In addition to the webbed gloves, to further assist sion various attempts have been made to perfect a device sisting of gaiters with flaps buckled to the leg, but most of them are unhappily so constructed and arranged as to be obstacles instead of assistances. For instance, figs. 3 and 4 prove that the inventor had not the slightest idea as to the true motion of the legs in swimming. In order to use his invention it would be necessary to kick straight out from the body. whereas in actual practice the whole of the progressive power is obtained by an entirely opposite action from that which would cause (or tend to cause, if they kept in working order) these flaps to expand and contract.
The inventor, an Austrian, admits that for a non-swimmer to use these leggings he must be provided with a swimming belt, but believes that when so buoyed up the leggings will be of great advantage, as they will enable the person using them not only to keep on the sur face of the water, but also to move forward with much speed. This contention is open to considerable doubt, as the friction offered by the belt and leggings must counterbalance the advantages that are likely to accrue from the resist ance offered by the open ing of the flaps—that is, if the flaps will really act as stated.
A slightly better pa tent is the somewhat original idea of a British naval officer. It is termed an apparatus for facilitating pro gress in swimming,' and is illustrated in figs. 5, 6 and 7. The apparatus consists of light steel bands or straps fastened round the ankles, to which is attached a wing or fin, hinged and riveted to the band, the wing being secured under the foot to prevent opening too far. The whole of this is buckled round the ankle. Of course the wings are arranged on both sides of the foot, and it is claimed that they thereby enable the swimmer to obtain extraordinary propelling force, and thus swim as fast as a man can walk. This contrivance, like the preceding one, has the same great objection, that it prevents the closing of the legs after the downward stroke which every swimmer accomplishes naturally. It might do very well for treading water, but no swimmer would purchase a machine for that purpose. Among the most extraordinary inventions patented as aids to swimming, is that illustrated by fig. 8. Would any sane person fasten himself up in this apparatus for the sake of a swim ? It is hard to imagine anything more ridiculous and impracticable.
To the same list of curiosities may be added the machine represented in fig. 9. It is said by the inventor to greatly facilitate propulsion, by the swimmer working the rod with the folding flaps up and down at- a given angle.
The flaps, being pointed, are supposed to fold up when drawn in an upward direction, and as soon as pressure is applied downwards to at once extend and offer a resist ing surface to the water.
It would be interesting to learn whether the in ventor's experience jus tified the expenditure incurred in obtaining the necessary letters patent for the protection of this most extraordinary idea. How any one could imagine that a body could be propelled by a process of churning, as suggested by this contrivance, passes all under standing ; for any person with the slightest knowledge of the water can easily realise what the result would be as soon as the downward pressure was removed. A somewhat more practical idea is that which is represented in figs. ro and ii. On account of its buoyancy, the inventor claims that it enables the muscular energy of the human body to be applied for the purpose of self-propulsion in a more efficient manner than would prevail in the practice and use of the unnatural method suggested in fig. 9, but it is certain that no swimmer would desire to be encumbered with such a machine.
From time to time a large number of fins, flaps, and other attachments for the feet and hands have been invented, with the object of diminishing the ' slip ' in the propelling portion of the stroke with the hands and feet ; but most of them have, as may be easily understood, either failed in the first attempt, or only met with partial success. Searching through the records, one is very strongly impressed with the idea that these ventions had their origin in the brains of those who were quite ignorant of the elementary principles which govern the movements of the limbs in swimming. In the case of col lapsible fins, boards, sandals, gloves, &c., it has been proved that the ' drag' ne cessary to close the .
blades in returning, preparatory to the downward or tive stroke, is not compensated for by the reduction of the ' slip ' in the ling movement ; ther, most of these inventors assume that the feet are sent out straight backward, and return on the same lines, as to employ any one of the inventions shown in figs. r to 6 and 12 to zs would necessitate this action in order to obtain any benefit from their use. With some of them swimming would have to be entirely revolutionised, and the user would, in one or two instances, have to assume the form of a fish in order to obtain practical assistance. Perhaps this was considered a mere matter of detail ; but 't is of vital importance, and the ignoring of it at once proves that the patentees of these curious inven tions knew little about the subject with which they proposed to deal.