Читать книгу Swedenborg: Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church онлайн | страница 20
"8. A new construction of air-guns, thousands of which may be discharged in a moment by means of one siphon.
"9. A universal musical instrument, by means of which one who is quite unacquainted with music may execute all kinds of airs that are marked on paper by notes.
"10. Sciagraphia universalis. The universal art of delineating shades, or a mechanical method of delineating engravings of any kind upon any surface by means of fire.
"11. A water-clock in which water serves the purpose of an index, and in which by the flow of water all the moveable bodies in the heavens are demonstrated, with other curious effects.
"12. A mechanical carriage containing all sorts of works which arc set in motion by the movement of the horses. Also a flying carriage, or the possibility of remaining suspended in the air, and of being conveyed through it.
"13. A method of ascertaining the desires and the affections of the minds of men by analysis.
"14. New methods of constructing cords and springs, with their properties.
"These are my mechanical inventions which were heretofore lying scattered on pieces of paper, but nearly all of which are now brought into order so that when opportunity offers they may be published. To all these there is added an algebraic and a numeric calculation from which the proportions, motion, times, and all the properties which they ought to possess are deduced. Moreover, all those things which I have in analysis and astronomy require each its own place and its own time. O how I wish, my beloved friend and brother, that I could submit all these to your own eyes and to those of Professor Elfvius! But as I cannot show you the actual machines, I will at least in a short time forward you the drawings, with which I am daily occupied. I have now time also to bring my poetical efforts into order. They are only a kind of fables, like those of Ovid, under cover of which those events are treated which have happened in Europe within the last fourteen or fifteen years; so that in this manner I am allowed to sport with serious things, and to play with the heroes and the great men of our country. But meanwhile I am affected with a certain sense of shame when I reflect that I have said so much about my plans and ideas, and have not yet exhibited anything: my journey and its inconveniences have been the cause of this. I have now a great desire to return home to Sweden and to take in hand all Polheimer's inventions, make drawings, and furnish descriptions of them; and also to test them by physics, mechanics, hydrostatics, and hydraulics, and likewise by algebraic calculus. I should prefer to publish them in Sweden rather than in any other place, and in this manner to make a beginning among us of a Society for Learning and Science, for which we have such an excellent foundation in Polheimer's inventions. I wish mine could serve the same purpose. . . . A thousand remembrances to my sister Anna. I hope she is not alarmed at the approach of the Russians. I have a great longing to see little brother [nephew] Eric again; perhaps he will be able to make a triangle, or to draw one for me, when I give him a little ruler."