Swedenborg 1714 Flying Machine

Swedenborg's flying machine was not widely known until his notebook containing the sketch was discovered in 1867-1868 at the Diocesan Library at Linköping, Sweden[10][11] by a visiting researcher from the United States of America.

When Swedenborg returned to Sweden in 1714, he met with inventor Christopher Polhem and together with him published the periodical Daedalus Hyperboreus.

He said, "It seems easier to talk of such a machine than to put it into actuality, for it requires greater force and less weight than exists in a human body.

If these advantages and requisites are observed, perhaps in time to come some one might know how better to utilize our sketch and cause some addition to be made so as to accomplish that which we can only suggest.

Yet there are sufficient proofs and examples from nature that such flights can take place without danger, although when the first trials are made you may have to pay for the experience, and not mind an arm or leg.

The Flying Machine, sketched in his notebook from 1714. See Smithsonian model and explanation by Dr. Paul Garber, former Curator of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, on the principle of flight of the aircraft. His descriptions may be found in a chapter of the Söderburg book, [ 1 ] p. 32, or on the video clip at 5:48 on its timeline. [ 2 ] Dr. Garber also closely supervised the construction of the Smithsonian model of the machine. [ 3 ]