{"id":11588,"date":"2023-01-03T15:11:27","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T20:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=11588"},"modified":"2026-01-27T23:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T04:16:32","slug":"11588","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=11588","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday, January 3, 2023 \u2014 The Remarkable John Wilkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>I do seri\u00adous\u00adly, and upon good grounds affirm it pos\u00adsi\u00adble to make a fly\u00ading-char\u00adi\u00adot; in which a man may sit, and give such a motion unto it, as shall con\u00advey him through the air. And this per\u00adhaps might be made large enough to car\u00adry divers men at the same time, togeth\u00ader with food for their viaticum, and com\u00admodi\u00adties for traf\u00adfic. It is not the big\u00adness of any thing in this kind, that can hin\u00adder its motion, if the motive fac\u00adul\u00adty be answer\u00adable there\u00adun\u00adto. We see a great ship swims as well as a small cork, and an eagle flies in the air as well as a lit\u00adtle gnat.<\/em><\/span>
\n This engine may be con\u00adtrived from the same prin\u00adci\u00adples by which Archy\u00adtas made a wood\u00aden dov\u00e9, and Regiomon\u00adtanus a wood\u00aden eagle.<\/em><\/span>
\n I con\u00adceive it were no dif\u00adfi\u00adcult mat\u00adter (if a man had leisure) to shew more par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly the means of com\u00adpos\u00ading it.<\/em><\/span>
\n The per\u00adfect\u00ading of such an inven\u00adtion, would be of such excel\u00adlent use, that it were enough, not only to make a man famous, but the age also where\u00adin he lives. For besides the strange dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00adies that it might occa\u00adsion in this oth\u00ader world, it would be also of incon\u00adceiv\u00adable advan\u00adtage for trav\u00adel\u00adling, above any oth\u00ader con\u00adveyance that is now in use.<\/em><\/span>
\n So that not\u00adwhith\u00adstand\u00ading all these seem\u00ading impos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adties, it is like\u00adly enough, that there may be a means invent\u00aded of jour\u00adney\u00ading to the moon; and how hap\u00adpy shall they be, that are first suc\u00adcess\u00adful in this attempt?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2015 John Wilkins, The Dis\u00adcov\u00adery of a New World: or, a Dis\u00adcourse tend\u00ading to prove, that it is prob\u00ada\u00adble there may be anoth\u00ader Hab\u00adit\u00adable World in the Moon, with a Dis\u00adcourse of the Pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of a Pas\u00adsage thith\u00ader<\/em> (pub\u00adlished in 1638)<\/span><\/p>\n

Though Wilkins pub\u00adlished this half a cen\u00adtu\u00adry before the pub\u00adli\u00adca\u00adtion of New\u00adton\u2019s Prin\u00adcip\u00adia<\/em>, he had a pret\u00adty good grasp of grav\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion, though it remained unnamed and its nature baf\u00adfled him, and could pic\u00adture well enough the behav\u00adiour of bod\u00adies in space. He explic\u00adit\u00adly stat\u00aded that if there were a tun\u00adnel dug through the Earth that inter\u00adsect\u00aded its cen\u00adter and end\u00aded at its antipodes, an object thrown down it would come to rest, hov\u00ader\u00ading, exact\u00adly at the cen\u00adter. Wilkins was a math\u00ade\u00admati\u00adcian, and ten years after the Dis\u00adcov\u00adery of a New World<\/em>, pub\u00adlished a vol\u00adume called Math\u00ade\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal Mag\u00adick<\/em>, in which he explained the gen\u00ader\u00adal prin\u00adci\u00adples of mechan\u00adics, spec\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded on pos\u00adsi\u00adble tech\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal advances in the future (includ\u00ading flight), and urged his read\u00aders to pur\u00adsue sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic studies.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I do seri\u00adous\u00adly, and upon good grounds affirm it pos\u00adsi\u00adble to make a fly\u00ad\u00ading-char\u00adi\u00adot; in which a man may sit, and give such a motion unto it, as shall con\u00advey him through the air. And this per\u00adhaps might be made \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,1536],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bd-reading-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11588"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11597,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11588\/revisions\/11597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}