On the various modes of flight in relation to aeronautics / by James Bell Pettigrew.
- Date:
- [1867]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the various modes of flight in relation to aeronautics / by James Bell Pettigrew. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![and the manner of their application, and this has, in a great measure, been already done. Wlion Vivian and Trevithick constructed the locomotive, and Symington and Bell the steamboat, they did not seek to reproduce a quadi'upcd or a fish ; they simply aimed at producing motion adapted to the land and water in accordance with natural laws, and in the presence of living models. Their success is to ho measured by an involved labyrinth of raib’oad which extends to every part of the civilized world, and by navies whose vessels are despatched without the slightest trepidation to navigate the most boisterous seas at the most inclement seasons. The aeronaut has the same task before him in a different direction, and in attempting to produce a fiying machine he is not necessarily attempting an impossible thing. The countless swarms of flying things testify as to the practicability of the scheme, and nature at once supplies him with models and materials. If artificial flight were not attainable, the insects and birds would afford the only examples of animals whose movements could not be repro- duced. The outgoings and incomings of the quadruped and fish are, however, already successfully imitated, and the fowls of the air, though clamorous and shy, are not necessarily beyond our reach. Much has been said and done in clearing the forest and fertilizing the prairie, can nothing be done in reclaiming the boundless regions of the air ? [ J. B. P.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21957137_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
