But if a man used neither wing-beats nor a motor to drive him through the air, how was such practice to be obtained? Lilienthal solved the problem--and made his name immortal--by devising a system in which he used the force of gravity as his motor. His plan was this: first he would build a pair of large, light wings--so light in fact that, even with the woodwork that was in them and with the additional weight of a balancing tail, he could raise them to his shoulders and run forward. With these wings he would go to the summit of a sloping hill and face what wind might be blowing--as he had seen the young storks do. Then he would run forward with his wings, so as to obtain the lifting influence necessary before they could act upon the air. And then, when the wind was sweeping under his curved wings, he would raise his legs from the ground and seek to soar or glide; his own weight, and that of his machine, providing a gravity motor or downward pulling influence, while the sustaining power of his planes, resisting this drag, would send him gliding through the air, only a few feet from the ground, at an angle which tended gradually earthward. [Illustration: FIG. 21. Paper glider, in which the cardboard weight (A.) should be 3/10 inch wide, and 1/16 inch thick, slightly arch planes upward (B.B.). Turn up a little flap at each end (C.C.). An eighth inch is sufficient. Hold between finger and thumb (the cardboard weight uppermost); then allow to dive, as indicated by the dotted line.]