The Mechanical Bucephalus.
The illustration of the horse furnishes a very good solution of a popular paradox in mechanics: Given, a body having a tendency to fall by its own weight; required, how to prevent it from falling by adding to it a weight on the same side on which it tends to fall. Take a horse in an erect position, the center of gravity of which is somewhere about the middle of its body. It is evident, therefore, that were it placed on its hinder legs, on a table, the line of its direction, or center, would fall considerably beyond its base, and the horse would fall on the ground; but to prevent this, there is a stiff wire attached to a weight or bullet, connected with the body of the horse, and by this means a horse prances on a table without falling off; so that the figure that was incapable of supporting itself, is actually prevented from falling by adding a weight to its unsupported end. This seems almost impossible, but when we consider that in order to have the desired effect, the wire must be bent, and the weight be further under the table than the horse’s feet are on it, the mystery is solved, as it brings the total weight of bullet and horse in such a position that the tendency is rather to make it stand up than to let it fall down.