The fury and power of birds' wings upon the air
Wing-clatter men cannot copy, and the fourfold speed of the four wing-joints
Folio 84r, headed 'Of the fury and power of the wings of birds upon the air,' argues that men fitting bird-wings to a swift machine will never reproduce the whirring clatter real wings make. Leonardo cites the goat-bird (nightjar) diving and rising almost vertically along the banks of the Ticino with a bleating cry audible over a mile, and the merlin roaring through the air in pursuit, to introduce his mechanical explanation. The sound arises from a quadruplicate velocity produced by the four joints of the wing, each redoubling the motion of the last so fast that the air, unable to escape, condenses beneath the wing and resists, letting the bird take its leap.
On this page
The wing-clatter men cannot reproduce
Once men attach birds' wings to some swift instrument, they will never make the clatter or noise heard from those same wings when moved with velocity by their birds. The natural sound is set out as the phenomenon to be explained.
The nightjar over the Ticino, and the roaring merlin
The goat-bird flies about the banks of the Ticino, dropping and then beating its wings so fast it is restored almost vertically to its former height, its wingbeats sounding like a kid's voice heard over a mile though the bird is no larger than a thrush. The merlin, likewise not large, makes a very great noise when it flies with fury after prey.
Fourfold velocity from the four joints of the wing
The sound arises because the wing strikes the air at quadruplicate velocity, by means of its 4 joints: as the first moves the whole wing, the second moves its remainder at the same speed, and the third and fourth follow the same rule. Thus each joint redoubles the motion within the same span of time, compounding the wing's celerity.
Air condenses beneath the wing and gives resistance
The velocity is so great that the air has no time to flee from beneath the wings except as far as it is thrust. It therefore condenses and resists the wings on which it rests, and they take the leap that makes the bird move.
