Chapter LXIV: Keeping the Balance

BY THE REV. T. S. MILLINGTON, M.A.

In Greece there lived a man--
(Old Ælian tells the tale,
Believe it if you can)--
So light and thin and frail,
He could not go about
Upon a windy day
For fear of being blown out
Or carried clean away.
Therefore, so it is said,
To keep him on the ground,
Two plates of solid lead
Under his feet were bound.

Yet still he was so light,
That when the wind did blow
He could not stand upright,
But wavered to and fro.
To sit upon a chair
Was equally in vain;
The slightest breath of air
Would lift him up again.

And when, upon his bed,
He sought a brief repose,
Down went his heels; his head
Immediately uprose.
No man was ever known
So empty and so weak
(By every zephyr blown)
As this unhappy Greek.

‘The unstable man here commemorated was a native of Cos. I have enlarged a little upon the description in order to introduce to you a figure which, in some respects, resembles him. Here it is. You may easily make one like it. Get a leaden bullet and cut it through the middle with an old knife and a hammer. Then cut out a light figure of cork or pith, and fasten its feet to the flat part of the bullet. Now if you try to make him lie down, you will not succeed. The moment you let go of him he springs up again and remains in an erect position. Why is this?’

‘His heels are heavier than his head.’

‘Yes. The man himself is so light, that nearly all the weight is in the lead; and this being round or half-spherical, when you lay the figure down you set the half-bullet on its edge. By so doing, you raise the centre of gravity; and it will not rest until it has fallen again and is supported.’

‘What is the centre of gravity?’

‘The centre of weight; that point in a body round where all the other parts balance each other. It is not necessarily the centre of the figure, because one part of a figure may be denser and heavier than another; but it is the centre of its weight.’

‘Now take the other half of your bullet, and use it for the head of another figure. This man will be still more eccentric than the Greek, for he will persist in standing upon his head. His brains are evidently the heaviest part of him. The centre of gravity is in his skull, and therefore it will seek the lowest place, and keep it too. So you see what inconveniences a thick-brained, heavy-headed fellow is exposed to.’

‘He is not much worse off, though, than the light-headed Greek.’

‘I suspect Ælian was quizzing some one who had no force of character, and was easily turned this way or that by anybody who would take the trouble to persuade him: like St. James’s double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, driven by the wind and tossed.’

‘Whereabouts is the centre of gravity in a man?’

‘That would be difficult to say. Somewhere in his body or trunk; for that is, of course, the heaviest part of him.’

‘How could you find it out?’

‘You might get near it by hanging him up in two different positions. Hang him first by his head, and by means of a plumb-line draw a perpendicular from the point of suspension. Then hang him by the shoulder or side, and draw another perpendicular, which, this time, will fall across him. Where these two lines cross each other will be the centre of gravity; and on that point you might balance him, if you were strong enough. I dare say you have seen it done in the streets or at a circus--a man balanced at the end of a long pole.’

‘Yes. And I once saw a donkey balanced at the top of a ladder. It was a very small donkey; but the ladder was rather a long one, and rested on the man’s chin.’

‘The longer the ladder the easier the feat would be; I’ll tell you why presently.’

‘If the centre of gravity is in our body or chest, how do we manage so easily to stand upright? My sister has a wooden doll which won’t stand up at all.’

‘That doll has no muscles in her feet. You have; and even when you are standing still those muscles are constantly at work, controlling the body so as to keep the centre of weight directly above the feet.’

‘I don’t feel them working.’

‘No; you are so used to it. But balance yourself on one foot. Do you feel the muscles now?’

‘Yes; they are constantly at work. Try it, all you boys.’

All the boys tried it; and very comical they looked standing in a row on one leg and swaying about in their efforts to keep the balance. The centre of gravity was in each case supported, though there was not much gravity in their faces. That is not the right place for ‘gravity’ at playtime.

‘Steady!’ cried their teacher, ‘you are swaying about like the unhappy Greek! Why do you throw out your arms, first to one side and then to the other?’

‘To keep the balance, sir.’

‘In other words, that you may bring the centre of gravity over the foot on which you are standing. The centre of gravity moves as your arms move. If you feeling yourself falling towards the left, you throw out your right arm, and that brings the centre of weight more towards the right side. The centre of gravity is but a point; and while you keep that point supported, you may stand upon a point, or upon a rope, or upon anything else. That is how the rope-dancers manage. They usually have a pole, weighted at each end with lead. The man and the pole form, practically, but one body, and have but one centre of gravity; therefore, by moving the pole a very little the performer can easily throw more weight to one side or the other as required, and so bring the centre of gravity directly over the rope.

‘It requires time and practice to become a good rope-dancer; more than it is worth, perhaps. But you can make a good balancer with very little trouble.

‘Take a common wine-bottle; fit a short cork to it, and stick a needle through the cork, so that the point may project upwards. That must be done before you put the cork into the bottle; otherwise you would have to get into the bottle to do it. The use of the bottle is merely as a stand. I wish the bottle were never put to any worse use than that.

‘Take another cork and stick a long pin through it, so that the point may project half an inch or so downwards, into the sides of this second cork stick two forks in a slanting direction, handles downwards. Now with a little patience you will be able to place the point of the pin upon the point of the needle; and once there, there it will remain balanced, swaying about and perhaps turning round a little, but without falling off. The weight is here in the forks, and the centre of gravity low down, between the two handles. The handles, therefore, being free to move, adjust themselves, so that the centre of gravity is supported, and that is all that is required.’

‘Our Jack was carrying a bucket of water the other day, and the handle came off. The bucket dropped down on one side, and he fell over on the other. What made him fall, sir, when the bucket fell?’

‘Jack was carrying the bucket in his left hand, I suppose, and leaning over to the right, stretching out the right arm to keep the balance. When the weight of the bucket was suddenly removed, the centre of gravity was raised, and thrown at the same time to the opposite side. As long as the heavy bucket formed part of him (as I may say), the centre of gravity was nearer the ground; but when it fell, Jack’s centre was raised, and he overbalanced. The lower the centre of gravity is in any body, the more firmly that body will stand; and the higher it is up, the more likely it will be to topple over. I saw some of you walking on the top of a wall the other day, and you had some difficulty in balancing yourselves. Others crept on their hands and knees; they required no balancing, because their centre of gravity was lowered, and their base of support extended.’

‘Yes, I understand that. But you said just now that a man could be more easily balanced at the top of a long pole than on a short one; or a donkey (with four legs) upon a high ladder more easily than on a lower one. How can that be?’

‘It sounds like a contradiction, but it is true, nevertheless. Try it. Not with a donkey, but with this stick, which has a heavy knob at one end. With the knob downwards, resting on the palm of your hand, you can scarcely balance the stick for a moment; but with the knob upwards there is comparatively little difficulty.’

‘It is so, certainly; but I don’t understand why.’

‘Because in this case the centre of gravity is supported by keeping the hand in a proper position under it. When the weight is at the top of the stick, it has a larger arc to traverse in falling from the perpendicular than if it were lower down, and the person who balances it has a proportionately longer time to move his hand so as to give it the necessary support. In other words, the higher the centre of gravity is, the farther it has to fall, and the more time there is to check it while falling.

‘Do you ever walk on stilts? If so, you will know that it is much easier to keep the balance upon high stilts than on low ones. In some parts of France the people are in the constant habit of walking about on stilts. The elevation enables them to see farther across the level plains, and to observe where their flocks are feeding. If they were to fall they would describe a large arc, and come down with great force, but they do not fall. A very slight movement of the stilt is sufficient to keep it under their centre of gravity. If they were lower down, greater exertion and a swifter movement would be necessary to correct every unsteadiness. Men cannot stand still upon stilts, because there are no muscles at the foot of the stilt to play upon the ground and react upon the body. Observe, then, that when the base is movable, as in balancing a ladder with a donkey on it, or in walking upon stilts, the higher up the weight is the better. But when the base is not movable, the lower down the centre of gravity is, the less risk there will be of an upset. Boats have often been capsized by timid people standing up in a moment of alarm, and so raising the centre of gravity, and coaches by having too great a load of passengers and luggage on the roof, with no “insides.” The great thing is to keep the centre of gravity supported, and then, though it be but a pin’s point resting upon that of a needle, there can be no fall.’

‘Yes; but one can’t always be thinking about one’s centre of gravity.’

‘It is not necessary. Habit or instinct supplies all that is wanted. You balance yourselves from the time you get out of bed in the morning till you go to bed again at night, without ever thinking about it. Only when you stand on one leg, or go into dangerous places, are you conscious of the effort you are making. Your Maker has ordered it thus, that you may guard against accidents, and yet be free from constant care and trouble in doing so. Even the birds are taught to place their heads under their wings when sleeping, so as to render their form more compact and their balance more perfect.

‘Walking has to be acquired in infancy, and until the foot has learnt to use its muscles unconsciously and rightly, the child has many a fall. There are also two ways of walking, a right and a wrong way. Some men sway from side to side as they walk, altering the centre of gravity at every step, and being obliged to straggle their feet accordingly to support it. A well-drilled soldier, on the contrary, keeps his body steady, and uses his legs for the forward movement only. Of course he gets over the ground much faster and with less exertion than the sloucher. Balancing, like everything else, has to be learnt, and, when learnt, is practised without any trouble. There was a man once who had been a cripple from his mother’s womb, and who never had walked. Suddenly the use of his limbs was given him--“his feet and ankle bones received strength.” If that had been all, it might have taken him days or weeks to learn the right use of his muscles; he would not have been able, without much practice, even to stand upright. But the miracle was carried beyond this. St. Peter’s words to the cripple were, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up _and walk_. And he leaping up stood, and entered with them into the temple, _walking_, and _leaping_, and praising God.” Not only was strength given him, but skill to use it; he was to “rise and walk,” and was enabled to do so at once.

‘That completeness of cure was intended to teach what the power of the Saviour can do for the soul in all ages, as then for the body. Our strength, and the instinct by which we apply it, come to us gradually, and not by a miracle: but let us think about it sometimes, and be thankful for it all the same.’

Transcriber’s Notes

This transcription follows the original printed work; inconsistencies
in spelling, lay-out, hyphenation, etc. have been retained, except as
mentioned below.

Minor differences between the table of contents and the
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Phrases such as drawn to scale, full size and other similar references
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Page 145, ... are about brazing ...: probably an error for are about
to braze or are brazing.

Page 196, table, row 8 column 6: the move should be either 11-16 or
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replaced by a question mark. Columns 3-7 appear to be off by one row,
this has not been changed.

Page 418, paragraph The next thing is the glass, ...: A, three and a
quarter; B, three and an eighth; C, three and an eighth; D, three and
an eighth; E, two and three-quarters should possibly be A, three and a
quarter; B, three and an eighth; C, three; D, two and seven-eighths;
E, two and three-quarters.

Page 476, “sort of lattice”: the original work shows separate
letters/symbols, not the lattice described.

Changes and corrections made to the text:

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