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to translate the up- and- down- plus
back - and forth movements of the wing. With these
contraptions - the bird had to be put into a harness to
emulate free flight - Marey had some success in
describing the elliptical path of the wing, enough
success to build a mechanical bird, an insect and, a
powered model airplane that flew.
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This marked the beginning of French
aviation.
However, Marey knew that the elusive
movements of flight could not be solved by the system of
mechanical graphing that he had depended on so far. He
needed a machine that would make an optical trace, a
picture of the movement. A picture could overcome the
problem of movements where the force was too weak to
move the stylus, a picture could represent movements of
subjects that could not be harnessed to the tambours and
rubber tubing. And only a picture would give the
exterior characteristics of the form of the body in its
changing dimensions as it moved, and of all the
relationships that occurred both between one body part
and each of the others simultaneously. |
