*The Iron Fly; the wooden eagle of Nuremburg, the Chinese flying coach, the wind-muskets, aelopiles, and other marvels.
"Humane industry, or, A history of most manual arts deducing the original, progress, and improvement of them : furnished with variety of instances and examples, shewing forth the excellency of humane wit."
Powell, Thomas, 1608-1660.
(...)
De Spiritalibus Machinis, Or WIND-MOTIONS.
OF this kinde (I conceive) was that
Wooden Dove of Architas,
which he made to fly in the Ayr, which
was by the means of Ayr pent or inclosed
within, which in the motion being
somthing rarified, kept it up aloft, and
with some wheels contrived in the concavity
thereof, did set it forward; so Aulus
Gellius gives us some hint of the contrivance
of it; Ita erat librament is suspensum,
& ura spiritus inclusa, & occulta
consitum, &c. Julius Scaliger understood
the feat full well (it seems) for he
professeth the skill to make the like with
a wet finger, as we say.
By the same art
did Regiomontanus make a wooden Eagle
to fly from Norimberg to meet the Emperour
on his way thither; and when it
met him, it hovered over his head with
a Tonick motion, and then returned along
with him the same way that it came.
The Iron Fly was the like device, made
by the same Regiomontanus, which
springing from under his hand, would
fly round about the room with a humming
noise, and then return back under
his hand again.
Simon Stevinius a Dutchman, made a
chariot to go with sails, which was as
swift almost as the wind that drove it;
for it would carry eight or nine persons
from Scheveling in Holland to Putten in
two hours, which was the space of forty
miles and upwards.
Monsieur Peyresc a learned Antiquary
of France, made a journey to see it, and
was in it, and did use ever after to mention
it with wonder, as Glassendus tells us
in his life: It was made in fashion of a
boat with four wheels, two sails, and a
stern. Grotius hath excellent Poems in
commendation of that Invention, two of
the concisest I thought good to insert
here,
In currus veliferos.
Ventivolam Typhis deduxit in aequora na∣vem?
Jupiter in terras, aetheream {que} domum
In terrestre solum virtus Stevinia, nam nec
Typhy tuum fuerit, nec Jovis istud opus.
Aliud in eosdem.
Hactenus immensum Batavi percurrimus aequor,
Oceani nobis invia nulla via est.
Nerea Cottorum soboles consumpsimus omnes
Jam nihil est ultrà, velificatur humus.
Translated
Typhis to Sea the first Ship brought, and Jove
To heaven, where Argo now a star doth move:
But first by Land in Ships Stevinius went:
For that, nor Jove, nor Typhis did invent.
Another.
The vast Sea hitherto the Dutch have sayled
Search'd every Coast, found each point, and prevailed;
The Ocean's all made pervious by their hand,
Now nothing more is left, they sayl by land.
We read that in China and the Island
of the Philippines, there are the like devices,
as Boterus relates in Politia Illustrium;
and Hondius in his Map of China
hath a type thereof; so that now we sail
on the land, and on the water, and under
the water too; and an ingenious Gentleman
of this Nation talks of sayling in
the Ayr too (in a flying Coach) which he
conceives to be feasible, and promises
some attempt that way.
Caelus Rhodiginus relates, that the Aegyptians
had made some Statues of their
Gods, both to walk of themselves, and
also to utter some words articulately:
For their motion, it must be ascribed to
some wheels and springs within, like the
contrivances of Daedalus his Statues, and
Vulcan's Tripodes: But for their voice
or speech, it must be ascribed unto some
Ayr forced up through some pipes placed
in the heads and mouth of Statues.
So we must conceive of the artificial
Lions that roared like the natural
ones; and the artificial Birds that imitated
the voices and tunes of real Birds,
which Luit-Prandus saw at Constantinople
in the Emperours palace, when he was
sent thither upon an Embassie from Be∣rengarius
King of the Lombards, Anno
Dom. 950. as the said Luit-Prandus relates
in the sixth book of his History.
Such was that Statue of Albertus Magnus
which spake to Tho. Aquinas, and that
brazen head of Roger Bacon a Carmelite
Frier of Oxford, and perhaps that Image
that Sir Richard Baker saith was made by
Necromancy in the time of Richard the
second, and not long before the Parliament
that wrought Wonders, as Histories
speak; which Image uttered at an
hour appointed these words, The head shall
be cut off, the head shall be lift aloft, the feet
shall be lift up above the head: Sir Richard
Baker in the life of Rich. 2.
Gornelius van Drebble that rare Artist
we spake of) made a kinde of an Organ
that would make excellent Symphony of
its self, being placed in the open Ayr and
clear Sun, without any fingering of an
Organist; which was (as we conceive)
by the means of Ayr inclosed, and the
strictures of the beams rarifying the
same; for in a shady place it would yeild
no Musick but where the Sun-beams
could play upon it, as we read of Memnons
Statue that would make some kinde
of Harmony when the Sun did beat upon
it; whereof we speak more hereafter.
At Dantzick a City of Prussia, Mr Morison,
an ingenious traveller of this Nation,
saw a Mill which (without help of
hands) did Sawe boards, having an iron
wheel, which did not only drive the sawe,
but also did hook in, and turn the boards
unto the Sawe. Dr John Dee makes mention
of the like which he had seen at
Prague in his preface to Euclide; but
whether the Mill moved by wind or water,
they do not mention: We heard of
the like device set up in Kent here in
England, and some other places.
Archimedes his Sphear was some pneumatical
Engine, that moved of it self by
means of some inclosed Spirits, as appears
by that Verse of Claudian in the
description of it.
Inclusus variis famulatur spiritus Astris.
There are certain Aeolii Sclopi, or
wind-muskets that some have devised to
shoot bullets withal, without powder, or
any thing else, but wind comprest into
the bore thereof, or injected with a spring
(as boys use to shoot pellets with Elderguns,
by breathing air into them) which
will shoot with as great force as powder.
Aeoliae pilae (which by contraction they
call Aeolipiles) are also of this kinde,
which are little things made of brass or
copper in the form of a ball, or pear, or
bellows (but concave) with a little small
hole; these being filled with water
(which they do by heating them in the
fire, then throwing them into water) and
then being set near the fire, the water rarifies
into air, the air being scanted of
room bursts out with great violence, and
for a long season. They are used by Chymists
to blow their coals with, as I have
heard, and by some others to excite heat
for melting of glass and mettals, and are
called by some the Philosophical bellows.
A spit may be turned as Cardan shews,
without the help of weights or hands, by
the motion of ayr rarified by the fire, and
ascending up the chimney, only a pair of
sails must be placed in that part of the
chimney where it begins to be narrow,
and a wheel below, to the Axis whereof
the spit-line must be tyed; the ayr so
ascending will turn the wheel, and the
wheel the spit, as long as there is any fire
in the chimney.
