently that they should give a perpetuall motion to the wheel it self Since it is impossible for that to remain unmoved as long as one side in it is heavier then the other For the performance of this the weights must be so ordered 1. That in their descent they may fall from the Center and in their ascent may rise neerer to it 2. That the fall of each plummet may begin the motion of that which should succeed it As in this following Diagram Where there are 16 plummets 8 in the inward circle and as many in the outward the inequality being to arise from their situation it is therefore most convenient that the number of them be even The eight inward plummets are supposed to be in themselves so much heavier then the other that in the wheel they may be of equall weight with those above them and then the fall of these will bee of sufficient force to bring down the other For example if the outward be each of them 4 ounces then the inward must be 5 because the outward is distant from the center 5 of those parts whereof the inward is but 4. Each paire of these weights should be joyned together by a little string or chain which must be fastned about the middle betwixt the bullet and the center of that plummet which is to fall first and at the top of the other When these bullets in their descent are at their farthest distance from the center of the wheel then shall they be stopped and rest on the pins placed to that purpose and so in their rising there must be other pins to keep them in a convenient posture and distance from the center lest approaching too neere unto it they thereby become unsit to fall when they shall come to the top of the descending side This may be otherwise contrived with some different circumstances but they will all redound to the same effect By such an engine it seemes very probable that a man may produce a perpetuall motion The distance of the plummets from the center increasing their weight on one side and their being tyed to one another causing a constant succession in their falling But now upon experience I have found this to be fallacious the reason may sufficiently appear by a calculation of the heavines of each plummet according to its several situation which may easily be done by those perpendiculars that cut the diameter as was before explained and is here expressed in five of the plummets on the descending side From such a calculation it will be evident that both the sides of this wheel will equiponderate and so consequently that the supposed inequality whence the motion should proceed is but imaginary and groundlesse On the descending side the heavinesse of each plummet may be measured according to these numbers supposing the diameter of the wheel to be divided into twenty parts and each of those subdivided into four The outward plummets 7 0 10 0 7 0 The sum 24. The inward plummets 1 0 7 2 7 2 3 0 The sum 19. On the ascending side the weights are to be reckoned according to these degrees The outward 1 3 7 2 9 0 5 3 0 0 The sum 24. The inward 4 1 7 0 5 2 2 1 The sum 19. The summe of which last numbers is equall with the former and therefore both the sides of such a wheele in this situation will equiponderate If it be objected that the plummet A should bee contrived to pull down the other at B and then the descending side will be heavier then the other For answer to this it is considerable 1. That these bullets towards the top of the wheel cannot descend till they come to a certain kind of inclination 2. That any lower bullet hanging upon the other above it to pull it down must be conceived as if the weight of it were in that point where its string touches the upper at which point this bullet will be of lesse heavinesse in respect of the wheel then if it did rest in its own place So that both the sides of it in any kind of situation may equiponderate CAP. XV. Of composing a perpetuaell motion by fluid weights Concerning Archimedes his water-screw The great probability of accomplishing this inquiry by the help of that with the fallibleness of it upon experiment THat which I shall mention as the last way for the triall of this experiment is by contriving it in some water instrument which may seem altogether as probable and easie as any of the rest because that element by reason of its fluid and subtle nature whereby of its own accord it searches out the lower and more narrow passages may be most pliable to the mind of the artificer Now the usuall means for the ascent of water is either by Suckers or Forces or something equivalent thereunto Neither of which may be conveniently applied unto such a work as this because there is required unto each of them so much or more strength as may be answerable to the full weight of the water that is to be drawn up and then besides they move for the most part by fits and snatches so that it is not easily conceivable how they should conduce unto such a motion which by reason of its perpetuity must bee regular and equall But amongst all other ways to this purpose that invention of Archimedes is incomparably the best which is usually called Cochlea or the water-screw being framed by the helicall revolution of a cavity about a Cylinder We have not any discourse from the Authour himself concerning it nor is it certain whether he ever writ any thing to this purpose But if he did yet as the injury of time hath deprived us of many other his excellent workes so likewise of this amongst the rest Athenaeus speaking of that great ship built by Hiero in the framing of which there were