A Short History of Aquatic Ambulism
The biblical dream of walking on water has long fascinated and tormented man. While he succeeded in mimicking the birds and conquering the air, the water-strider’s gravity-defying prance has not yet proven amenable to his mechanical imitation. One early account of mechanically-aided aquatic ambulism (above) can be found in Daniel Schwenter’s 1636 book Deliciae Physico-Mathematicae. The man in the illustration struts confidently through the seas wearing what is described as Wind-hosen? and Flossfedern — air pants and winged paddles around his ankles. Leibniz claimed to have witnessed a demonstration of this device on the river Seine in Paris sometime around 1675.
Others, like? Gaspar Schott,? were more interested in walking just below the surface of the water than on it. Thus, the invention of the diving bell, a barrel-like device first described by Aristotle and purportedly used by the forces of Alexander the Great to clear the harbor at Tyre in 332 BC.
In his Codex Atlanticus, Leonardo da Vinci described a device similar to cross-country skis which could be deployed on the water:
In 1858, one H.R. Rowlands, filed a patent for a life raft? consisting of small boats attached beneath the feet. Developments in “water shoe” and “water skate”? technology have more or less continued upon this trajectory ever since.
Another device patented in 1918 by one Martin Jelalian proposed adding a gas balloon to provide extra buoyancy:
While a number of contests have been held over the years for engineers of water-walking devices, none has yet proven entirely successful. The same can perhaps be said of a device developed recently by Yoav Rosen:
Not long ago, scientists discovered that the water strider is able to skip across the water’s surface by capturing small bubbles of air in the hairs beneath its feet.? Such a strategy could not be applied easily to human water-walking without sacrificing dynamic stability. However, the waterball represents a novel use of bubbles in the service of aquatic ambulism:
We recently came across another device for sale in a SkyMall catalogue which allows the user to glide across the water by simply hopping up or down. It has a top speed of 17 mph and costs $500.? The dream lives on.
And what about the most famous of all aquatic ambulists? He may have figured out the neatest trick of all:
Writing in The Journal of Paleolimnology, Dr. Nof and his colleagues point out that unusual freezing processes probably occurred in the region in the last 12,000 years, icing over parts of freshwater Galilee. This has not happened in recent history, but there were much colder stretches 1,500 to 2,500 years ago.
The scientists note that Galilee has warm, salty springs along the western shore, an area Jesus frequented. The water above the springs does not convect when it is cold. If air temperatures dipped below freezing, as sometimes happened then, surface ice could have formed thick enough to support human weight and inspire the biblical story.
From a distance, the scientists suggested, a person on the ice might appear to be walking on water, particularly if it had just rained and left a smoothed-out watery coating on the ice.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
I was struck by how similar the first illustration is to a contraption that I use when fly fishing. (Including the little foot flippers.)
The modern version looks just as silly as the original.
Illustration here: http://www.flyfishusa.com/float-tubes/index.html
May 16th, 2006 at 11:56 am
Why can’t we just let Jesus perform a miracle?
May 16th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Why can’t we just let Jesus perform a miracle?
Because Susan, the human mind cannot easily just let things stand at “It’s a miracle”. We are naturally curious creatures, and need to understand the “Why” of things.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
The Da Vinci things remind me of equipment ninjas sometimes use to accomplish this same feat in japanese cartoons. I doubt real ninjas ever did that though.
May 17th, 2006 at 8:41 am
very nice post
May 18th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Video of a device similar to the hydrofoil can be seen here.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7414
May 21st, 2006 at 5:06 pm
As far as Jesus walking on the sea of galilee, I’d like to point out that it was (according to the biblical record) in the middle of a violent storm (which, by the way DO still happen frequently) (check Mark 6:48)
That kinda excludes a “thin sheet of ice” theory. Also… Jesus climbs into the boat (and Peter, who walked on the water for a little while, climbed out of the boat) so the whole “at a distance” part is gone too.
May 31st, 2006 at 10:05 am
A more realistic scenario is that when jesus told the disciples to go ahead without him he built a semi-bouyant raft and got the villagers to swim behind him pushing the raft. Anyone who brings that Peter crap up should note that I don’t believe half of what people tell me happened yesterday, so I won’t argue the fine points of what happened thousands of years ago. I don’t think anyone could argue that my scenario is less realistic than walking on water.
May 31st, 2006 at 5:04 pm
maybe, just maybe, even though tales of jesus’ superheroic exploits are written in a book, it might not be entirely true.
May 31st, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Nof and Paldor got in trouble for proposing a meteorological mechanism for the parting of the Red Sea, and now for JC walking on water. Perhaps they’re at the opposite end of skepticism - instead of calling ‘miracles’ pious confabulations they want a rational mechanism for God’s apparent signs. Fair enough. Can’t be any worse than Frank Tipler’s proposal that JC converted matter into coherent neutrino beams that levitated him across the water.
September 24th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
My friends and I made a water ball (1972) by ironing together giant sheets of painters’ plastic. We had a small generator in a canoe, and with it filled the “ball” with air (looked more like an inside-out waterbed). Two people fit inside, and the opening was sealed with waterproof tape. We launched close to Coffee Pot Bayou in St. Petersburg (the goal was to perfect it for a stroll to Tampa). Very quickly we realized oxygen would be the major problem. All in all, a fun effort!
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Maybe Jesus built two high poles on either end of the sea and ran a rope from one to the other. Then he simply held onto it and carried himself across. Or, maybe he had a giant kite and he held onto the string and it pulled him across.(I believe that is a sport now)
Enough with the stupid theories as to “how” it happened. If you believe it, great. If you don’t, then leave it alone. Trying to disprove that it happened is doing nothing more than being offensive to people that want to continue believing that it happened. Let it be as it may.
October 27th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
In 1998 I invented the Waterball , for walking on water, it works,it spins if your out of balance but kids take to it easily. I soon found out that some people did not like being trapped inside the transparent ball , also gets real hot inside after 15-20 minutes on hot days. I have recently invented the WaterWalker , this is more like it , its a new type of water craft where you actually roll on the water , but its open air and passed all the fun tests.
http://www.incrediblewaterwalker.com
We also have a ball called the Moonball which can be used to walk on water, http://www.beachspray.com
We have 2 top secret projects that will be ready soon for walking on the water which i will update you on the next time. thank you for promoting the subject of walking on the water.
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Gabriel,
The ninja equipment you refer to is called Mizugumo. They were in fact used, but were more in line with snow shoes than water walking. The intent was for easier perambulation through marshy or shallow waters. Here is a photo: http://web-japan.org/museum/others/ninja/ninja02/tools02.html
December 28th, 2006 at 1:37 am
I am the worlds greatist water walker and the leading athority on water shoes.I walked the Panama Canal 50 miles and the English
Channel 22 miles back in the 197ties.My book (the onely book ever written on water shoes is on Amazon.com.I have severial patents 4,060,866–4,129,912
think you Robinson
c
December 28th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Dear Mr. Robinson,
We would like to get in touch with you, but the e-mail address you supplied doesn’t work. If you read this, please drop us a line at athanasius@kirchersociety.org.
Thanks,
The Secretary
December 28th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Robinson-Gabriel you are correct the water shoe evolved out of the snow shoe,the snow ski.The early water ski was thicker and floated the operator over marsh,ice, and swamp.Look on web/Japan /Kanjiki.(The water shoe).
May 7th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
You need REAL information!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!