. American engineer and railroad journal . tervention of St. Peter, who is supposedto have been martyred in Rome about A D. 64. It is notknown to be confirmed by any Roman record, such recordshaving been largely destroyed during the dark ages ; but * Gmfficny. Navigation Aericnnc,t Moiiillard, LEnipire do IAif, 1881,X See following^page for this sketch. Page 22. 272 THE RAILROAD AND [June, 1892. if the tradition be founded upon a fact, we may supposeS//iiOii, after some preliminary trials, to fiave attempted toimitate, with a fixed aeroplane, in public some of the evolu-tions of a soaring
. American engineer and railroad journal . tervention of St. Peter, who is supposedto have been martyred in Rome about A D. 64. It is notknown to be confirmed by any Roman record, such recordshaving been largely destroyed during the dark ages ; but * Gmfficny. Navigation Aericnnc,t Moiiillard, LEnipire do IAif, 1881,X See following^page for this sketch. Page 22. 272 THE RAILROAD AND [June, 1892. if the tradition be founded upon a fact, we may supposeS//iiOii, after some preliminary trials, to fiave attempted toimitate, with a fixed aeroplane, in public some of the evolu-tions of a soaring bird, and being unable to perform skill-fully the necessary mancsuvres, to have lost his equilibriumand his life. There is another monkish tradition of the eleventh cen-tury concerning Oliver of Malmesbury, who in some ofthe accounts is styled Elmerus de Malemaria, and whowas an English Benedictine monk, said to have been a deepstudent of mathematics and of astrology, thereby earn-ing the reputation of a wizard. The legend relates * that. Fig. 36.—the SPARROW-HAWKS EXCURSION. having manufactured some wings, modeled after the de-scription that Ovid has given of those of Dcdalus, and hav-ing fastened them to his hands, he sprang from the top of atower agamst the wind. He succeeded in sailing a dis-tance of 125 paces ; but either through the impetuosity orwhirling of the wind, or through nervousness resultingfrom his audacious enterprise, he fell to the earth andbroke his legs. Henceforth he dragged a miserable, lan-guishing existence (he died in 1060), attributing his mis-fortune to his having failed to attach a tail to his feet. Commentators have generally made merry over this lastremark, but in point of fact it was proljably pretty nearthe truth. To perforin the manrjeuvre described, of glidingdownward against the breeze, utilizing both gravity andthe wind. Oliver of Malmcsbury must have employed anapparatus somewhat resembling the attitude of a glidingbird, but being unable
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