Animal Locomotion; or, walking, swimming, and flying / With a dissertation on aëronautics - James Bell Pettigrew

PREFACE.

In the present volume I have endeavoured to explain, in simple language, some difficult problems in “Animal Mechanics.” In order to avoid elaborate descriptions, I have introduced a large number of original Drawings and Diagrams, copied for the most part from my Papers and Memoirs “On Flight,” and other forms of “Animal Progression.” I have drawn from the same sources many of the facts to be found in the present work. My best thanks are due to Mr. W. Ballingall, of Edinburgh, for the highly artistic and effective manner in which he has engraved the several subjects. The figures, I am happy to state, have in no way deteriorated in his hands.

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh,
July 1873.

CONTENTS.

ANIMAL LOCOMOTION.
INTRODUCTION.
	PAGE
Motion associated with the life and well-being of animals,	[1]
Motion not confined to the animal kingdom; all matter inmotion; natural and artificial motion; the locomotive,steamboat, etc. A flying machine possible,	[2]
Weight necessary to flight,	[3]
The same laws regulate natural and artificial progression,	[4]
Walking, swimming, and flying correlated,	[5]
Flight the poetry of motion,	[6]
Flight a more unstable movement than that of walking andswimming; the travelling surfaces and movements of animalsadapted to the earth, the water, and the air,	[7]
The earth, the water, and the air furnish the fulcra for the leversformed by the travelling surfaces of animals,	[8]
Weight plays an important part in walking, swimming, andflying,	[9]
The extremities of animals in walking act as pendulums, anddescribe figure-of-8 curves,	[9]
In swimming, the body of the fish is thrown into figure-of-8curves,	[10]
The tail of the fish made to vibrate pendulum fashion,	[11]
The tail of the fish, the wing of the bird, and the extremity ofthe biped and quadruped are screws structurally andfunctionally. They describe figure-of-8 and waved tracks,	[12]
The body and wing reciprocate in flight; the body rising whenthe wing is falling, and vice versâ,	[12]
Flight the least fatiguing kind of motion. Aërial creatures notstronger than terrestrial ones,	[13]
Fins, flippers, and wings form mobile helics or screws,	[14]
Artificial fins, flippers, and wings adapted for navigating thewater and air,	[14]
History of the figure-of-8 theory of walking, swimming, andflying,	[15]
Priority of discovery on the part of the Author. Admission tothat effect on the part of Professor Marey,	[16]
Fundamental axioms. Of uniform motion. Motion uniformlyvaried,	[17]
The legs move by the force of gravity. Resistance of fluids.Mechanical effects of fluids on animals immersed in them.Centre of gravity,	[18]
The three orders of lever,	[19]
Passive organs of locomotion. Bones,	[21]
Joints,	[23]
Ligaments. Effects of atmospheric pressure on limbs. Activeorgans of locomotion. Muscles; their properties, arrangement,modes of action, etc.,	[24]
Muscular cycles. Centripetal and centrifugal movements ofmuscles; muscular waves. Muscles arranged in longitudinal,transverse, and oblique spiral lines,	[25]–27
The bones of the extremities twisted and spiral,	[28]
Muscles take precedence of bones in animal movements,	[29]
Oblique spiral muscles necessary for spiral bones and joints,	[31]
The spiral movements of the spine transferred to the extremities,	[33]
The travelling surfaces of animals variously modified andadapted to the media on or in which they move,	[34]–36
PROGRESSION ON THE LAND.
Walking of the Quadruped, Biped, etc.,	[37]
Locomotion of the Horse,	[39]
Locomotion of the Ostrich,	[45]
Locomotion of Man,	[51]
PROGRESSION ON AND IN THE WATER.
Swimming of the Fish, Whale, Porpoise, etc.,	[66]
Swimming of the Seal, Sea-Bear, and Walrus,	[74]
Swimming of Man,	[78]
Swimming of the Turtle, Triton, Crocodile, etc.,	[89]
Flight under water,	[90]
Difference between sub-aquatic and aërial flight,	[92]
Flight of the Flying-fish; the kite-like action of the wings,	[98]
PROGRESSION IN OR THROUGH THE AIR.
The wing a lever of the third order,	[103]
Weight necessary to flight,	[110]
Weight contributes to horizontal flight,	[112]
Weight, momentum and power to a certain extent synonymousin flight,	[114]
Air-cells in insects and birds not necessary to flight,	[115]
How balancing is effected in flight,	[118]
Rapidity of wing movements partly accounted for,	[120]
The wing area variable and in excess,	[124]
The wing area decreases as the size and weight of the volantanimal increases,	[132]
Wings, their form, etc. All wings screws, structurally andfunctionally,	[136]
The wing, during its action, reverses its planes, and describesa figure-of-8 track in space,	[140]
The wing, when advancing with the body, describes a loopedand waved track,	[143]
The margins of the wing, thrown into opposite curves duringextension and flexion,	[146]
The tip of the bat and bird’s wing describes an ellipse,	[147]
The wing capable of change of form in all its parts,	[147]
The wing during its vibration produces a cross pulsation,	[148]
Compound rotation of the wing,	[149]
The wing vibrates unequally with reference to a given line,	[150]
Points wherein the screws formed by the wings differ fromthose in common use,	[151]
The wing at all times thoroughly under control,	[154]
The natural wing when elevated and depressed must move forwards,	[156]
The wing ascends when the body descends, and vice versâ,	[159]
The wing acts upon yielding fulcra,	[165]
The wing acts as a true kite both during the down and upstrokes,	[165]
Where the kite formed by the wing differs from the boy’s kite,	[166]
The angles formed by the wing during its vibrations,	[167]
The body and wings move in opposite curves,	[168]
The Wings of Insects, Bats, and Birds.
Elytra or wing cases and membranous wings; their shape anduses,	[170]
The Wings of Bats.
The bones of the wing of the bat; the spiral configuration oftheir articular surfaces,	[176]
The Wings of Birds.
The bones of the wing of the bird; their articular surfaces,movements, etc.,	[178]
Traces of design in the wing of the bird; the arrangement ofthe primary, secondary, and tertiary feathers, etc.,	[180]
The wing of the bird not always opened up to the same extentin the up stroke,	[182]
Flexion of the wing necessary to the flight of birds,	[183]
Consideration of the forces which propel the wings of insects,	[186]
Speed attained by insects,	[188]
Consideration of the forces which propel the wings of bats andbirds,	[189]
Lax condition of the shoulder-joint in bats and birds,	[190]
The wing flexed and partly elevated by the action of elasticligaments; the nature and position of said ligaments inthe Pheasant, Snipe, Crested Crane, Swan, etc.,	[191]
The elastic ligaments more highly differentiated in wings whichvibrate rapidly,	[193]
Power of the wing, to what owing,	[194]
Reasons why the effective stroke should be delivered downwardsand forwards,	[195]
The wing acts as an elevator, propeller, and sustainer, bothduring extension and flexion,	[197]
Flight divisible into four kinds,	[197]
The flight of the Albatross compared to the movements of acompass set upon gimbals,	[199]
The regular and irregular in flight,	[201]
Mode of ascending, descending, turning, etc.,	[201]
The flight of birds referable to muscular exertion and weight,	[204]
Lifting capacity of birds,	[205]

AËRONAUTICS.
The balloon,	[210]
The inclined plane,	[211]
The aërial screw,	[215]
Artificial wings (Borelli’s views),	[219]
Marey’s views,	[226]
Chabrier’s views,	[233]
Straus-Durckheim’s views,	[233]
The Author’s views; his method of constructing and applyingartificial wings, as contra-distinguished from that of Borelli,Chabrier, Durckheim, and Marey,	[235]
The wave wing of the Author,	[236]
How to construct an artificial wave wing on the insect type,	[240]
How to construct a wave wing which shall evade the superimposedair during the up stroke,	[241]
Compound wave wing of the Author,	[242]
How to apply artificial wings to the air,	[245]
As to the nature of the forces required for propelling artificialwings,	[246]
Necessity for supplying the roots of artificial wings with elasticstructures in imitation of the muscles and elastic ligamentsof flying animals,	[247]
The artificial wave wing can be driven at any speed—it canmake its own currents or utilize existing ones,	[251]
Compound rotation of the artificial wave wing. The differentparts of the wing travel at different speeds,	[252]
How the wave wing creates currents and rises upon them, andhow the air assists in elevating the wing,	[253]
The artificial wing propelled at various degrees of speed duringthe down and up strokes,	[255]
The artificial wave wing as a propeller,	[256]
A new form of aërial screw,	[256]
The aërial wave screw operates upon water,	[257]
The sculling action of the wing,	[231]
Concluding Remarks,	[258]