Manuscripts

When Martin Eden returned to San Francisco, he began to write. He sent his works to newspapers and magazines, but the editors sent his manuscripts back. Martine continued to write and study at the same time. Martine slept five hours: only a man in very good health could work for nineteen hours a day.

The weeks passed. All Martin’s money was spent and publishers continued to send his manuscripts back. Martin sold his coat, then his watch.

One morning the postman brought him a short thin envelope. There was no manuscript in that envelope, therefore, Martin thought they had taken the story. It was The Ring of the Bells. In the letter the editor of a San Francisco magazine said that the story was good. They would pay the author five dollars for it. And he would receive the check when the story was published.

Martin thought that five dollars for five thousand words was very little. After a few weeks the story was published, but the check didn’t` arrive. Martin had waited for about a month before he decided to go and get the five dollars from the editor.

He entered the office and said that he wanted to see Mr Ford – the editor. “I`m Martin Eden, ” Martin began the conversation. He wanted to ask for his five dollars, but it was his first editor and he didn’t` t want to make a bad impression on him. To his surprise Mr Ford quickly stood up with the words “You don` t say so! ” and the next moment, with both hands was shaking Martin`s hand.

by Jack London

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FLIGHT

For many centuries people watched birds and dreamed that they could fly. We cannot fly like birds: we don`t have enough strength in our arms to move wings up and down. We also really need the power of an engine to drive up forward. Many people died learning these lessons, before controlled flight became possible.

The first flying machine which could carry a human being was built in Spain in 875. Reports tell us that the inventor flew some distance, but the landing was hard: the man hurt his back badly and was never able to fly again.

It was possible that the news of his flight reached England, carried there by men returning from war in the Middle East. Whether this is true or not, in 1010 a man called Oliver jumped off a church roof in Mulmesbury. This time we know the distance of his flight - 125 steps.

In the last years of the 15^thcentury, the Italian Leonardo da Vinci studied the flight of birds and made a number of drawings of flying machines. His early machines tried to copy the movement of birds` wings, which he didn’t fully understand. But less than 10 years before his death in 1519, he drew a machine with wings that didn’t move. One of the machines was built and it did fly.

In 1536 in France, Denis Bolor returned to the idea of moving wings. He tried to fly using wings that were moved up and down. The idea didn’t` t work and he fell to his death.

Inventions That Changed the World